From December 24th 2009 to January 5th 2010, an exhibition was put up by a group of special children (hearing impaired or differently abled ).
This exhibition took place at Akarsh Gallery, no. 72 Chamiers Road, Nandanam, Chennai 35,opposite Satyam towers, Turnbulls road junction. This gallery was open from 11am to 7pm daily except on Sundays.
The children who painted these paintings are: G. Suvedha, B. Manasi, Mehtab Allam, A. Lokesh, Santhana Vijay, Dinesh and Karthikeyan. They have been undergoing training in art-oil painting, acrylic painting, pen drawing and sketching for the past 6 – 10 years.
Their teacher is Mr. Rama Suresh and they sell their paintings under the aegis Freedom Trust.
The person who started this is Dr. Sunder, a who has been treating patients successfully for years but wanted to do something more to help the differently abled children so he started Freedom Trust which makes these peoples’ lives more comfortable.
Simultaneously he started Sishu Punarjanmam scheme where he recognised the wonderful talents of the children. ( visually impaired, hearing impaired, differently abled, etc) These children of PEARLS undergo training in music, ( vocal and instrumental for visually impaired) painting, ( hearing impaired and differently abled) dance, ( hearing impaired ) chess and sports. ( hearing impaired and differently abled).
Dr. Sunder has won many awards for this purpose and was greatly helped by Mrs. Usha Baradwaj, a vocal singer who taught the children and arranged concerts for them to perform. Mr. Rama Suresh taught the children art which has fetched them many awards. The children are very talented and are exceptionally good in the field of art.
The children said that they got introduced to art because of self teaching, that Freedom Trust inspired them and helped them in marketing their paintings. Their other hobbies are photography, travelling, sports and music.
Mehtab Allam, a boy who won a national award from the President Abdul Kalam in 2006, is very nimble with his fingers and can clap with one hand! Suvedha uses bright colours in her paintings and is fantastic at splashing out different shades. Manasi specialises in snow scapes and relishes using white. This exhibition was a feast to the eyes.