Learning art for art’s sake
Shyamala Pinto Jayawardena, Director of the Shyamala School of Art is taking her mission to further art education forward.
With the launch of her Academy of Fine Arts on August 24, she is offering students who would otherwise have to leave Sri Lanka for higher studies in art, a chance to earn an internationally recognized degree qualification here in Sri Lanka.
Shyamala Pinto Jayawardena speaking at the launch
The Academy of Fine Arts (AFA) will offer a two-year Higher National Diploma (BTECH -HND) and an additional one and a half years for what she calls a “top-up degree” recognised by Edexcel and Pearson.
The launch ceremony at the Lionel Wendt gallery was attended by Steve McGill, sales manager for Pearson, Simon Creasy, Country Head of the British Council, and Premila Paulraj, representative for Edexcel South East Asia and the Maldives, and Suriya Bibile, representative for BTEC HND for South east Asia.
Shyamala’s Art School’s connection with UK examining bodies Cambridge and Edexcel for O/Levels and A/Levels is already well established.
Her academy will address the need for a visual arts college that can train and develop young artists to help them find employment in the field, she feels. Colombo schools in particular have not caught-on with the true potential of an education in aesthetics, she says.
“Generally children who can’t do maths, science or history are asked to go sit in the art class.” Offering guidance for London and local O/Level and A/Level art students she realised that in every A Level batch, there are students who have either been compelled to take Art and are wading through the syllabus or who have been discouraged from attempting it.
“I’m trying to bring respect back into the profession,” she says, as parents would have little cause to refuse students keen to take on art if there are high quality fine arts programmes available for them to follow.
Pic by Ranjith Perera
Very little comes close to studying art in cities renowned for the subject, she admits, but this course designed by the experienced art educator is “for Sri Lankan students.” Inculcating a respect for the rich national aesthetic heritage is one of the aspects she will focus on.
One module she designed, she explains, was driven by her disappointment from her last visit to the ancient Gadaladeniya temple. “I’ve visited the place since I was 17,” she says, recalling carelessly made modifications each time.
“The last time I was there, they had plastered cement over all the wall paintings” – easily centuries old. A task her future students face is to produce panels depict ruins from around the country with available research materials.
Her students “will spend very little time in the studio” she says. A fundamental lesson on lines, form and colour for instance could be a field day “observing road-rule violations.”
Inviting the RDA and Traffic Police to teach art students the uses of signs and colour, for example, much of the course involves practical though inspiring and concept building instruction with the aid of professionals in various industries.
Back from abroad to help their former teacher are some of her former students to make up her faculty of around 8. She hopes to give her students an international perspective with visiting lecturers conducting assessments in an informal setting.
“The end goal, she says is to produce artists who “can teach art, or work on their own masterpieces” while feeding the local job-pool with “technically-sound and professionally trained artists.”
Students hoping to enrol at the AFA are required to submit a portfolio of work to the Managing Directress/Founder Principal Shyamala Pinto Jayawardena, or contact: 0777 893 064 for more details. The school also provides assistance with building portfolios.