Th Crafts Museum, Delhi - Preserving Folk Art Legacy

National Handicrafts and Handlooms Museum, New Delhi

 

With the advent of modern technology and machines capable of producing items on mass scale without the interference of the human in most cases, the scope of human creativity being engraved into the creation of the articles of daily use, be its textile or utensils have got limited. It also mean that those engaged in the creative field of Handicrafts and textiles too are seeing the demand of their produce dwindling and their art facing extinction.

With the aim of preserving the traditional arts and crafts of craftsmen from different parts of India, showcasing their talent and giving them a platform where they can display their creation directly to the buyer, National Handicrafts and Handloom Museum was established in the year 1956. The sustained effort of the renowned freedom fighter Smt Kamladevi Chattopadhyaya over 1950’s -60’s saw its further expansion for a period of next 30 years , to give it the present form and scale.

Located on Bhairon Road, near Pragati Maidan in Delhi and run by Ministry of Textiles, Government of India, it is also popularly known as crafts museum, The crafts Museum is unique in a way as it painstakingly imitates typical Indian villages from different parts of India, where the craftsmen sitting outside the museum displays their skills. A visit to Crafts museum will not only let you see the long history of the Indian crafts and the produce of some of the finest folk craftsmen, it also gives you an insight into the way people in Indian villages stay and go about their daily life.

Today the museum holds over 35,000 rare and distinctive pieces of pottery, wood carvings, metal ware sculpture, image and toys sculpture, folk paintings, tribal textiles and hand made jewellery, embroidery of tribes from Bihar, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh among other states. Some of the arte facts on display are upto 300 years old. All craft items are housed in the buildings designed between 1975 and 1990 by renowned architect Charles Correa, who has incorporated traditional architectural vocabulary into a modern design.

The museum is further divided into five different galleries which include the Tribal and Rural Craft Gallery, Gallery of Courtly Crafts, Textile Gallery, Gallery of Popular Culture & Ritual craft gallery. Each of these galleries display a wide range of collection of some rate and unique craft work that ranges from lamps, incense stick burners, bronze and precious metal-ware images and jewellery, stone and wood sculptures, utensils and accessories for daily use, clay pots, clay dolls and wooden toys, puppets, tribal masks and jewellery, bamboo, cane and terracotta craft work.Some of its prized collection include, the 250-300-year-old, Bhoota (Bhuta) Collection from Karnataka (which is basically collection of carved out figures of Goddesses and folk deities of coastal Karnataka iin wood), rare Kashmiri 300-year-old ‘dushalas’, handkerchiefs from Chamba, known for their unique embroidery, rare brocade and Baluchari saris and Kutch embroidery, precious metal jewellery, rare bronze figurines from the tribes of Chhattisgarh, architectural style of Gujarat carved in wood depicting havelis, jharokhas (window), balconies, along with wall hangings, bead work, rare and unique Brocade saris and much more . The museum also boasts of huge collection of tribal and rural textiles and is an equally interesting place to visit for researchers, designers, students and craftsmen.

The Museum also houses a village complex spread over 5 acre (2000 sqmts), a remnant of a temporary exhibition on the theme of India held at 1972. The village complex have 15 structures representing village dwellings (houses) with their elaborate courtyards, rooms and kitchens, the huts made of mud and haystacks, hay roofs and sandy streets. Each of the 15 structures represents the exact replica of a village house from a different state of India, each house equipped with the replica of items used in daily life and depicts how villagers live in actual life. The crafts village also provides accommodation to several traditional craftsmen, who can be seen working in designated areas of the museum complex, where they display how the crafts are produced and actually sell their products.

The village complex also has open walls along the corridors & passages which are used as the canvas to display the painted traditions of several tribes by folk artisans/painters. Every month new folk artists are invited from different parts of the country to paint and decorate the museum’s walls.

 

Apart from the collection of handicrafts and textile and the crafts village, the museum houses Research and Documentation facilities, a reference library, a conservation laboratory and an auditorium.

The National Handicrafts and Handlooms museum, Delhi a.k.a crafts museum is open daily except Monday. The Museum opens at 0930 hrs and is open till 1700 hrs between July and September while it is open from 0930 hrs till 1800 hrs from October to June.

National Handicrafts and Handloom Museum or Crafts Museum is doing a tremendous job in preserving and promoting the folk legacy of India.

More information can be had from the craft museum’s own website www.nationalcraftsmuseum.nic.in