This is the first of a series of stories that will be published soon about Making of the Living Academy
Location Hunting from 9th of July to 9th of September 2023
We wanted to locate an area where we can start a community space for making as a context for learning. Checked a few commercial locations, including shops facing a road side.
On July 9th 2023, we (Vikram Patil, and his friend Sathyasheel (aka Sumit) and myself (@GN)) visited Kudachi Shaala at Morgaon, Baramati Maharashtra.
Mr. Suresh Khopade, a retired ex-IPS officer who founded Kudachi Shaala.
Mr. Suresh Khopade was explaining his borderless laboratory to us at Kudachi Shaala.
Since we live in Pune in Maharashtra, our search was limited to the city. On the same day evening we visited a community learning center called Saans Foundation, founded by Sathyasheel and Alice Anthony.
Saans Foundation runs in a small home, where Alice Anthony spent her childhood. Their family donated this space for educating the children in that locality. The locality is Chudaman Talim at Bhavani Peth, a congested place where families of several communities stay. The children of that area spend their after school hours in this community center, where Sathyasheel and Alice, with help from some senior students help to support their education.
Since Saans Foundation already exists at Bhavani Peth, at the CAMP area, heart of Pune’s historical location, we decided to search for a place around that area. After searching for a couple of locations, we finalised to rent the second floor of a building known in that area as Alankar Medical Building.
The entire second floor (about 1000sq.ft) is a single large hall with one small room.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZWyvHXCsUEpHShht8
As soon as fixed on the place we held a workshop on foldscope evening with Rafikh Shaikh from TISS Mumbai, on 9th of September 2023, a few days prior to when the place was actually rented to us.
We latter came to know that the street where the Living Academy found a place is called Mahatma Phule Raastha.. What an address to start our activities in Pune!
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This is the first of a series of stories that will be published soon about Making of the Living Academy