Art Vandi by Nalandaway Foundation: A Colourful Mobile Art Vehicle Bringing Painting, Music, Drama & Storytelling Workshops to Children in Government Schools and Rural Communities Across Tamil Nadu (Updated)
– art on wheels : carrying colour, story & wonder
| CasualWalker’s Rating for Art Vandi : | |
9.9 – Rolling Wonder |
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Art Vandi a bright, beautifully painted four-wheeled vehicle that travels through cities, villages, and the forgotten corners of Tamil Nadu, stopping at government schools and orphanages to offer children something they may never otherwise have access to, the transformative, joyful, life-changing experience of art. 
About Nalandaway Foundation
The Nalandaway Foundation is a Chennai based non-profit dedicated to nurturing creativity and building courageous, resilient individuals through arts-integrated education. Founded by Shri. Sriram V, the organisation has long believed that art is not a luxury, it is a language, a tool, and a right. Through its many programmes, Nalandaway works at the intersection of art, education, and community development, focusing especially on children in under-resourced settings across Tamil Nadu.
Nalandaway’s approach is rooted in the conviction that every child, regardless of background or geography, deserves access to diverse and meaningful artistic experiences. Art Vandi is perhaps the most vivid, literal expression of that belief.
Art Vandi Mission
Art Vandi began its journey in October 2022, born from love, determination, and the generosity of a community who believed in a dream.
The inauguration was held at a government school in Chengalpattu, surrounded by friends, colleagues, and well-wishers of Sriram V who came together to fund and witness the vision come alive. There was, I imagine, a great deal of colour that day. The idea was beautifully simple and profoundly radical: if children in remote communities cannot come to art, then art will come to them.
That commitment, to reach those who have been structurally excluded from creative learning, is the soul of Art Vandi.
About the Art Vandi
Resembling a tempo traveller in form, Art Vandi is wrapped in a custom, hand-painted design, vivid and unmistakable, the kind of thing that makes children run to the window when it arrives on their street. But it is the inside that is truly magical.
Step in, and you enter what the team fondly calls “a magical world filled with colours.” The Vandi is stocked with chart papers, masks, puppets, and an array of art materials ready for workshops. It carries a library of storybooks, musical instruments, and visual art resources. For technology-powered learning, it is fitted with a built-in sound mixer, a television, and a computer, tools that open up film, music, and digital storytelling.
The Art vandi will function as a transportable library, a platform for the facilitators, a venue for viewing films, and a repository for artistic supplies, including musical instruments and visual art resources. In short, it is a school, a stage, a studio, and a library, on wheels.
How Art Vandi Programme Works
Art Vandi’s workshops are designed for students of Classes 6 to 8, with a focused, output-based intervention spanning five days. Each class, typically around 30 students, gets 90 minutes a day with the team, across four active workshop days and one celebratory showcase day.
The workshop opens with puppet-making — and there is no better way to begin. On the first day, students lose themselves in the joy of creating characters with their hands, and by the time those puppets are done, something has shifted. The children are no longer just students; they are makers. On the second day, those handmade puppets become the heroes of original stories — narratives drawn from the world the children know intimately: family rituals, local festivals, the familiar faces and landscapes of their own village. These stories are then laid out as storyboards, the first glimpse of a book taking shape.
Days three and four are where the magic deepens quietly. Students move from storyboard to sketch, outlining and illustrating their book with growing confidence, this is the moment young writers discover they are also young artists. By the fourth day, the storybooks are designed, refined, and complete. Finished. Real. A tangible creative work that each child can hold and call entirely their own.
The fifth day belongs to celebration. The school opens its doors, and teachers, parents, and community members pour in to read what the children have made. Then comes the theatre, students dressed in character costumes, holding cardboard props and microphones, performing their stories live. It is noisy and joyful and completely alive, the kind of afternoon that stays with everyone in the room long after the Vandi has moved on.
Stories From The Ground
Tamil is the primary language of the workshops, and the stories that emerge are deeply rooted in the children’s own lives and surroundings. The results are often stunning in their specificity and tenderness.
This is arts education at its most meaningful, not imported content, but a mirror held up to the children’s own world, reflecting it back to them as something worth celebrating and preserving.
Who Makes It Happen
Each Art Vandi deployment is led by a trained art specialist, a facilitator who curates the creative framework and guides the workshops. Alongside them is a field coordinator who ensures smooth logistics on the ground. The core team is part of the Nalandaway Foundation, and the project warmly welcomes volunteers who want to join the journey.
If you’re interested in volunteering, keep an eye on the Nalandaway Foundation’s website and social media channels for openings and application details.
Art Vandi is also actively looking for donors to support its operational costs. If you believe in art education, in equity of access, and in the extraordinary things that happen when creativity meets community, this is a project worth supporting.
Impact So Far
Since launching in October 2022, Art Vandi has travelled across Tamil Nadu’s rural pockets, benefitting over 30 schools and more than 1,850 students through its hands-on workshops in painting, music, drama, and dance.
They are 1,850 children who have held a paintbrush, written a story, built a puppet, performed on a stage, many for the very first time. Art Vandi envisions a mobile space that enables immersive, artful experiences for children and community members who otherwise do not have access to diverse art experiences. If you are an educator, an artist, a donor, or simply someone who believes that creativity is a right and not a privilege, Art Vandi is for you.
Schools and institutions across Tamil Nadu are invited to engage with the programme. Volunteers are always welcome. And if you have ideas, resources, or energy to contribute, the team genuinely wants to hear from you. Follow the journey as Art Vandi travels across villages of Tamil Nadu, teaching painting, music, drama, and dance to children who light up every time that colourful vandi rolls in.
Contact Art Vandi & The Nalandaway Foundation
NalandaWay Foundation
AH-123, 2nd Floor, 4th Street,
Anna Nagar, Chennai – 600040, India
Email: contact@nalandaway.org
Phone: +91-44-43500127
Website: https://nalandaway.org/artvandi
