The 6th Annual art educators conference by IADEA was held at the Kalakshetra auditorium, chennai. The conference had a turn out of over 80 art educators from Chennai, Madurai, Coimbatore, Erode, Ranipet, Jaipur, Delhi, Ajmer, Bengaluru and more.

Sara Vetteth, Founder IADEA said, “In the future, every career will demand visually
literate professionals—those who can research, think critically and communicate fluently
using images and words. No matter the medium – whether it be mark-making with pencil,
working with fiber, manipulating clay or image capture with a camera phone, the theme for
this year’s conference is – how do we rethink the art class to make it useful for every learner?
By guiding students through lines of enquiry and the design cycle, art educators can foster
deeper exploration and creative problem-solving .”

The much awaited part of the conference was the Camlin art teacher excellence
awards. 85+ unique art lessons were submitted by art teachers across India to be considered for the awards.Mr. Satish Veerappa, Managing Director, Kokuyo Camlin Ltd says “The Art Teacher plays a very important role in the growth of a child. In this way, art teachers contribute immensely to the creative force of a nation. The values of inventiveness, creativity and passion that The Camlin Art Teacher Excellence Award celebrates are the same values that are necessary to build the start-ups and enterprises of the future. Behind every child who grows up to be innovative, resourceful, process oriented, collaborative and confident is an art teacher who showed them the way. Camlin admires and respects your contribution to art and the nurturing of artistic talent.”

On day 2, the participants were taken on a special curator led tour of selected Chennai
photo biennale photography exhibits led by Gayatri Nair, Co-founder and Director of Education at CPB prism and Varun Gupta, Biennale Director at CPB.
Gayatri Nair says “ We are thrilled to meet Art Teachers from schools across the country and introduce them to the unique photo artists behind this edition of the Chennai Photo Biennale. Collaborating with the Indian Art and Design Educators Association is one of the many ways in which we impact school students and expose them to the joy of image making.”