Displaying creative ingenuity and technical mastery, craft traditions in the Indian subcontinent have been central to the region’s artistic, cultural and socio-economic life. When approached as a skill, tool or concept, craft can also enable thoughtful considerations around processes, makers, materials and objects. Our thematic lessons present the legacies of craft in South Asia through key movements, thinkers, and makers of the later nineteenth century and twentieth centuries, shedding light on how it is more than a static object or body of knowledge, but a tradition in constant evolution.
Through this course, you will:
- Develop an understanding of the inventive ways in which craft objects have been made.
- Build awareness of material culture and the contexts that shape craft practices.
- Become familiar with concepts like national identity, class construction, or consumption, and historical developments such as the Art and Crafts movements in Europe and Asia, and the Swadeshi movement, which impacted traditions of making in the subcontinent.
- Gain perspective on artisans, and how they are recognised in the larger society.
- Cultivate a wider appreciation for both human-made and machine-made objects.
Who wrote the Course?
This course has been developed in collaboration with the Art, Resources & Teaching Trust, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, run by art historians Dr Annapurna Garimella and Sindhura D. Manjunath who are also its authors.
Who is this Course for?
Written for students aged 16 years and older, this course is for anyone interested in learning, thinking and understanding the history of craft practices in South Asia.
