We are thrilled to be hosted by our final location in Mandalay – the Jefferson Center. The center is a US-funded educational and cultural library located in the heart of Mandalay, facing the palace of the last King of Burma. We chose this location based on its outreach to young people from all over the region. Not only does it provide books, but also language training, debates, scholarship information, test-taking courses, and debates on politics, human rights and democracy.
We opened on Saturday, March 14 where we were greeted by over 50 students, professionals, artists and our volunteers. The director of the center, Saw Kyin Sein, welcomed us and asked everyone to join in sharing and discussing the books in the coming weeks.
Michelle Wong from Asia Art Archive will be joining us next week in our two-day programme with the theme Art and Politics. Michelle will discuss her own research and work at AAA on the Hong Kong Art History project, and artist Htein Lin will join us in Mandalay to present on his own experiences as an artist and the ways in which he values political messages, in both his life and his art.
Our invitation will be released shortly. Hope you all can join us there!
We’ve had a very exciting run during our Mobile Library: MUAC edition. Over 200 students attend the university, and have clearly enjoyed using the books as reference materials and volunteering to take care of the library and introduce classmates to its contents. The Rector of the University as well as the professors have been generous in their time and efforts to promote our library amongst students.
Nathalie Johnston presented on career opportunities in the arts, and included fundraising, proposal writing, exhibition planning and curating, as well as options in design, architecture, and education. Students were very responsive, with great ideas and insight into what’s possible for them after their schooling.
MUAC focuses its students on 4 main Arts subjects: sculpture, painting, music and dramatic arts. Facilities are few and an emphasis is placed on traditional forms of the arts. However, the school is eager to reach into the contemporary scene and bring more practicing artists into their curriculum studies.
Mobile Library is sponsored by Foundation for the Arts Initiative and Mr. and Mrs. Serge Pun.
Cho Cho Aung, art teacher and artist at Panthu Sandar Art Centre, joined us today at Alin Dagar for the first of a 2 day workshop on art education, where she shared not only her experiences in teaching art, but also her students’ experiences – through a display of their art work.
Cho Cho Aung began teaching in 1978. She mentioned that for 10 years, her method was to teach basic drawing, line, and 2D design. She later realized the limitations of these methods, encouraged by the fact that her own father, U Aung Khin – a prominent artist in Mandalay – told her that her own teaching influences children in such a way that they are merely imitating, not learning to create something new and all their own.
From then on, she opened up her methods, teaching free drawing and being careful not to focus on color theory, value or perspective but rather allow the students to reveal their own methods of approaching these basic structures of drawing and painting. By and large, she found that children develop their own sense of these methods on their own and the results have been very powerful.
When she saw the Emotional Learning Cards – part of the Mobile Library Collection – she felt she had again learned something new about teaching. Despite 60 years as an artist and 45 years of art teaching, she still seeks new ways to approach art education and method.
One workshop participant, Sayar Sam Kat, teaches at a monastery that works with disabled children and young people from conflict zones and IDP camps in the country. He mentioned that much of his students artwork conveys obviously deep emotional trauma or questions, but he does not know how to approach the children or help them to explain their drawings. Cho Cho Aung’s suggested documenting the work and/or hosting an exhibition to better understand what the children are experiencing through expression.
Tomorrow, Cho Cho Aung will return for a second day of teacher workshops.
Mobile Library is sponsored by Foundation for the Arts Initiative and Mr. and Mrs. Serge Pun.
We were very fortunate to host multiple visitors on the week of 24-29 November. A hugely successful week of educational workshops, a panel discussion, digital archiving workshop, and visitors from Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Poland and India. Will recount each activity. Videos posted soon.
Thamotharampillai Shanaathanan (Sana) flew in from Sri Lanka. As the former host of the Mobile Library at the University of Jaffna, he was instrumental in our programming. He’s a lecturer himself, and has witnessed firsthand the interaction between the books and the students.
Day 1 of the Educational Workshop was for the Students. Originally asked to bring drawing material, the students and Sana ended up sharing opinions and observations about the books. Sana asked the students questions about the books, stating the importance of visual learning and absorbing the material as much as possible.
He then chose keywords and asked the students to spend one our in the afternoon forming groups and choosing books based on those keywords. A few worth mentioning: line, nudes, and painting.
We were also lucky to host Aung Myat Htay as a guest lecturer. Aung Myat Htay is a former student AND teacher at the NUAC and just returned from a 6 month residency in New York City. It was invaluable perspective for the students, who often commented that there are no artists in Myanmar like the ones in the Mobile Library books. Far from true, but it is so that the interaction between contemporary artists and the schools is limited. Hence the importance of Aung Myat Htay, who often works in installation, present his work and ideas.
Sana writing keywords at the lecture hall at NUAC
Students collecting our newly printed booklists
Aung Myat Htay presenting on his own journey as an artist and writer
One of our lovely volunteer translators helping match the Burmese texts with ML books
Some of the recently translated books
Day 2 was targeted toward the NUAC teachers. Sana presented on his own time as host of the Mobile Library and his own artistic practice. The teachers were extremely interested in how to use the books and shared on their experience “relaxing” in the library, finding out new modes of expression through painting. One particularly important question came from the teachers in general: how do we change our curriculum?
We very much hope these workshops helped the students and teachers at the NUAC to have high expectations for their own art educational experiences, and that the Mobile Library has inspired them to push the boundaries of learning.
Mobile Library is sponsored by Foundation for the Arts Initiative and Mr. and Mrs. Serge Pun.
MARCA | Myanmar Art Resource Center and Archive 