India Craft Week
India Craft Week (ICW) is an annual event held in New Delhi to bring the finest craftsmanship that binds art, design, and culture. The idea is to promote the tradition of crafts and showcase the finest artisans, craft-preneurs, designers, brands, International crafts awardees, an exhibition by an award-winning craftsperson, trend shows by craft dynasty, live demonstrations by Padma Shri & National Award Winners, galleries by International award winners, luxury brands & craft-preneurs, and knowledge seminars by industry leaders and celebrities, folk music and dance and so on.
It is an opportunity to sneak peek into evolving trends of home-grown products, textiles, furniture, home & interiors, lifestyle products, decorative art, and communication (narratives) encompassing regional and folk styles, composition, utility, material culture & narratives from across India.
Iti Tyagi, founder, India Craft Week said “Crafts has always been perceived mediocre in India, though world over hand-crafted and hand-made has found a great demand. The formats of yesteryears like mela, bazaar, haat are still predominant. However, the consumer generation world over has changed and is looking for more aspirational and well-branded products, and therefore there is enough opportunity to build or re-invent new imagery for the craft sector. Such initiatives like India Craft Week is of significance.”
Across the recently concluded digital preview and the previous on-ground chapters in New Delhi and London, India Craft Week garnered support from World Craft Council (WCC-APR), GMR Group, The British Council (India), and The Nehru Centre (London).
India Craft Week will be celebrated in December 2024.
Why celebrate Indian Craft
India has been known as a land of Crafts and Craftsmen. An ancient chronicler of centuries gone by writes: ‘One finds long-established industries of the Indian peninsula asserting their excellence in a manner at once characteristic and extraordinary. The same skill is seen in metals, ivory carving, pottery, mosaics, shawls, muslins. carpets and excellence attained by these ingenious communities ages and ages ago, and still practicing them.’ Traditional Craftsmanship in our country has meant far more than skill with materials, more than manual dexterity in manipulating tools. It has meant a total operation involving tile emotions, mind, body, and the vibrant rhythm that such co-ordination generates.
Craftsmanship has always been a basic activity in human society. In fact, it is considered more cohesive and permeating in human relationships than even language, for it can penetrate the normal barriers to communication. Particularly has this been true of the older societies such as those in Asia, South and Central America, Africa where certain aspects of the ancient handed-down cultures still continue to produce powerful impressions that are almost ageless.
The most primitive people began to ornament their articles of everyday use, later weapons, then their garments and their own person and surroundings. The rough and severe walls of their huts became canvasses on which blossomed pictures. A death-dealing but very strategic item like the bow and arrow became embellished with decorations, water pots took pleasing shapes and alluring designs were invented for mundane kitchen pans, coverings, and trappings for animals, the ornamentation of even ordinary carts.
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The seasonal observances through festivals were a sign of their awareness of the wonder of nature’s transformation and to transcend the petty routines of everyday life. It’s the beginning of a trickle-up trend emerging from rural India, true and authentic Indian sensibilities that have inspired generations of artists, designers, creative professionals, and individuals. To keep the tradition alive and to bring together discerning consumers to discover and engage this Indian Craft Week sets a perfect platform.
India Craft Week is a stage for you to engage in business with India’s Master Craftsmen, Artisans & Makers, and top luxury brands dedicated to creating world-class handmade products of craft and heritage. In 2020 the Covid-19 has affected every sector globally and it’s our responsibility to sustain the craft sector to the best of their ability. In 2020 there was a Digital preview of the Craft week inaugurated to promote crafts and designs. “The pandemic has affected the livelihoods of millions of artisans. Holding such events is one way to prevent the craft sector from a collapse,” said Dr. Qaddumi President of the World Crafts Council, Asia Pacific Region.
