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Year by year we are growing. VAFA prides itself on its history and it's present. Within the short period of eleven years over 600 students were studied at VAFA as full time or part time followers of the different course programmes on offer. Currently nearly 100 students are following full time and part time courses in Painting, Drawing, Sculpture, Ceramics and Photography.
I started this journey offering a weekend course in Painting, in October 1993, in a space called the Vibhavi Fine Arts Studio at Mirihana. Then in 1996 with other fellow artists the studio moved to Ethul Kotte and we were able to transform it to full time Art School which we called the Vibhavi Academy of Fine Arts or VAFA. Hivos, the Dutch funding agency support us financially to establish and run the institute for the next ten years. By the end of March 2008, Hivos will complete its period of financial support for VAFA. Fortunately we were able to purchase some land for VAFA this year. To build a premises for VAFA while continuing our educational programmes will be our next task. We hope all our friends will help to build our dream “space for permanent education in Visual Arts”.
At this moment I have to mention fellow artists who have made important contributions towards the development of VAFA from its inception. Jagath Weerasinghe, Kingsley Gunatillake, Muhanned Cader, Karunasiri Wijesinghe, G.W.Somarathna, and Monty Senarath Colambage shared their precious time, knowledge and experience with me in every possible way to build VAFA and nurture the talents of its students. Today we are proud to state that some of our alumni have joined the VAFA faculty as junior teachers. In the future we are confident that more alumni will continue our journey with us.
Educational institutes, such as VAFA, cannot be built only with faculty. There should be students who are really committed to become artists in the future. We are lucky that we meet such students every day. For us every student is precious. Some follow the short period courses; some the full time programmes. All the programmes are vigorous and challenging. Students have to contribute a lot to complete the programmes. Devotion to art learning and art making process, daily practice, discipline and social consciousness are very important factors in VAFA studentship.
VAFA is open to any one who wishes or dreams to study how to make art. VAFA specially opens its doors to students who drop out of the education system. VAFA also understands that sometimes students are forced into studying subjects that are seen to be economically advantageous and dissuaded from pursuing the study of art, even when that is their primary interest. VAFA is open to mature students as much as VAFA is open to younger students allowing students of all age groups, who want to study art at different points in their lives and professional careers.
VAFA is also different in that it uses alternative methods of imparting knowledge which encourages free interaction between students and faculty. For instance, a student following the “four year certificate course” would find rigorous and close guidance and monitoring by the artist teacher only in the first (foundation) year. At the satisfactory completion of the foundation year, the student is offered total freedom to seek his/her own path in art making. At this point teachers transform into mentors who create an environment for the free flow of knowledge and experience. This is very difficult undertaking, because this freedom is never completely comprehended and fully utilized by most students initially. We think that this situation arises partly due to cultural factors and partly as a result of the conventional rote learning school education system. Freedom is not easily utilized. It is a responsibility and requires a fair understanding of a range of other factors too.
Faculty and student composition is an important relationship at VAFA. We have a clear and definite position on who teaches at VAFA. Our policy is that only practicing artists and scholars teach at VAFA. A mere certificate or certified qualifications are not criteria for the selection of VAFA faculty. VAFA looks rather to excellence in practice, experience and knowledge. In the same manner VAFA is strongly committed not to be a mere certificate awarding institute either. Student enrollment and selection is also very different from any established state institutions. We do not ask for students paper qualifications in their previous education. We seek only will and dedication to study and art making process. Therefore VAFA has been able to create the space for students rejected or considered ineligible for recruitment into state institutes.
VAFA alumni members are active in their art practice. Artists who are exhibiting today are very good example of VAFA's results. The “VAFA@11” exhibition will showcase the works of eight selected alumni members: Arjuna Gunarathna, Anura Krishantha, Chammika Jayawardena, Christine Ruth, Kusal Gunasekara, Saman Liyanage, Sameera Macan Markar and Sameera Kalupahana. All of them have completed our four year certificate course in Painting and belong to various batches.
We believe that art is a product of a particular time and context by the individual artist. Therefore we cannot be apart from society and be autonomous and live within the aura of 'self' as did 'modern' artists for whom art was for arts sake. We are participants of the cultures around us. We understand diversity of cultures and groups. There are no monolithic societies or cultures. Pluralism will be in every aspect of life as well as in art. We make art for diverse purposes. We are concerned about most issues whether local, global, environmental or political. At the same time we examine issues of heritage in this so called global village while not marginalizing anything by labels such as 'indigenous', 'folk', 'traditional', 'modern', “primitive', 'advanced', 'naive', 'sophisticated',' high' or 'low' and so on. We understand that there are many voices rather than a single voice. Therefore contemporariness demands denial of 'the aesthetic style', 'the medium', 'the movement' or 'the trend'.
We know in this contemporary situation meaning is more important than formalist composition or technique. But VAFA as an art educational institute does believe that improvement of skills and techniques of art making is fundamental. There are new opportunities and possibilities with 'new technologies' and 'new effects', but dependency only on 'new technology' and 'effects' is not enough. I believe artists should develop, explore and train their human abilities and capacities as much as possible in the early stages of study. Study can be formal or informal. When art students gain necessary abilities in practice and thinking, as learning alphabet and grammar of a language, they can do whatever work according to their needs and consciousness. Throwing away all the past knowledge gained by humankind is not a good thing for the sake of the temporary joy of making art easily. Therefore we have to not only look forward but also look back and look laterally as well.
VAFA will stand with the change, taking into consideration the emergence of new interactions, movements of contemporary thought and experience. VAFA believes that such interaction should take into consideration changing socio-political, economic and cultural contexts both nationally and internationally.
Share our dreams. We have a long and adventurous journey ahead.
Chandraguptha Thenuwara , 2007 October |
