Heiwa Zou Resha ~ Sacred Hearts Girls School perform for the cause of PEACE
The Bornfree Art School had worked with 525 children of Sacred Hearts Girls' High School, Bangalore over the past two months. We have trained them in music, dance, theatre, property-making, singing, lights and sound. It was such a touching moment and fabulous life experience to work with them. La Frida Shanthi was engaged with documentation all the time, Mioi Nakayama on Choreography, Subramanya D became an Assistant Director. Teena Das, Venkatesh, Ravi Charles, became facilitators for the show as well. They have learned how to teach, communicate, be responsible, precise, sharp. Prashanth Abhay Che was in charge of a huge amount of properties. Sister Lavina was the person who was all behind this success. We were able to deliver the peace message, talk about Hiroshima-Nagasaki bombings, children's power etc to children. At the beginning, there was a lot of ciaos, confusion, but with the great help of teachers and Sister Lavina, the show ended very successfully. Heiwa Zou Resha is directed by John Devaraj. See photos of performance! Click here!

Lakshmi, 12 is a girl who is an active member of the Bornfree Art from Sira. She has lost her mother when she was very small and her father has passed away three years ago. Due to the unhygienic environment where she was brought up, she has

 torn the ear drum of her right ear and the left ear drum is half-torn. She has to get admitted for the surgery at Indira Gandhi Children's hospital as soon as possible. This is our small request and appeal to sponsor her operation. If she would not go through the operation, she will lose the hearing capacity for the rest of her life. If you could help us financially, please call Mioi Nakayama ( 9886011830 ) or email to us asap to admin@bornfreeart.org Thanks a lot. 

http://www.bornfreeart.org/voices-of-kids

Bornfree Artist, La Frida Shanthi is featured in the Indian Express!

Article says;

Seventeen years ago, a four-year-old child was seen begging on the platform of a railway station in Mumbai. Lost in an unfamiliar world, as she embarked on a journey of her lifetime to Tamil Nadu and Bangalore, artist La Frida Shanthi wondered what fate had in store for her. “No one should go through what I had to go through in my life ever,” said the artist who even after a life of hardships has managed to turn her life around. Today, an internationally renowned artist and sculptor, she uses art as a channel to express her emotions and opinions freely. Read More

The Bornfree Art School will celebrate John Devaraj's Birthday on 30th October 2012 at 7pm at the Bornfree, Ragavana Palya, JP Nagar 9th Phase. The celebration is followed by cultural programs by children of the Bornfree. Please join us. How to come to the Bornfree; http://www.bornfreeart.org/contact-us-1
You are cordially invited to this celebration! You can wish John Devaraj by phone if you can't make it; 9886306366.

Bornfree Art School's website is renewed and frequently updated!
You can get information on our ongoing and upcoming events, artistic productions, administration matters, biography of children, blog, twitter, facebook, newsletter, history of the Bornfree, volunteering etc.

You can browse photos at Photo Gallery; http://www.bornfreeart.org/home/photo-gallery
Video Gallery; http://www.bornfreeart.org/home/video-gallery

Oceans of Joys~to Celebrate Childhood

What's Happening?  12th June is the International Day against Child Labourcelebrated all over the world.The Bornfree Art School is organizing a dance-theater-music festival, “OCEANS OF JOY~to Celebrate Childhood” to celebrate million’s lost childhoods.  Venue; K.H. Kalasoudha (Map) 5th Main Rd, Hanumanth Nagar, Azad Nagar, Bangalore (near Ramakrishna Ashram, Bull Temple Road) Time; 12 June 2012, at 7pm Entry Fees; Rs.100/ Rs.150 / Rs.200 {Tickets Available at Shopper's Stop, Bannergatha Rd, KH Kalasoudha, Fitness & Fairies, LDI, etc} Book a ticket online here!  Childhood is the most precious time when human beings grow intellectually, socially, culturally. However, in India, 134 million, in other words, every tenth Indian, is deprived of their own basic human rights.  Aim  “OCEANS OF JOY~to Celebrate Childhood” aims to encourage and empower children from various backgrounds who wish to learn the arts and execute their dreams on stage.This festival liberates many more children from distress and difficulties, gives them more confidence, self-respect and dignity. Secondly, it is to raise awareness about child labour, peace, child rights and environmental issues. They will pass on the values they will gain through a dance-theater production to the next generation. Goal of the festival To identify children with special potential and talent, whocould be led to the professional level in the future. The Bornfree Art School proposes to launch Bornfree Dance Academy (BFDA) on this occasion. The purposes of BFDA are 1. To train former and working children in the various dance styles from folk to Western. 2. Professional dancers will have a platform where they can impart dance knowledge to such children. 3. To use dance as a medium of therapy; dance movement therapy, professional dance movement therapists can come and work with BFDA, 4. To create child and youth performers who could raise awareness about social issues as well as entertain the public

Cultural Expressions  by former working and street children Children from Bornfree Art School, Chaitanya and Prema Anjali are performing on the issue of child labour. They will be addressing their personal lives through dance and theater. Respond to the Cause Professional Dancers and Dance Companies will be responding to the social cause! They will be special guests to perform. Enjoy the extraordinary dance from ballet to salsa!!! Look at profiles of performers. Yana Lewis Dance Company; Classical Ballet and Jazz; Director; Yana Lewis Abhilash Ningappa; Contemporary Dance The Mind Studio; Director; Sahiba Singh; Contemporary Dance Latin Dance India; Salsa by Sai and Keerthi Aeolus4Dance; Director; Siddanand Mruthumjaya; St.Joseph's College Arts and Science Program Have a look at our program. ( Shortly will be updated ) Volunteers Wanted! You can be a part of this festival by volunteering for the fund-raising, selling tickets, coordinating with the Bornfree etc. We need your help to organize the show successfully. Please contact us by admin@bornfreeart.org or 9886011830

John Devaraj was invited to talk at TED Talk in Jharkhand. Check up at YouTube; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxeLEIZ7Gls or the official site; http://wn.com/TEDxSPSU__John_Devaraj__Child_Labour

Come and create                                                                       

The Worlds tallest Earthen pot
get into Guinness book of world records.
sculptor
John Devaraj 
who wrote the worlds largest love letter
Lalbagh Botanical gardens
rising up to 25ft and weigh about 2000kilos..
a school for working and street children 
The pot will be built in a workshop called Lalbagh Summer. 
The melting pot of culture represents the multicultural, tolerant goodwill of the people of Bangalore where everyone can live in peace and harmony.
Everyone with a concern for nature and environment  who  participate will go through training in clay modeling, awareness of trees and plant life in Lalbagh and the conservation of nature and its elements.
 

Register Online! Click here!
Level 1 Artists, Sculpture students ceramicists and potters can enjoin as apprentices.
Level 2 for all participants to put into the pot a fistful of clay.
Rs.1000/- for Level 1 and Rs.100/- for Level 2. 


Exchange coupor clay at venue add your bit and get a certificate of participation.

Endorsement certificates will be provided to all participants

Register your participation and get coupons at all Lalbagh gates, Shoppers Stoppe(Bannerghatta Road and Koramangala) and at Clay station, HSR Layout.

Freedom from Toil~Good Life and Bad Life

On 26^th February 2012, Bornfree Art School organized the first art exhibition at Art 9, Kala Soudha, Hanumanthnagar, Bangalore. The theme of this art exhibition was “ Freedom from Toil~Good Life, Bad Life”. The initiative came from a British artist, Ms. Sadie Few who has worked with children of Bornfree for a month to teach drawings and painting. She has taught 20 children so far and made them come up with a beautiful and significant theme of their life. Visitors from Australia, Japan, Slovenia, Slovakia, Poland, England have also witnessed the exhibition.

The students of Bornfree expressed themselves through their paintings and brought good and bad experiences of their lives in these paintings. The students at Bornfree were former child labourers and street children, but now they are freed and go to school with a dream in their eyes. This art show was a platform for these young kids to showcase their talents and tell the whole world their struggles with life. The paintings here portray both good as well as bad experiences of their life. Children of all age group had displayed their work and even spoke about it very confidently.  The paintings actually helped them to express their thoughts and feelings. These children were forced into child labour either by their family or due to no other options left to them.  Through these paintings they also want to tell the world to Stop Child Labour and allow them to flourish.

Most of the kids have expressed schooling and education as a good life. Some of them said that good life is nature, love, flower etc. Bad life consists of violence, smoking, killings and steeling. Each and every painting showcased in this exhibition had a real life story to tell.

A little girl, Meena and Shilpa sold roses on the traffic signal to take care of her ailing grandmother. They used to earn Rs.300 per day.  But now with the help of Bornfree, she no longer sells roses but goes to school. Marappa was also selling toys on the road for livelihood but now after coming to Bornfree he enjoys painting and wanted to become an artist one day. He has witnessed his own mother burnt herself in front of him and was forced into labour for father’s drinks. Such are the stories of these young children who have gone through so much in life.

Subramani’s painting tells us a story about the life of women. According to him, a woman’s life after marriage is not as bright and colourful as ever. In one of his paintings he tries to showcase how a girl’s life would be changed completely after marriage. How the husband treats her, how much pain she has to go through in her everyday life, how she sacrifice everything for the family and so on.  He could imagine all this because he has seen them in his own life. He said, his mother went through all these and he really feels sad about it and that is how he expressed these emotions through his paintings.

The exhibition is on till 31^st of March at Art 9 Studio, Hannumanthnagar. Visit us.

Manisha Rai

Freedom from Toil ~Painting Exhibition 
Artwork by children at the Born Free Art School will be on display this Sunday 26^th February at Art 9, Gundappa Art Gallery, Kala Soudha, Hanumantnagar, Bangalore. All participating children who go to the school are former working or bonded labour children who now have the opportunity to get a school education and also take part in dance, painting, film making, sports and home tutoring. British Artist, Sadie Few, has been working with the children helping them to produce artwork around the theme of child labour and freedom. 

The children draw on their own personal experiences to express their ideas about what is a bad life and what is the good life that they aspire to. The exhibition will be inaugurated by Shri Venkatesh Dharnaraj, Senior Advocate.

Time;Sunday the 26^th February 2012, at 4pm

Venue: Art9, Gundappa Art Gallery, Kala Soudha, Hanumantnagar