College of Music and Fine Arts in Thrippunithura and as a visiting faculty at the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) in Mumbai.

Balakrishnan received her master's degree in Fine Art History and Aesthetics in 1998 from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda.

Then she produced a research thesis on the practice of literature-oriented illustrations in Malayalam periodicals' for which she was awarded Ph.D in 2009 by Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam.

At the age of 13 she received the Soviet Land Nehru Award for Painting while she spent the summer at the Crimean coast of the Black Sea, Ukraine (former Soviet Union) at Artek (camp)'s Inter National Young Pioneer Camp.

1.Contemporary Art gallery, show sponsored by Kerala Lalith kala Academy.1997.