GIIS’ pedagogy is strongly aligned to support a fine balance of academic proficiency with a flair for art and culture. Our award-winning 9GEMS framework provides a boost to students in multiple-areas, and largely into the arenas of art and culture.
9GEMS is not the sole tool being used by the school to inculcate love for art and culture among students. GICC (Global Indian Cultural Centre), the non-profit wing of the Global Indian Foundation, is a major role-player and a catalyst in enhancing students’ and society’s involvement in the art and culture.
The 17 year old cultural centre has been offering a multitude of cultural programmes and has trained a number of aspirants who are passionate about artistic pursuits, not limited to visual and performing arts. According to Ms Sarita Alurkar, the Head of GICC, “ the centre enables the Indian diaspora in Singapore to remain connected to Indian culture by offering cultural courses that are well-structured and helps them take their passion to the next level.”
Watch the launch of GIIS-Shekhar Ravjiani School of Music
GICC offers a wide range of workshops and classes not only in the fields of visual and performing arts but also lingual art, personality development and 21st century skills like coding, programming, culinary and so on. The classes are open to anyone in Singapore with the idea of having a two-way exchange of cultural knowledge and achieving integration with local community through several socio-cultural activities.
Why should students be trained in art and culture?
At GIIS we feel that art and culture bring variety and balance, and lead to a healthy development of personality. Pursuing a cultural art form as an extracurricular activity is valuable to the overall development of children.
The cultural training programmes at GICC give the participants an identity, brings discipline into their life and teaches them patience and perseverance.
Ms Sonal Sinha, the GICC Coordinator says, “ Learning an art form or cultivating a hobby is not just about learning the dance or the ragas or notes of a musical instrument. It is about the journey - a fulfilling experience through which one explores their own strengths and work on their weaknesses.”
GICC is a great place to explore the art, culture and tradition of India.
Course offered under GICC
GICC is well-known within Singapore’s community for offering a broad range of activities spanning the disciplines of performing arts, visual arts, theatre, sports and skills-building to non-academic enrichment programmes like Yoga, performing and visual arts, personality development programmes, which have been on the forefront of community integration.
One of the most popular programmes offered at GICC is the HATHA yoga followed by Cricket, Public Speaking, Indian Keyboard, Bharatanatyam and Bollywood dance with enrolments ranging from 40 to 80 students.
The state-of-the-art skill-based studios at GIIS SMART Campus, provide a rich platform for GICC cultural courses to be conducted in the most productive way. Be it the Dance Studio, Music Room, Keyboard Room or specialised performance spaces like Multi-Purpose Hall, all the facilities add immense value to the quality of training delivered under GICC.
The GICC courses at GIIS SMART Campus are well aligned with the futuristic vision of the school and new course are regularly added in order to keep the programmes contemporary. Click here to listen to a podcast with Ms Sarita Alurkar, where she talks in detail about the objective of GICC and why is it special to GIIS.
The school’s vision and objective of rendering a holistic and well-rounded personality to students are well-achieved through 9 GEMS and complemented through the variety of courses offered under GICC. For more queries on GICC courses, kindly write to gicc.sg@globalindianschool.org
