Earning through art therapy
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COMMENTS 
Against all odds, a special school for the mentally challenged is producing artists who sell.
Radhike Khanna was mighty pleased. The box in front of her contained an intricately hand-painted cotton saree. A surprise gift from her special students at the S P Sadhana School, Mumbai. The gift was evidence that her radical initiative had yielded fruit.
Years ago in 1984 when she had started art therapy for mentally challenged students, her endeavour was received with scepticism and reluctance. The therapy helps students express themselves and connect to the world around them. Through art-therapy, she enables students to grow into productive members of society.
Different media are used therapeutically -- oil and spray painting, block printing, even mixed media. A student is trained in the medium that she/he show! s an aptitude for and is comfortable with. A group of specially trained staffers and volunteer-teachers help the children master their medium of preference.
At the school there are no conventional ways of imparting training in art. Rather, teachers themselves adapt to the student's natural method of painting. Thus, special brushes are made (thick, thin or curved) to cater to the diverse needs of each student. This is because the hand functions of each student vary dramatically.
Teaching the children is not an easy task. It involves lots and lots of patience and a sustained gentleness. For in truth, these students display a lot of tantrums, may even physically hurt a teacher and can wholly ignore the teacher initially. But this struggle to establish a relationship with them eventually pays off, when students actually start imbibing the intricacies of the medium. It is Radhike Khanna's experience that after ! a month or so, they become confident enough to proudly show-off their creations -- the visual expressions of their mute existence.
Some of the school's students have benefited immensely from this course of art therapy. The art classes have made Veena, 27, born with Down's Syndrome and with no speech, economically self-sufficient. She earns a salary through her paintings for Home Creations -- a co-operative art society established by the Sadhana School.
Many parents still have many reservations about the effectiveness of art-therapy and remain sceptical. So Khanna has been interacting with them, holding counselling sessions so that parents become equally involved in the children's efforts and so make the therapy work.
The fact that the hand-painted clothes of these students caught the attention of well-known fashion designer Hemant Trivedi, who organised a fashion show ! based on their designs, is proof of their talent and patience, and that there is scope for them to transcend their handicap and become finally independent.
Contact: S P J Sadhana School
Dr Riberio Complex
Sophia College campus
Bhulabhai Desai Road
Mumbai 400026
Maharashtra, India
Tel: 91-22-367 1954