Gurdeep Pandher of the Yukon collaborates with AGO’s virtual school program

The Art Gallery of Ontario is collaborating with viral Bhangra artist Gurdeep Pandher of the Yukon to bring his message of positivity and joy to students attending their virtual school program. Dilshad Burman reports.

By Dilshad Burman

You may be familiar with Gurdeep Pandher, who suffixes his name with “of the Yukon,” from his videos teaching Canadians the Punjabi dance form of Bhangra that went viral during the pandemic.

Along with being an author and YouTube performer, Pandher also has a background in teaching. This October, he’s combining all those epithets to bring his message of the joy of movement to the Art Gallery of Ontario’s free virtual school program.

“There will be mentions about history of Bhangra, of Punjabi culture and also about how to dance Bhangra … and of course joy, hope and positivity too,” Pandher tells CityNews.

Pandher will host four virtual sessions that will be broadcast live across the country as part of a series in the virtual school program titled “Art Beyond Borders.” The sessions begin Oct. 20 and will take place on Thursdays.

He says he wants to bring a dose of both positivity and inclusivity to the students that will tune in.

“My first approach has been to create joy in the education system. I feel that our children — they need more positivity, more joy in their classrooms. Apart from it, I would like them to learn about different cultures,” he says. “This could be one window to open many other windows. Because we live in a country which is multicultural country, which is great — but we don’t get enough chances to learn about other cultures.”

Pandher says the feedback he’s received about his videos encouraged him to continue spreading his message of positivity, and he’s thrilled to be bringing that to classrooms across the country through the AGO.

“I started promoting Bhangra more as a way to heal, a way to uplift, a way to stay in a moment,” he says.

“Joy is not just fun. It’s not just entertainment. It goes beyond that — it’s healing, it’s therapy.”

“If you are worried, you can ground yourself. If you are feeling that your world has crashed, you can have some healing moments … I’m feeling really, really wonderful [about] bringing these lessons to children through such a great institution,” he says.

The AGO’s virtual school program for students from JK to grade 8 was launched in 2020 as a response to the pandemic. This year, it is expanding to reach more students from coast to coast, Monday to Friday, with four daily sessions to account for different time zones, starting Oct. 12.

The gallery has also set up a dedicated digital studio from where they conduct classes which the AGO’s Director of Learning and Engagement says illustrates their commitment to online programming.

“There’s an appetite to be in a community online and we wanted to make that bridge to really show how this is actually part of the work we do now, all the time, every day,” says Paola Poletto.

She explains that each live virtual school session is 30 minutes long and engagement is a key component of the program.

“We ask questions to our students and the students ask us back many questions and we can get thousands of questions in a half hour [through the live chat function]. That’s the energy that we feel being live every day,” she says.

Each session is inspired by artworks in the AGO’s collection.

“There’s an art educator from the AGO who is introducing an artwork … if we’re talking about the environment, for instance, it will likely be an artwork that reflects on an environment, she explains. “Then there’s some art making and there’s also wellness. There’s a bit of pausing and meditation, so there’s really a kind of a balance, a focus on both learning and wellness in our approach.”

Poletto says bringing Pandher on board is in keeping with that approach, with a focus on the connections between art, joy and Bhangra.

“He’s a sensational and inspirational figure [who will make] those connections to wellness and to community building and to really celebrating ourselves. And we need that right now,” she says. “So really it is about dance and the importance of dance as a creative exploration and connecting it to the visual arts, the art collection at the AGO — and thinking about what that looks like for each individual. So really embodying our art and our culture along the way with such an amazing figure.”

Pandher is currently on a cross country tour to share his message with Canadians in person.

Gurdeep Pandher on tour in Quebec

Gurdeep Pandher poses with participants of an in-person Bhangra dance session in Matane, Québec, during his cross country tour on Sept. 10, 2022. INSTAGRAM/@gurdeeppandher

 

“I’m giving that message which I was giving on social media in person to people everywhere in different communities — that we live in a complex world … we notice that there’s a polarization of opinions on the internet. Sometimes you feel that there is a conflict everywhere. So I try to provide [the message] that we are together,” he says.

Despite everything, at the end of the day, we belong to each other, We belong to one community.”

Pandher says people connect to his words and often tell him that “these kind of reminders, they are working great for them.”

“[They say] ‘It’s like restoring my faith in humanity,'” he says.

Broadcasting from his home in the Yukon, Pandher aims to make the students he will connect with through the AGO feel the same way and hopes it will be a lifelong lesson.

“We like to build a comfort zone where we like to stay in that comfort box and I will encourage them to just take a little step outside and just learn about different cultures, different communities, different people — so that they have some exposure in their formative years that all cultures, they have great values. They are great people,” he says. “People may look a little different from outside but from their core, they’re the same people.”

Pandher feels that cross-cultural understanding is the key to a harmonious and peaceful society.

It helps to bring harmony in the communities, harmony in the country, harmony in the world. It also leads to more positivity because when we are living in a peace with neighbors, with different communities, it of course generates more joy,” he says.

“People live in peace with each other when they know about different cultures.”

The “Art Beyond Borders” series will also feature art educators from the other side of the country in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Beginning Nov. 17, representatives from The Rooms — a provincial archive, art gallery and museum — will co-lead four sessions, highlighting the relationships between art, land and the environment.

Along with virtual programming, in-person field trips at the AGO are also back starting Sept. 27.

For this school year, members of the AGO’s Teacher’s Access Program and their school groups can take free self-led tours of the gallery from Tuesday to Friday, with an advance reservation.

Paid guided tours led by the AGO’s art educators are also available starting Oct. 12 along with art-making sessions that teach students about different techniques and processes.

Click here to learn more about the AGO’s virtual and in-person educational programs.

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