Galih Sakti Wismoyo

Building Marginal Kids' Confidence and Dreams Through 'Kelas Gambar' Community

For some, drawing might just be another everyday sight. Apparently, not so for Galih Wismoyo, UPH’s Interior Design Alumni cohort 2002, founder of Kelas Gambar, a social community for marginal children. Starting from a small act of teaching children at an orphanage during Ramadan back in 2017, Galih and his partner Teddy Afif managed to make drawing as an impactful activity for many marginal children in Jakarta. Drawing, so it became obvious to Galih and his partner, has build confidence and hopeful paradigm for these kids. This became more prominent as enthusiasm was caught in picture from intisari.grid.id as 6-12 year olds come and join Kelas Gambar. Furthermore, Galih and 10 kids who lived under Kampung Melayu’s bridge, East Jakarta was able to hold an exhibition called “Krayon Kami Karya Kami” (our crayon, our creation) at Plaza Indonesia Mall Atrium, Cetral Jakarta, with 43 pictures from February 23rd to March 3rd 2019.

What does drawing impart to these children? Galih believed that drawing increases these children’s ability to see, observe, and empathize better. These observations are then transformed into a drawing, drawn using their crayons. Kelas Gambar’s activities are now held weekly, for free, at multiple places in Jakarta and even multiple areas in Indonesia. Interestingly enough, Galih kept his vision straight to reach marginal kids and disaster victims only. This is not far apart from his beliefs that all parts of the society is worthy of a decent art education or in other words, that art is an activity for all. The spirit of this arts activity has again been proved to build confidence and hope. And as for these kids who might’ve experienced trauma, Galih made arts as a therapy.

Just like the one he did in Lombok 2019, he invited these kids to shift their focus from the earthquake trauma that happened to them and/or any negative events in their surroundings. Kelas Gambar was also held for kids who experienced sexual abuse due to child trafficking in Batam. Galih did not tell these kids what to do – they are in fact free to draw anything they see. Besides his activities in Kelas Gambar, Galih also works as an artist/muralist and as a weekly lecturer at UPH Visual Communication Design for Supporting Studio subject where he taught basic storytelling and screenwriting. Galih is not only working based on his designing skills, but also his family business in culinary, Proklamasi Catering.

Galih always makes use of his time wisely. He was trained as early as his days back in UPH campus. During those days in Interior Design was Galih trained in working under pressure, organizing workload, and delivering his products within the timed deadline. The design discipline he learnt could be applied to almost every aspect of his life, including socially.

“The most important thing is to be brave enough to explore your interest and talent. Also, don’t constrain yourself in a box. If you implement those things, you’ll surprise yourself with the great and positive things you can do,” Galih requests for his juniors at UPH to remember.