Corporate life, with its 9 to 5 and the added travel time, is not easy by any means. By the time Thursday comes, employees are just waiting for the weekend to hit. We all know this is a part and parcel of the corporate experience and it also ends up becoming high-quality meme material.

What we do need sometimes, is a break that makes it all worth it, that makes the employees forget their worries for the time being. Giving employees a stronger sense of belonging, togetherness and most importantly, some much needed fun—is the organisation of various kinds of events and workshops once in a while. And one type of workshops that are quite in trend currently are Art workshops. Workshops on pottery, on painting, on sketching and much more. Their trendiness comes from art’s unique ability to sooth as well as to enhance creativity.

If we’re going to conduct an interactive, fun workshop, why not go for one that offers the most benefits and also promotes the artforms of our land? Let’s get right to it then.

Why Indian Art?

Indian artforms originate from the villages and tribes that have existed for thousands of years. They use unique artforms to preserve their culture and traditions, and as an evolved form of oral storytelling to deliver knowledge passed down from generations. And such creative and fun ways to do it! To just paint on walls together as a family, what an activity. Let’s bring this cute tradition back home through employee engagement programs, because it’s just the right amount of fun and creativity that we need to cool off once in a while.

So let us explore some reasons for why Indian Art workshops would be the perfect relaxing activity for any corporate company. In fact, many options are available with respect to the surface that you learn painting on—keychain, fridge magnet, pottery, etc—or the specific artform that you learn—Gond, Bhil, Baiga, Warli, Thangka and so many more. Check out the Rooftop app and website for many such options.

Indian Art Fosters Creativity

The main aim of corporate art workshops is to engage the employees in an activity that is fun, sure, but also one that helps them in their work, one way or another. Indian native and tribal arts are uniquely known for their abundance of symbolism and depth. Each Indian art work has at least two meanings—one that is obvious, literal, and the other that is metaphorical, allegorical or hidden within symbols. A workshop where one learns the intricacies of such arts, opens up the mind to different ways of looking and thinking.

Facilitates Cultural Pride

It’s nice to have a touch of familiarity amidst the straight lines of desks and bright white lights that colour the whole office environment in cold formality. In an office full of employees with diverse origins—whether it be in terms of geographical location, religion, or ethnicity—a shared sense of pride goes a long way to smooth over the various office politics or biases that may indeed exist. Moreover, most Indian arts originated as local practices in small villages in various parts of India. All of us have roots that go back to our hometowns and villages. An interaction with Indian folk and tribal art will bring out a shared familiarity with the landscape of our roots which we find depicted in Indian arts. Gond, Baiga, Warli, Bhil, and many more artforms of India depict local scenes like wells, lakes, trees, animals and humans cohabiting, an ecosystem that exists with humans and not regardless of humans.

Team Bonding

What better way to get to know someone than to share an experience with them? Art workshops have the ability to make all those involved interact with each other more than any other workshop would. Since to create and learn one needs to be present in the moment, it automatically means interacting more with colleagues and sharing fun moments mixed with those of failure (when one realises painting isn’t for them and jokes about it) and of successes (when one unexpectedly nails a piece and gets praised for it). Moreover, art is a very personal endeavor. By sharing an artistic experience, people can get to know each other better, beyond a professional setting.

Mindfulness

The stress of deadlines and important meetings is unavoidable. What is avoidable, however, is the way one manages and deals with this pressure. Art is one of the best tools to calm the mind and help it focus more than worry. Indian art has a lot of minute details, swirling and dotted patterns and designs that would in some sense seem unnecessary—but they serve more than an aesthetic purpose, they help the mind focus. Imagine creating intricate, repetitive Warli art designs on beautiful artefacts, or taking a 10 minute break to paint a Madhubani motif. The focus and calm that it builds is important not only for work, but in everyday life as well.

When planning employee wellness programmes , it is nice to engage them on a level that is deeper than just an HR activity, take your office engagement program to the next level by conducting specialised Indian Art Workshops that cover a host of art forms and offer many benefits towards personal and organisational welfare.