Bringing together a community of craft entrepreneurs

Indira Gandhi Centre of Arts, in association with Cocoa and Jasmine (independent culture publication), has curated an event titled 'Safed'. Organised as part of 'The Craft Project' – an initiative that aims to document tangible anthropology i.e material culture of a place and comment on its relevance in the contemporary space – the event will be held on April 27.

Through the project, Cocoa and Jasmine also wishes to bring together a community of craft entrepreneurs and create a collective of common motivation. The Craft Project celebrates diversity in culture through objects, folk arts, crafts, and design.

Currently, over 30 contributors from 24 cities around the world have joined the project to talk about Indian crafts in contemporary space. Some of these are Judy Frater from Kutch, Monisha Ahmed from Ladakh, Sally Holkar from Maheshwar and Brigitte Singh from Jaipur.

To translate this research project into a physical space, a series of events in different cities in India and abroad will be organised. The event will comprise of a textile installation, a photo exhibit, display of printed journals and a panel discussion. The very first chapter of this series is being held in Delhi on April 27, 5 pm at the Indira Gandhi National Centre of Arts.

Speaking about the event, Sayali Goyal, curator of the installation, says, "A common string in most textile crafts of India is white fabric, a blank canvas. Through this project, I wish to showcase the unity of our craftsmen yet bring out the diversity in textures. When a weaver weaves fabric, a little bit of himself is woven into it as well, thus each fabric displayed here holds the artisan's emotions as if the artisan was present here. If you look carefully at these fabrics, they are all different and unique and have an individual soul yet we can appreciate them as one, just like Indian crafts."

The panel discussion will explore the importance of craft documentation and why design intervention is important to represent contemporary Indian aesthetics at a global platform. Purnima Rai of the Delhi Crafts Council and Crafts Council of India, as well as Ritu Sethi of the Crafts Revival Trust have been invited for the same.

The conversation will be moderated by the Founder of Cocoa and Jasmine, Sayali Goyal.

The photo exhibition will display the process of documentation and stories that were covered from East to the West of India including Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Kolkata and also Maheshwar.