Ahmedabad: Fifteen expert artisans and craftsmen from eight states donned the role of tutors for two-week-long craft-based workshops called Common Studios at Anant National University. Starting from 25th October, these studios are an initiative of Anant’s centre for Indian Designs and Innovative Crafts (INDIC). It aims at celebrating and reviving the different handicrafts and vernacular design narratives contributing to India’s rich craft traditions.
The idea is to give the indigenous craft forms a new lease of life and contemporise the ancient crafts industry through knowledge sharing. The two-way learning process familiarises students to the merits of traditional practices and equips artisans with technical expertise. This will result in an integration of the traditional and the modern techniques, leading to inclusive, creative, innovative, yet sustainable designs.
The crafts for this year range from Channapatna toys from Karnataka, leather puppets from Andhra Pradesh, folk music instruments from Assam, Namda wool craft from Gujarat, Dokra from Chhattisgarh, Patachitra from Orissa, Kawad from Rajasthan and metal forging from Madhya Pradesh.
The 10-day-long craft-based studio course will continue till 4th November. It will culminate into an exhibition of student works, organised between 6th-9th November. These exhibits will be conceptualised and created in collaboration with expert artisans.
Besides artisans, nearly 194 students from Bachelor of Design and Anant Fellowship in Built Environment programmes are a part of these workshops.
