The first edition of GMR India Craft Week 2018 will be held in Delhi next month. The event will take place at GMR Aerocity in New Delhi from 1–5 December 2018.

Craft Village and GMR India have come together to organise the “world’s fourth and India’s 1st official craft week after London, Sydney & China”.

Craft Village is a social enterprise that works for the revival and upliftment of crafts and craftspersons, through various awareness programmes, workshops and events. Craft Village has been established to bridge the gap between rural & urban communities; the objective is to provide a platform for learning and sharing Rare & Exclusive Traditional Crafts, which finally helps in the upliftment of Craftsman and their communities. The initiative has been taken to educate children in their formative years to understand the importance of Crafts in nation building, livelihood, social inclusion & sustainable culture besides giving a major source of employability to millions of people.

These world crafts may have originated at different places, times or by different dynasty but they all look alike as if they belong to one culture, one tradition & one world. According to the organisers, “India Craft Week (ICW) is an endeavour for “One World, One Craft”, that transcends beyond boundaries to one destination New Delhi to bring timeless tradition.”

“India Craft Week is to help build aspirational quotient to Craft Forms, by bringing communities who value them. ICW would also help build new imagery of Crafts as Ethical, Sustainable and Slow. The efforts are to balances Tradition with Modernity,” said a statement issued by the organisers.

The week will showcase crafting trends from finest artisans, craft-preneurs, designers, brands, international crafts awardees, exhibition by award winning craftspersons, trend shows by craft dynasty, live demonstrations by Padma Shri and National Award winners, tributes to legends of the crafts sector, gallery/stalls by international award winners, luxury brands, cross-talk and knowledge seminars by industry leaders and celebrities, traditional/folk music and dance.

“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 are still predominant like Mela, Bazaar and Haats. 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 a new imagery for Craft Sector & Products,” says Iti Tyagi, the founder of India Craft Week.

She adds: “Such initiatives like India Craft Week is also of significance, as the next generation of Craftsperson/Artisan finds no livelihood as well as glamour in this industry, and hence an absence of both have been changing their profession to new areas. If we don’t act now, we will not be able to stop this migration resulting in the end of the rare & exclusive craft skills existing for generations and for thousands of years. We will lose an era.”

The ICW has been supported by Craft Beton by Dalmia Bharat, JW Marriott, Art Tree, and Pashmina.com who also have similar objectives in supporting and bringing on board the finest of rare & exclusive crafts.