Art and Architecture: Indus Valley Civilization

Facilitators: Purnima Sampat and Shital Mehta

May 3 to 7, 1999 | 10.00 am – 2.00 pm
Sea View Room, National Centre for the Performing Arts, Mumbai

The Indus Valley Civilization was the first great urban culture known in India, which flourished during the third millennium BC. The workshop proposes to take a trip back in time with the participants through a 5-day workshop on the period and is for children between the age group 9 and 14 years. The first day will constitute a trip to the museum where the children will be encouraged to look, observe and sketch the various finds. The rest of the days will be spent with the children working on the different projects, interspersed by lively discussion and explorations.

The perfection of town planning constitutes the most striking feature of the excavated cities. In this workshop, the children will get a hands-on experience about the architecture and facets of archaeology, through creating buildings and planning towns in groups according to the town planning of the civilization. There is no dearth of the pottery finds from this ancient civilization. Children will sketch and paint pots using designs and motifs of the period, studied during their museum trip.

Seals and sculptures are the other finds, which offer noteworthy clues to those remote times. Children will make sculptures or wheeled toys using the terracotta medium. Jewelry, which was found in great abundance and variety, can be designed by the participants using beads of various sizes and shapes.