Art as play: How process-driven activities are changing the way children are learning art in India

If one were to view Catalan artist Joan Miró’s use of lines and floating worlds of form and colour, could it seem like the squiggles and spontaneity of a pre-schooler’s drawings? Or could Cubism pioneer Georges Braque’s Les Étoiles, with its dreamy black cloud and white bird against the stars, be the voice of a 10-year-old talking about freedom and beauty.

After all, that’s how young children are meant to draw — playfully, imaginatively and without the habits of the mind that force them into set patterns. As Austrian artist Franz Cizek, founder of the Child Art Movement, observed, “The more a child’s work is full of these individual mistakes, the more wonderful it is.” Yet, his words find limited resonance in Indian classrooms, where children are often encouraged to replicate what’s on th