Culture to Canvas: SAISA Arts 2024 in Bangaldesh

From March 20th to March 24th, 2024, I was in Dhaka, Bangladesh, at the American International School of Dhaka (AISD) for SAISA Arts. This is an annual event that brings students across 10 international schools in South Asia to participate in workshops on learning new artistic expressions. I have been in several other SAISA sports competitions, however, this being my first non-competitive art-related SAISA was a very different experience, that I enjoyed a lot!

The workshop that I selected was rickshaw art, which is the cultural art form of vibrant hand-painted designs and decorations found on rickshaws, which are a valuable form of transportation in Bangladesh. On the first day, after the opening ceremony, we had a local rickshaw artist come in and demonstrate to us on a piece of paper how he does his rickshaw art pieces. His piece was incredible, and it had only taken him 45 minutes, where he made it effortlessly with so much skill! After he made his piece, we were given some tips and information about rickshaw art and then began to make our own. For this workshop, unfortunately, we weren’t able to paint on actual rickshaws or other surfaces, so therefore we made our designs on paper. I created several different designs, such as some being patterns, scenery of nature, or of animals. I tried to explore many different approaches. We spent the majority of this day just working on various rickshaw art pieces, as we then ended the day off with a social gathering with all the students which was quite fun!

On the second day, we explored the city of Dhaka, specifically around Old Dhaka, by first visiting a rickshaw artwork station, as well as a local mosque and church. It was very interesting to explore this city, as seeing the culture in these places was very unique, especially in terms of the history. Then, we visited a gallery, where we had a print-making workshop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the third and final day, we were just at AISD finalizing our art pieces and adding all the finishing touches. By the end, I had created around 6 pieces but chose to only display 4 of them for the final exhibition and gallery walk. This exhibition was really interesting, as it was of all the different workshops art pieces they have been working on for the last couple of days, with a very wide range of pieces, such as emborided bags, photographs, paintings of acrylics paints, watercolors, and many more.

All in all, I really enjoyed this SAISA Arts festival, as I was able to learn a lot about the art expressions in Bangladesh, specifically about rickshaw art. I feel that there are some elements in this art style that I really like and that I could follow through with in my DP HL Arts course, to further explore.