A Glimpse of Culture at Crafts Museum

Amidst the hustle and bustle of the Urban Lifestyle, Crafts Museum is a place where all this comes to a halt. Crafts Museum is a Governmental Organisation based out of New Delhi, working for the showcasing and promotion of the crafts and textile sector majorly. Worldwide people travel to this place just to experience 1000’s of rich artifacts present here, which really helps them to make a connection with the modern consumer.

So, our College planned a tour for us to experience the whole beauty and collect the maximum possible treasure we can carry with us. We fetched on our autos, collected our tickets and entered one of the four major sections of the museum.

The first section was a really peaceful and serene atmosphere, one can totally smell and feel it like a village. It depicts the culture and art of rural and tribal India. There were many kinds like Kullu Hut, Gond Hut, Banni Hut, Orissa Courtyard, West Bengal Hut and many more. Every Hut was mentioned with a small plate beside them which justifies their origin and the significance of that particular construction. It just made all of us think, how ancient people have been so imaginative, artistic and also technically right without no prior knowledge or I should say academic knowledge. Somehow this is the beauty of our own India, we are so rich in cultures and crafts that knowingly or unknowingly we all are imbibed with some sort of art. There was again some man-made machinery, means of transportation like Gadulia bullock cart used by rural people to serve them on a daily basis.

Now, we knocked into another section of the museum, where artisans from across the country were exhibiting their wares and artifacts. It was on the premises of the museum; these stalls were selling decorative kites which obviously no one would ever like to get them crashed while flying. We had a small talk with almost all exhibitors, they acknowledged us with the information that what is it which is actually making them stand out of the crowd. Kite sellers were based out of Etawah, Uttar Pradesh and were ready to claim that they are the only manufacturer of such kites, which are so finely constructed and that too in some other shapes as well. Besides this, there were some contemporary arts, fancy diaries which we would like to keep till decades, deeply thoughtful bookmarks, cards, and paintings. Paintings were basically Madubhani Paintings, craftsperson shared the whole story with us from raw material to the product, the average time required to paint for one huge painting, about his costing, from where he is managing to get this whole stuff and of course his passion for the one. Next, we have handcrafted Juttis, Fabrics with absorbing prints and embroideries, Trendy accessories; I got purchased one for me being a true fan of accessories. Lastly, we enjoyed making some hyper-creative pottery stuff with aesthetic Rajasthani music which was anyway cherry on the cake.

Another section, we entered had some real tastes of ancient jewelry, paintings, ancient lamps, utensils, range of cane and bamboo arts, clay and terracotta figures and lot more which were speaking out loud about their origins, significance and some quality facts about them. It was an amazing experience to go to each and every window, clicking its picture and fanaticizing about what story I can re-create with all these ancient ones.

Last, section which was centred on a huge carrier of ancient times was solely devoted to the whole lot of textiles of India.  Entry was beautifully decorated with so many colourful fabrics, natural dyes sample and their sources. Also, I got my hands on the screen which was installed exactly in front of the entrance. The purpose of this screen was to enlighten you with the idea of different type of fabrics and which part of India is majorly producing it. I am sure it was one of the good information to absorb. Okay, so now we got to see diverse fabrics region wise like silk, cotton, check silk, brocades and what not. Different embroideries as well namely Zari, Phulkari, Kashmiri, Kantha, Chikankari and many more. There were some visually stimulating garments also hanged in the windows again specifying their region. After taking up a glance at this section, I felt like if an Artisan is promoted, Patola would find another generation, Kutch embroidery would be a Christian Dior adornment, Benarsi Zari work would go for Oscar’s red carpet, Kantha would embellish Gucci Trench Coat, Jawaja would have Jimmy Choo finesse and artisan will find motivation for life.

All over it was gratifying experience for all of us.  Lot to learn and even more to come that’s what I can say to wrap it up.

Shradha Jain

MBA FE 2019-2021