Showing posts tagged Jaipur
A meeting with the Indian Institute of Craft & Design
What: Indian Institute of Craft and Design
IICD was initiated by the Rajasthani government with the mission to “evolve a sustained program of growth and development of both crafts sector and craftsmen in an integrated manner. They focus on generating requisite knowledge, upgrading relevant skills and to fostering right attitudes in order to develop high quality, motivated human resource and change agents, in a vibrant climate of experimentation and innovation.”
Where: Jaipur, Rajasthan
Who: Dr. Bhardwaj (director) and Swarup Dutta (dean of UG programs)
Left to right: me, Swarup, 2 embroidery artisan teachers, embroidery class teacher
IICD students
Each student graduates when completing their Diploma Project, for which they produce a product that blends design principles and traditional craft. Some of the work I viewed was really interesting; particularly traditional Dhokra work formed into modern cutlery.
An overview of student work, experimental and finished.
Student design work, working with an artisan in woodwork and traditional weaving.
Embroidery Class
Two artisans who specialize in embroidery gave me a quick demo and put together a palette of several different types of embroidery to show the class.
From what I’ve gathered here so far, most of the issues for rural craftspeople are due to disconnection and lack of access: Artisans don’t have direct access to the market. Potential markets don’t know where to find out about traditional craft and artisans. Designers and artisans come from urban and rural perspectives, which makes working together in a creatively equal way difficult. Etc etc…
It’s encouraging to see IICD attempting to bridge some of those gaps. (And it’s not easy as these issues are all gray.) A couple of interesting things they’re doing are bringing artisans to teach their craft to students and creating a space for them to be experts and teachers, which creates respect and understanding on both sides. And in general, their programs explore the industry as a whole and all stakeholders in the value chain, and are trying to find ways all parties can add value and get value.
I was quite inspired by my visit and the people that are designing and graduating from the programs there, and am excited to see where they go with it all.
IICD needs
They are looking for international partnerships in case anyone is looking for exchange opportunities! Email me, if so.
Such a fun day yesterday running around beautiful Jaipur with the lovely Namrata Milak, best city and craft tour guide EVER.
