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Maker Art Classes to Empower Children
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Workshop Journal

Our experiences teaching annual workshops where we experiment with arts based curriculum adapted to Urban Sri Lankan kids. The best way to read these are from bottom up, in chronological order.

The inaugural annual workshops were made possible with the support of the Percival and Naomi Goodman Fellowship, from Columbia University GSAPP. Thank you for letting us dream bigger.

Volunteer Spotlight: Interview with Avanthi Seneviratne
Volunteer Spotlight: Interview with Avanthi Seneviratne

Avanthi talks about her experience as a volunteer art teacher for Let’s Build Great Things!

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VolunteeringRanitri Weerasuriya13 March 2024Sri Lanka, Art class, volunteering, 2022Comment
Volunteer Spotlight: Interview with Tharshika Sivagnanasunderam
Volunteer Spotlight: Interview with Tharshika Sivagnanasunderam

Tharshika talks about her experience as a volunteer art teacher for Let’s Build Great Things!

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VolunteeringRanitri Weerasuriya19 June 2023Sri Lanka, Art class, volunteering, 2022Comment
Volunteer Spotlight: Interview with Pulith Jayarathne
Volunteer Spotlight: Interview with Pulith Jayarathne

Pulith Jayarathne talks to LSEG- Sri Lanka about his experience :)

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VolunteeringRanitri Weerasuriya6 September 2022Sri Lanka, Art class, volunteering, 2022Comment
21: Temple-Mosque-Kovil-Church
21: Temple-Mosque-Kovil-Church

Today’s lesson was derived from an old thought, a larger project designed around the conversation of religious tolerance. Can art help foster this?

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Maker skills, Fostering ConversationRanitri Weerasuriya13 January 2021Sri Lanka, Art class, workshop 2019, PrayerComment
20: Attempting to Fly
20: Attempting to Fly

The challenge: Make something that falls slowly, or make something flies in the air

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Problem Solving, Maker skillsRanitri Weerasuriya29 November 2020Sri Lanka, Art class, Flying objectsComment
19: Mini Treehouses inspired by Laki Senanayake
19: Mini Treehouses inspired by Laki Senanayake

It was truly exciting to watch the transformation of these little ‘trees’ into adorable little dwellings, each with their own atmosphere and personality.

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Educational tourRanitri Weerasuriya17 September 2020Sri Lanka, Art class, tour, Laki Senanayake, Exhibition workshop, MaskComment
18: Spirit Animal masks at Lunuganga
18: Spirit Animal masks at Lunuganga

Soon we saw animals emerging out of their masks. Several owl’s, several monkey-lions, turtle-fish and so on.

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Educational tour, Fostering Conversation, VisualizationRanitri Weerasuriya8 August 2020Sri Lanka, Art class, tour, Laki Senanayake, Exhibition workshop, Mask, art therapyComment
17: Eco-brick Structures
17: Eco-brick Structures

In this workshop, The Pearl Protectors and the students put their Eco-Bricks to use by building two stools and a little table.

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Maker skills, Problem SolvingMuditha Katuwawala20 June 2020Sri Lanka, Colombo, Art class, Environment, Eco Brick, Marine, conservation Comment
16: The Eco-Brick Workshop
16: The Eco-Brick Workshop

The Pearl Protectors demonstrated as to how the children can build an eco-brick. For this purpose, the volunteers and the children had brought plastic waste that can be used to build the bricks.

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Maker skills, Problem SolvingMuditha Katuwawala28 April 2020Sri Lanka, Colombo, Art class, Environment, Eco Brick, Marine, conservationComment
15: Building a little Sri Lankan village
15: Building a little Sri Lankan village

The next day, back at the class after the tour of Apè gama, we selected a collection of natural materials that were a miniature scale of what we had seen in real life. The models that the students came up with were INCREDIBLE.

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Observation, Educational tourRanitri Weerasuriya27 April 2020urbanism, Sri Lanka, Colombo, Art class, Environment, village, gama, tourComment
14:  2019! Tour of Apè Gama (Our Village)
14: 2019! Tour of Apè Gama (Our Village)

We explore a village in the city to understand ecological ways of living through traditional, vernacular ways of life.

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Observation, Educational tourRanitri Weerasuriya20 March 2020urbanism, Sri Lanka, Colombo, Art class, Environment, village, gama, tour Comment
13:  Building our Mini City: Reimagining Colombo
13: Building our Mini City: Reimagining Colombo

Mapping big and making a playful, colorful three dimensional model of our dream city!

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Visualization, Maker skillsRanitri Weerasuriya10 February 2020urbanism, mapping education, Sri Lanka, Colombo, Art class, architecture, City, Model, Architecture for kids, ScaleComment
12: The City is our Classroom: Our Class Tours Colombo!
12: The City is our Classroom: Our Class Tours Colombo!

The City is our classroom on this double decker adventure.

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ObservationRanitri Weerasuriya27 January 2020Building Hope children’s center urbanism, mapping education, Sri Lanka, Colombo, Bus tour, maps Comment
11: Mapping our Street
11: Mapping our Street

‘Do you see the humps on the road?’  ‘How many garbage trucks are parked across the playground?’ ‘Did anyone notice the staircases leading to all the houses? How many are there?’ 

We accepted any answer. 

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Observation, Problem SolvingRanitri Weerasuriya24 November 2019urbanism, art, mapping education, Sri Lanka, Colombo, Art class, maps, mapping, Architecture for kids
10: Mapping our Classroom
10: Mapping our Classroom

We had students come to the white-board to draw the class table, the cupboard, the computers, the trees outside, even a car in a ‘bird’s eye view’.

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Observation, VisualizationRanitri Weerasuriya8 November 2019urbanism, art, class, mapping education, Sri Lanka, Colombo, Art class, mapping, maps
Thoughts: Building Hope with our Children
Thoughts: Building Hope with our Children

How do we react and foster conversation in the face of a traumatic event?

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Fostering Conversation, ObservationRanitri Weerasuriya22 June 2019Peace, art therapy, Colombo, Easter, Sunday, Trauma, Sri Lanka, Drawing
Thoughts: The WhatsApp Fundraiser
Thoughts: The WhatsApp Fundraiser

Given the motives of the class to promote ‘observation’, next week’s workshop involves a tour of the City of Colombo. I really want the kids to experience something special.


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FundraisingRanitri Weerasuriya8 July 2018sri lanka, Whatsapp, Fundraising, Bus tour, colombo
9: CLAY: Exploring materiality
9: CLAY: Exploring materiality

Is it soft? smooth? heavy? wet? As we continued spinning the bottle, the students themselves began the search for interesting materials to hand over to their blindfolded companion.

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Maker skillsRanitri Weerasuriya24 June 2018Materials, Clay, Art class, Architecture for kids, Materiality, Texture, makingComment
8: Building an Iratu Bridge
8: Building an Iratu Bridge

Can Iratu hold up a stack of books? We build a bridge out of it.

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Problem Solving, Maker skillsRanitri Weerasuriya23 June 2018Stick, Iratu, Mini Bridge, Structures, Architecture for kidsComment
7: Mapping your School
7: Mapping your School

Why does this place make you happy? Why don’t you like this place? Can we all think of ways to make the sad places happy again?  

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ObservationRanitri Weerasuriya23 June 2018mapping education, mapping, Architecture for kids, Art classComment
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Stay in touch.

Keep updated with how we’re doing and join us in supporting these amazing kids! All they need is for you to show up.

(Bi-annual newsletter) 

Thank you! We will keep you posted about our exhibitions, events and fundraisers.

Building Hope children’s center
85 Nagahawatte Road,
WP, colombo ,
Sri Lanka
letsbuildgreatthings@gmail.com
Hours
Sun 9- 5

Credits: Our website illustrations are by: Irushi Tennekoon

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