Uruvam represents a humble endeavor to foster unity and engage individuals in the transformative acts of making, learning, sharing, and shaping the world around them. In Malayalam, 'Uruvam' serves as both an adjective and a verb, but we have chosen to conceive it as a verb, emphasizing the process of formation. Through the Uruvam Community Art Project, we come together with a conscious intention to mold our surroundings for a better world.

At a time when Artificial Intelligence is being touted as a substitute for human intelligence and labor, Uruvam seeks to explore the intricate relationship between nature, people, technology, and society at large. We firmly believe that everything is created by and for society, leading us to question the prevailing sense of ownership over these interventions. Our proposal is to embrace creation as a collective, collaborative, and creative process, integrating significant contributions from society as a whole. This understanding drives us to gather, learn, and grow collectively.

Throughout the one-year duration of the community art project, art and design serve as powerful tools for bringing people together and fostering an active space for learning and sharing. Uruvam is divided into three distinct phases: 'Kayyuruvam', 'Mannuruvam', and 'Kaniyuruvam'. In the initial two phases, we engage participants with diverse art and design tools, immersing them in the process of creation and learning. The final phase focuses on curating and exhibiting the collective experience, sharing it with a broader community. This exhibition aims to demonstrate the strengths of collectiveness, collaboration, and caring for others through building spaces for integrated learning. By actively collaborating with institutions such as Abhayan Smaraka Kendram, Ponkunnam Janakeeya Vayanasala, and other local organizations, we strive to ensure inclusivity for the Ponkunnam neighborhood, making the event as accessible as possible.

The one-day tie and dye workshop at Artville Academy, located in Kalyan Nagar, Bangalore, immersed participants in exploring various dyeing techniques and patterns. The workshop provided hands-on experience, empowering individuals to unleash their artistic flair and develop unique designs. From traditional tie-dye methods to contemporary designs, including the history of various tie and dye techniques across cultures, participants delved into a kaleidoscope of colors and textures, transforming plain fabrics into personalized works of art.

Under the larger curatorial banner of Collective Imagination and Social Futures, there are four independent but interconnected exhibitions: 1) Revisiting Settlement in/through Rural Kerala, Avani Institute of Design; 2) What can Architecture do?, School of Environment and Architecture (SEA); 3) Thematic Explorations, Wadiyar Centre for Architecture (WCFA); and 4) Guild, Atelier or Think Tank? The Future of Learning; CARE School of Architecture. The four schools of architecture first collaborated on a two-week student exchange studio around the theme of Architecture of Care and Connectedness, which asked: How does architecture augment the ideas of care and connectedness between its inhabitants? How does architecture care or connect? How does architecture care, connect and situate itself in the ecologies of things? However, Collective Imagination and Social Futures is a presentation of critical insights not only from the collaborative studio, but also from other academic experiments and innovations that critically examine the limits of the discipline of architecture and architectural education.

We believe that the quintessential responsibility of any educational institution is defined by its sensitivity and connection to its immediate social surroundings while endeavouring for upholding academic excellence and progress through teaching, learning, and project-based research and creative achievements. Avani has been striving to practice this sensitivity with our students, faculty peers, and adjunct members for the past four years since its inception. What defines the strength of our institution is the awareness of social responsibility and initiative in its members and students to inculcate empathy towards the needs of our society. This awareness not only widens the perspective of architecture students, but also lets us engage, interact and inspire a larger crowd, where the social good is vested upon us, and architectural education refrains from being restricted to studio sessions. The idea of this exhibition with the theme of social engagement emerged from these thoughts.

The three projects; four individual projects of architects, Uruvam community art project and Aloka, a memorial project, led by our Avani members in the past few years, bear testimony to this core institutional value and commitment.

“Most learning is not the result of instruction. It is rather the result of unhampered participation in a meaningful setting.” -Ivan Illich, Deschooling Society

An education that is truly liberating cannot distance itself from its milieu, the importance of imbibing empathy and socio-cultural awareness in its participants and propagating a sense of commune and collaboration. Uruvam, a community art project is our humble harbinger to translate this social, universal and democratic nature of education into a platform that aims to creatively involve students with the wider community.

We intend to promote this through the medium of art, as one which traverses demographics and differences, addressing the challenges of the disjointed digital world of today and presents a forum which is participative and exploratory in nature, revealing new avenues to express oneself and allowing one to rediscover hitherto unknown dimensions to one’s identity.

Through this project, we take students and neighboring community back to one of the most rewarding and humbling materials known to us: clay. We unearth our inane relationship with soil and harness its unique materiality to make art and in the process develop a nuanced sense of aesthetic and confidence in one’s skill and craftsmanship. Such a celebration of art and crafts not only engages the mind and body but also helps in revitalising disenfranchised communities and neighbourhoods we encounter due to the element of vocational training and practical application it offers. For an institution such as Avani that prides itself on its values of moral and social ethic, Uruvam is a pragmatic holistic and idiosyncratic medium to shape our vision into hand sculpted realities.The project methodically takes a participant through three distinct phases: making, baking and curating.

Under the guidance of renowned artists, a fine arts summer camp was conducted for students at Avani’s Chalappuram campus from April 9th to April 20th. The following day on April 21st an exhibition showcasing the creations of students was also held

The orientation program DISHA will be also a part of the module 1 for semester 1 & 2. This module focused on the self reflection and critical thinking of a student. The workshops, lectures, discussions and various activities help students to understand their unique thought processes, response behaviour and social capabilities.