Artist Priya Natarajan, a resident of MRC Nagar, has been taking classes for children at Silver ‘N’ Springs School at Mandaveli for more than a decade. About two years ago, she started taking classes for women at Wandering Artist at R. A. Puram.
Since the lockdown however, Priya has switched over to online classes. Though she was a little skeptical about how children would adjust to this new normal, she says that she is pleasantly surprised by their ability to grasp the concepts explained virtually.
She says, “When I took classes at the school, I could just fix up the paper or canvas on the easel and children could watch the patterns and learn from it. But now since I cannot draw in front of them I send them small videos before the class, ask them to go through them and then discuss it in class. The children are able to understand the concepts quite well. But the effort that I put in has almost doubled. I need to plan and get everything ready before class is taken”.
On the other hand, the lockdown has opened up a whole new world of opportunities for her. About 15 women, some as old as 73 years old, from places like Palakkad, Bangalore and Australia have joined her virtual classes. This, she says, was not possible earlier. Only residents of Chennai attended her classes.
Priya takes classes twice a week for children and once a week for women. She says once things get back to normal, children will have to come back to the center for classes but her virtual classes for women will continue. For details contact her at 9884601159.
