THOUGHTS ON CANVAS
Crafting Children’s Brighter Future… Renu | Business Connect We are back with yet another success story, our star this month is a visionary entrepreneur - Garima Govil. What made us highlight her would unfold in this inside story and hopefully would prove to be a motivational booster to our global audience. Let’s dive inINTRODUCTION Thoughts On Canvas is focussed on building a culture of Early Design for children so that they can satisfy their wish to become anything they want – an architect, designer, or visual artist. At present, the best teachers from national design institutes such as NIFT and NID are nurturing children in art and early design. The foundation of the organization was laid in 2008 in Gurgaon, India as a school for fostering early design skills in children. The organisation has extended its reach across USA, Canada, Singapore, Dubai, Australia, and every significant city in India. The founder, Garima Govil, has pioneered a teaching methodology that relies on numerical ideas, block techniques and colour theory. Via her uniquely curated methodology, she is teaching art virtually to her students across the globe. MEET THE BRAINS BEHIND THE COMPANY Garima Govil has developed early design as a concept, establishing the largest virtual teaching art institute in India today. Hailing from the 2003 batch of National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) Delhi and 2005 International Academy of Design Toronto, she has shown extraordinary expertise in her teaching techniques. Garima began the endeavor from her drawing room quite a while back, taking art interest classes for neighborhood Gurgaon kids. She built a loyal base of students who would swear by her ability to “teach anyone to draw” using block techniques, fashion design principles and color theory. Her hobby classes started to take the form of a formal school with 3-4 regular classes daily and she converted a basement facility close to her residence into a makeshift school. In 2015, she collaborated with her closest friend, Shilpa Golwalkar Bakshi. With Shilpa taking care of sales and marketing and Garima focussed on teaching, the school thrived locally building a 200+ student base across Gurgaon. It expanded into granting junior art diplomas in collaboration with accredited art colleges, conducting corporate art events, art therapy for adults as well as children’s national level art competitions and exhibitions. www.businessconnectindia.in | Vol. 5 | Special Edition November 2022 INDIA
Garima Govil
Principal - Director
In mid-2020, the coronavirus pandemic resulted in worldwide lockdowns. Garima and Shilpa saw the opportunity and shifted the whole educational program to online Zoom based tutorials. The establishment quickly spread its presence across the art student community in US, Canada, Singapore, Dubai, Australia and practically every city in India from Vadodara to Srinagar. The school today has over 1000+ students from just 6 years of age to grown-ups who view art as therapy. Thoughts On Canvas is increasing its student base by nearly 50% annually, the 15-member organisation includes faculty from NIFT and NID, with Garima herself taking up to 100 hours of classes each month, every week from Monday to Sunday. She aspires to go public soon but insists that the only real capital the business has is children’s goodwill! COURSES AT THOUGHTS ON CANVAS
Currently, the school conducts: 1. Weekly design classes for age group of 6-18 years and grown-ups 2. Diploma courses in art 3. National level art competitions for students 48