Creative Education
(B.Des 4 Year UG Program)

This is a unique futuristic course ever imagined in India, where art, design and technology are interspersed with learning, pedagogy, storytelling and systems thinking. It connects the past with the future, nature with culture, hands-on with technology, thinking and making. This course is for anyone interested in using art and design to reimagine learning and education, as content and context, as process and outcomes, as systems and services, as spaces and places. This unique positioning allows the course to look at learning and education expansively, beyond a traditional perspective. It also focuses on understanding any potential user or stakeholder as a learner, which shifts the fundamental way one looks at them. There is a focus on understanding various contexts around learning.
During the 4 years of exploring Creative Education, the aspiring practitioners engage in conversations, reflections, contemplations, collaborations, explorations, experimentations, and ideations. They also deeply dive into ways of being, doing, thinking, making, sensing and leading.

Education, like design, is a mother discipline; it influences every other field because it is about learning. We are always learning: learning by interacting with the world in diverse ways- cognitively, sensorially, experientially, emotionally, and aesthetically. How can art and design be used to enhance our learning experiences?
The Creative Education (CE) program at Srishti is a broad-based transdisciplinary program. It transcends a narrow way of looking at ‘education’ and opens up multiple possibilities of the future of learning. It looks at innovation and creativity in diverse learning spaces and systems through art, design, and technology. It also works in a wide range of art, design and technology through the lens of learning and facilitation.

The curriculum comprises of different ways of learning as follows:

1. Foundation introduces students to basic principles and tools of Art, Design and Technology as methods, tools and processes. Read more >>
2. Disciplinary Studios are learning spaces where students develop core disciplinary capabilities, while navigating a trans-disciplinary environment
3. General Studies is a common and compulsory programme of study that integrates Humanities, Sciences, Maths, business and finance. Development and Policy Studies and also offers Languages (Spanish, French and German) Read more >>
4. Interim is an immersive introduction to practice in new and emerging areas of art and design and environmental exposure
5. Electives are of three kinds – this program allows students to expand their skills, develop the interests as well as provide opportunities for travel exchange
6. Internship/Apprenticeship is compulsory work experience done over the summer-break between the 6th and 7th semester
7. Project based learning involves the application and synthesis of capabilities acquired. Two projects, pre-thesis and thesis, is culmination of the 4-year undergraduate program, which allows for demonstration of an integration of values, positions, capabilities and practice. Read more >>

The Creative Education program aims to develop mindfulness and reflective practice through collaboration with peers, practitioners, and the community in real-world applications. You will integrate theoretical and practical knowledge and experience to engage in the world with curiosity and to seek social and ecological harmony through non-linear thinking for creative inquiry. The course encourages play and speculative experimentation with physical and digital materials and media to nurture ideas, imagination, and intuition, allowing diverse learners to find their learning rhythms. You will be encouraged to contribute to ecological regeneration and new literacies, leveraging local resources and non-traditional learning spaces, people, and materials. Upon graduation, you will be well-prepared to apply these skills in your professional career.

CAPABILITIES

Upon successful completion of this course graduates will have developed the following capabilities::

Capability for making meaning and interacting with the world around you: Engage in the world with curiosity using art, design and technology tools as an extension of your senses; Seek social and ecological harmony in relationships and environments through exploration, negotiation, exchange, collaboration, perspective and reciprocation.

Capability for creative, critical and reflective inquiry: Question, map, identify, take perspective, find patterns, analyse, give and take feedback, use and create tools and techniques of non-linear thinking and inquiry; Document and make visible the learning and thinking of self and others (peers, learning groups and experts in the field) as an engine for creative inquiry. 

Capability for thinking through making: Engage in play and speculative experimentation with physical and digital materials and media to nurture ideas, imagination and intuition; Deepen practice through repetition, ritual, iteration, conversation and reflection 

Capability for facilitating the learning of others: Animate self, space, material and situation to provoke, evoke and facilitate; Engage with sensitivity, aesthetics and restraint to allow diverse learners to find their own learning rhythms

Capability for developing resourcefulness and adaptability and find opportunities for learning everywhere: Reclaim under-utilised and unproductive spaces and re-imagine them for ecological regeneration and new literacies; Recognise frugality is a value and engage and leverage local resources and non-traditional; learning spaces, people and materials.

What is Creative Education?

The Creative Education course teaches students to facilitate learning, design products and spaces for diverse learning environments, and support lifelong learning through art, design, and technology. It emphasizes mindfulness, reflective practice, collaboration, and the integration of theoretical and practical knowledge. It encourages non-linear thinking, experimentation, and the development of new literacies and ecological regeneration.

Is this course suitable for me?

This course is suitable for individuals interested in making, designing, and exploring materials and envision setting up maker spaces or creative learning spaces. It is ideal for those interested in designing learning experiences, particularly for children and young people, who have a passion for telling stories and transforming their learning process to create for others.

What opportunities do I have after completing this course?

The above capability sets equip and prepare the student for a wide range of career opportunities as facilitators, education service providers, researchers, content/artefact designers, entrepreneurs, innovators, resource persons and specialists who:

Deliver facilitated learning experiences and programmes in diverse contexts such as

• Community centres, public spaces and NGOs
• Corporate houses, start-ups and businesses
• Online learning platforms
• Museums, galleries or exhibition spaces
• Publishing houses
• Performing and fine art studios
• Maker spaces/ Fablabs and laboratories
• Organisations working with transformative and emergent leadership
• Design-led innovation especially in social and ecological innovation
• Technology enabled services for learning
• Skills-based organisations and initiatives
• Innovation Hubs

Design and create artefacts for learning

• Objects and products for learning
• Film, text, new media and digital platforms
• Interactive Technologies and digital platforms
• Toolkits: DIY, DIWO and mobile
• Books, games, and other experiential learning materials
• Learning frameworks and instruction design

Re-imagine, conceptualise and create learning spaces such as

• Community learning centres
• Learning hubs in businesses and corporate houses
• Technoology driven/enabled learning spaces
• Libraries
• Maker spaces and gardens as studio and labs
• Classrooms -online, physical and hybrid
• Schools
• Parks, malls, street and other public spaces