INSPIRING DELHI: CREATIVITY AND THE CHANGING CITY

presented by Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art (FICA) along with Flow India and EdBrand

A fascinating, truly innovative six-part programme for young people (aged 15 to 19) who want to develop their leadership and critical thinking skills. We focus on urbanism, creativitiy and the 21st century mega-city. Through site visits and seminars, we aim to create our own online intervention to bring about positive change in our city.

Course structure and dates
Day 1: Friday, 4 January 2013
Theme: Mehrauli, Nizammudin and the development of Delhi 
Day 2:  Saturday, 5 January
Theme: Red Fort, Old Delhi and the modern world
Day 3: Monday, 7 January
Theme: Hauz Khas, Khirkee Extension and the creative economy
Day 4: Tuesday 8 January 
Theme: Chintan projects - waste, work and how we live
Day 5: Wednesday 9 January 
Theme: Yamuna banks and the ridge - biodiversity and citizen action
Day 6: Thursday 10 January
Theme: Review session

Time and Venue: Sessions will begin at 8am and end by 2.30pm. Except for the last day, all sessions will include field trips that will depart from and return to the FICA Reading Room, D-42 Defence Colony, New Delhi 110024.
Fees: please contact us for details at info@ficart.org

Who is this course for? The course is open to 15-19 year olds in Delhi and NCR. Visiting students from abroad or from other parts of India are also welcome as Inspiring Delhi participants. You do not need to be a budding artist, architect or engineer, or ‘top of the class’ to participate. All we ask is for participants to be ambitious and open-minded. We do require students to do a pre-course preparatory exercise, not as a test of knowledge or skill, but of eagerness to learn and participate.

What does the course involve? Over five days, participants will take part in intensive field visits, seminars from leading specialists and in-group discussions. The course aspires to allow participants to develop their knowledge and experience in diverse fields. In order to facilitate this inter-disciplinary learning, we plan to weave a variety of topics into the programme, including but not limited to design, architecture, planning, art, photography, writing, citizen action, the internet and the changing city. We will look at the reciprocal and changing relationships between these topics. We will also explore the process of place-making and case studies of the participatory efforts to influence and improve urban living that is becoming a citizen-led trend globally.

Through research and discussion we will then create our own collaborative online intervention, aiming to use social media to bring about positive change in our own environments, neighbourhood or cities. Using mentors and with continuing guidance we will support leadership over the coming months on student projects.

Why take part?

Boosting your knowledge: ‘Inspiring Delhi’ will give you new eyes with which to see your city, a new understanding of how it works, and a new appreciation for all the people who are at the forefront of making Delhi one of the most exciting places in the world.

Gaining skills: Besides new knowledge, taking part in challenging faculty-led seminars will also equip you with new skills for researching, analysing and synthesising information. We will encourage self-reflection and foster critical thinking. At the same time, we will link you to the resources and people who can help you realise your ideas, enabling you to take forward your ideas with confidence. This experience will act as a bridge between school and college, allowing you to experience and develop higher order thinking and research skills that will prepare you for the next stage of your education.

Learning about Leadership: Leadership is fostered in two ways: through collaborative, reflexive working, and also through our peer-learning approach. Previous graduates from the course are invited as leader-mentors to support the development of each new batch’s ideas.

Having fun: We place great emphasis on having an enjoyable, fun experience. It is a great opportunity to meet new people with sometimes similar and often thought-provoking ideas.

Course faculty
The course is the brainchild of Flow India and EdBrand, and was first run in the summer of 2012. A Flow director acts as course leader on each course, working with the faculty below to bring the best educational experience for the participants.

Eliza Hilton is Founder Director of Flow India. She has a background in teaching and international social development work, and a passion for how culture and development intersect. She is also a writer with a soon to be published book about aid work in Afghanistan, where she lived for one year. Eliza went to Oxford University and SOAS, London University, from where she received a MSc in Development
Studies.

Katherine Rose is Founder Director of Flow India. She has a background in art history, museum and built environment education. She is interested in the myriad meeting points between the arts and social sciences, and all the forces – disciplined and undisciplined – that create the endlessly fascinating mega-cities of today. Katherine is an alumni of Edinburgh University and Institute of Education, London
University.

Arjun Seth is an independent college admissions counselor with long experience in the test prep area and his own counseling service EdBrand, which supports students in Delhi and Mumbai gain college admission abroad. Arjun writes a column in Hindustan Times' education supplement HT Horizon and believes strongly in the benefit to students of developing passion, creativity and critical thinking in their studies.

Malini Kocchupilai is an architect and educator. She has her B.Arch from the TVB School of Habitat Studies in Delhi and an MS in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University. She has worked as an architectural designer in New York, as a design critic at the New York and New Jersey Institutes of Technology and as a teacher at the Sushant School of Art and Architecture and the University School of Architecture and Planning. Here she started a ‘flash mob’ with her students to study usage patterns of public spaces in the NCR. Malini has also co-initiated a series of events with the NGO Greha to foster collective generation of ideas for the development of neglected public spaces in the city. She currently works as a freelance architect and photographer in New Delhi.

Anubha Kakroo is a design thinker and Director of Design and Cultural Insight at Futurebrands India Ltd. Her work involves using design as a critical resource for cultural mapping and insight into Indian people and markets. She was formerly Head of Programmes for the British Council, has worked as a consultant, and has taught at the School of Planning and Architecture, National Institute of Fashion Technology and the National Institute of Design.