Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.
A major initiative to support and mobilise Orissa’s filigree artisans is on the cards.
The initiative, involving both the central and the state governments, would be launched under the Union government’s circuit development scheme. The project would be linked with the tourism sector in the state as plans are afoot to set up a “Silver Filigree Centre” at Mundasahi on the banks of Mahanadi river near here under the aegis of the Orissa Tourism Development Corporation (OTDC).
Official sources said the project was conceived to identify the filigree potential in Cuttack and to ensure that artisans were not quitting their profession. An official survey had revealed that most of the silver filigree artisans wanted to sustain their skills provided it offers them benefit.
“The idea of setting up the Silver Filigree Centre at Mundasahi has been planned to link Tarkashi or silver filigree and tourism. The filigree centre will allow the tourists to go to a place showcasing the artisans’ work,” Cuttack collector Kishore Kumar Mohanty told The Telegraph.
“Funds to the tune of Rs 1 crore from the Union government under its Circuit Development Scheme will be used to make the project a reality,” the Cuttack collector said, adding that the district administration had demarcated a three acre plot for the project. “The allotment of the land for it is under process,” he said.
Sources in OTDC said the initiative to give a fillip to the Cuttack Tarkashi art form involves identification of traditional artisans, bringing them under one roof and setting up infrastructure for live demonstration of the intricate method involved in the silver filigree work with a product sale facility. The proposed centre also envisages food, recreational facility and amusement park for children.
Following is an excerpt from a news report in the Telegraph.
Painter Jatin Das’s dream of a museum for traditional and contemporary art in his native Orissa has gone international.
Das was in Washington and New York last week outlining his plans for the J.D. Centre of Art in Bhubaneswar to his American and Indian American fans.
At an interactive evening at the Indian embassy here, hosted by India’s deputy chief of mission Raminder Singh Jassal, with slides of his life’s work, Das said the proposed centre would be the first in India to display both traditional and contemporary art in 14 permanent galleries under one roof.
The Orissa government has allotted an acre of land to the painter, who was born in Mayurbhanj. B.V. Doshi, the famous architect from Ahmedabad and associate of Le Corbusier, has designed the master plan for the ambitious centre.
The painter said he had been dreaming of the project for almost a decade and expected that it would cost Rs 50 crore to make it a reality.
“I have been funding the centre, which has a board and a small staff of six people, with money from my paintings. They are temporarily working out of a house in Bhubaneswar given by the state government,” Das told this correspondent.
But he plans to make international requests for funding and hopes Indian Americans will join in the effort.
When the centre is ready, Das will donate his entire collection of 45 years, including paintings, books and antiquities, to the new venture to be housed in one place.
Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer. (Tathya.in also has a similar report.)
The Centre has proposed to set up an Integrated Marketing Project for the development and promotion of handicrafts and handloom of Orissa with a special focus on Tribal and Fibre Crafts.
The project is proposed to be executed by Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) of Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH) and IL&FS. It will involve an investment of approximately Rs.100 crore.
In order to make it a reality, Executive Director of the Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts, Rakesh Kumar along with other senior officials called on Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at Orissa Bhawan in New Delhi on Saturday and apprised him about the project.
During the meeting, Patnaik said the State has a vast potential for development of Tribal Crafts, Tribal Jewellery, Dhokra Casting, Silver Filigree work and other metal work, Terracotta, Wood work, Appliqué work, horn work, golden grass work, Cane and Bamboo products.
Kumar informed the Chief Minister that the project will include various components like human resource development, design & product development, national & international marketing, setting up of a state of the art Crafts Complex at Bhubaneswar and Puri as well as setting up of showrooms abroad.
This is a very interesting set of training programs and presentations in traditional performance arts such as:
Following are excerpts from a report in newpostindia.com on this:
… Talking on the prospects of shopping tourism, Soni said initially the government had identified four places across India – Noida, Hyderabad, Aurangabad and Bhubaneswar – to develop as shopping tourism destinations.
‘This new concept of shopping tourism will help local artisans get a good market for selling their traditional artefacts. Subsequently, it will create tremendous amount of job opportunities in different rural pockets and will also promote the cultural heritage of our country. The union ministry is also looking at some other places, including West Bengal, to develop as shopping tourism destinations,’ she said. …
This PTI report in Hindu elaborates on one point.
Noida in Uttar Pradesh with world-class facilities, Shilpagram near Hyderabad, permanent art and crafts fair at Bhubaneswar and another at Aurangabad near Ajanta-Ellora in Maharashtra are the shopping tourism destinations coming up.
Pioneer reports on this. Following are some excerpts.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday inaugurated an Urban Haat near the Sun Temple here. He said the Haat would act as a bridge between the handicraft industry and the tourists in the State as it aims to facilitate sale of handicraft products. …
The Urban Haat has been built over an area of four acres of land by the Orissa Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) at a cost of Rs 2.67 crore. It consists of 40 shops, an open-air theatre hall and two exhibition halls.
It primarily aims at marketing handicrafts made of cane and bamboo, appliqués, patta chitra and wooden products.
Following is Dharitri’s report on this.
There have been several news items regarding the beauty of handicrafts made up of dried grass which becomes yellow and golden in color. Following are some excerpts on this from a report in New Kerala.
Dried grass, which becomes yellow and golden in colour, has been innovatively used by a group of Oriya women to craft attractive items of daily use.
The grass is made of Khus Khus stem. It is sturdy and can be bent to any shape to be turned into items of household use. It can also be crafted into decorative items. This has been the occupation of a group of Orissa’s Jajanga Village of Kendrapara District for the last ten years.
Nearly 80 per cent of the women in Jajanga village create various decorative items like flowers, baskets, wall-hangings, mats and pen-stands. All that each of them earn is about Rs.500 to 1,500 per month. …
The Golden grass items were introduced to Jajanga by Mahila Samiti committee headed by Swarna Prabha Swain. Today, it exists as a cottage industry here. …
At times they take five days to make an item. They take pride in their produce, and hope that the day is not far when their handicrafts are sold all over the country, or at least in all part of Orissa.
Perhaps the Orissa government can push this village to become an arts-n-crafts village like Raghurajpur and include it in a tourist circuit. In general, Orissa government should identify a few more craftsman villages where 80% of the houses are involved in some handicraft or some art-n-craft and develop amenities there and include them in tourist circuits. Besides the above mentioned village other candidates could be a village or villages in Baragarh district that weave Sambalpuri sarees and villages near Pipli. My knowledge of such villages is rudimentary, but we will keep our eyes open and report about them here.
Pragativadi reports that the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has taken two Orissa villages under the cluster village program. These villages are Jayapur in Koraput district and Erkana in Khorda district. Following is an excerpt from that report.
... under the programme, the Commission would encourage leather and industry in Jayapur while it would boost bamboo craft in Erkana village. Stating that the Commission is providing all support to the artisans of these two villages to enable them to further sharpen their skills in their profession, she said that efforts are being taken to provide high-end technical support to these artisans. She also said that the Commission has selected 534 rural entrepreneurs to set up small scale industries. Joshi also said that KVIC has already set up 4853 small scale units in Orissa under the National Rural Employment Generation Programme while it has insured 1220 rural entrepreneurs under Janashree Bima yojana in the state.
Several news reports mention that the Ministry of Tourism of India has been very impressed by the evolution of Raghurajpur village of Puri district as an arts village. There every house has become an art gallery. So impressed the ministry of tourism is with the village, it plans to replicate it in five other locations of the country. Following is an excerpt from Chennaionline.
What started as promotion of ‘pattachitra’ (painting on palm leaf) in Raghurajpur village in Puri district as part of rural tourism project five years ago culminated into transformation of the village into a vibrant centre of folk art.
In 2002, only about 6,000 tourists visited the place. In 2005, the tourist arrival figure went up to 34,000. The sale from the art and craft work went up from Rs 15 lakh to Rs 52 lakh during the same period.
Stone craft, pattachitra, palm leaf inscription, papier mache, sodhai work, mural painting, golden grass coir, screwpine leaf and wood work, filigree, applique, terra cotta and bell metal work greet visitors whose number is increasing every year.
“Every house in this village is an art gallery,” said a senior ministry official.
“The village has served us not just as a role model for generating employment through rural tourism but also as an inspiration for how to preserve folk art,” the official said.
Besides Raghurajpur, the other villages identified for setting up gurukul tradition of teaching art are Pochampalli in Nalgonda district in Andhra Pradesh, Hodka in Kachch district in Gujarat, Pranpur in Ashok Nagar district in Madhya Pradesh and Aranmula in Pathanamthitta district in Kerala.
© Copyright 2024 ___________. All rights reserved. | Editor's Home | Write | Categories | Log in
[ Sleepy Blue 1.0 of Eyoung as adapted by P.]
Subscribe in a reader
.jpg){kind=link}
