To mark contributions by artisans and craftsmen across the country, a unique art gallery of craft maps has been opened at Race Course metro station of the Yellow Line. The maps provide locations of craft production and marketing areas all over India.
The gallery boasts of 48 large-sized artistic craft maps covering every State. While there is one comprehensive map for India, another map has been put up exclusively for Delhi and the National Capital Region.
“These maps were conceptualised and created by the Dastkari Haat Samiti, a national association of Indian crafts people, during 1994-2010. Exporters and NGOs have been using the craft maps to locate crafts for sourcing, marketing and design development. The maps have helped in promoting many an unknown area and craft,” Minister of State for Textiles (Independent Charge) Santosh Kumar Gangwar said after inaugurating the gallery.
The maps highlight crafts and textiles of respective States, depict crafts persons and present relevant information against the backdrop of respective art forms. The traditional art forms have been cast in a new light, drawing attention to the dynamic nature of traditional art.
“It is the first time that these art forms have been applied to maps. For instance, terracotta artist Kaushalya Verma, Manju Jhangra and Geeta Jhangra from Haryana have used their traditional skills to create a map made of terracotta stars. Kashmiri papier-mâché artist Hakim Ghulam Mohammad, who always painted on papier-mâché or wooden items, has painted a shawl map of Srinagar on paper for the first time,” said a metro official. The craft maps have reached many parts of the world and are a unique cartographic documentation of crafts, textiles and traditional arts.
They were displayed by the Central government at the Frankfurt Book Fair when India was the guest country, and by Delhi government at London as part of a major exhibition at Trafalgar Square. The first exhibition was inaugurated by late President Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam in 2005 at Dilli Haat.
The Dastkari Haat Samiti gifted the entire set of exhibits to the Crafts Museum in 2009. The collection has been put together for display at Race Course metro station, due to the joint endeavours of Office of the Development Commissioner (Handicrafts), Crafts Museum, Ministry of Textiles, the Union government and Delhi Metro Rail Corporation.
