There is a fundamental difference between someone who graduates from an art school and a person who completes, say, an MBA degree. The latter hopes to enter a well-defined job market that has a corporate structure in place. But the arts student has to chart his own professional journey and would find himself to be all at sea after being pushed into the deep end. He'll need to figure out the best ways to garner the interests of galleries, reach a wider audience and make his work commercially viable so that, in the absence of a secure monthly salary, he can still pay his bills. It can be an intimidating prospect. And that's why Mumbai's Priyasri Art Gallery is organising an open day — titled Ballads of Baroda — where nine students from its artists' studio in the Gujarat city will showcase their work, speak about their processes and in doing so, receive the feedback and guidance they'd need not just to paint more refined pieces, but also a brighter future for themselves.

The nine students are Ankita Daulatabadkar, Astha Patel, Durgadas Garai, Parikshit Pisal, Pranoti Malkute, Rumit Donga, Savitha Ravi, Sheena Bajaria and Radhika Wader. Five of them are painters and four are printmakers, and almost all of them have graduated from the faculty of fine arts at Baroda's MS University, one of the finest in the country. The event will involve them putting up their works on display, and later, discuss their process and personal journeys as artists with the audience.