CHENNAI: After agriculture, the handloom and handicraft industry employing over seven million artisans is the largest income provider. But how conducive is the environment today for them to have a sustainable livelihood? What can we do to promote traditional craftsmanship? How do we make these tangible manifestations of intangible cultural heritage more accessible to people? These are but a few questions that were answered in a threepart heritage series hosted by DakshinaChitra and Nam Veedu Nam Oor Nam Kadhai.
“There’s plenty of heritage available, but how much of it is accessible to people? We need a reliable platform for people to access these resources. It’s pertinent to understand a few aspects of heritage before we get into the process and that’s what the lecture series hopes to achieve,” says Lakshmi Thiyagarajan, senior education coordinator of DakshinaChitra. The second lecture on art and artisans particularly threw light on how one can as an individual, community, organisation or institution approach artisans with sensitivity and ethical pursuit to contribute to their body of work.
Here’s where architect Thirupurasundari Sevvel touches upon the basic guidelines for collaborating with artisans. “The first step is to identify your goal and how you want to help an artisan. Acknowledging and appreciating their work is important. We need to understand that it’s not a favour we’re doing for them. It’s the respect we are giving them for their expertise,” she explains. Artisans and their ecosystem play an essential role in achieving long-term socio-economic benefits crucial to sustainable development.
But, for a long time, they have been struggling to survive in the unorganised work sector with lack of education, low capital, poor exposure to new technologies, absence of market intelligence and a poor institutional framework. The pandemic and its ripple effect has only worsened their plight with exhibitions getting cancelled and orders put on hold. This is also a reason why Thirupurasundari feels that now is the best time to lend them a helping hand.
In these changing times, we need to uplift the artisans rather than exploiting them for their talent, she suggests. “Artisans have been subjected to manipulation for a long time now. In the name of collaboration, trade secrets are learnt from them and replicated. That’s completely unfair and that’s the reason artisans have become tight-lipped about their crafting techniques. For people who truly want to work with artisans, it’s important to show their face and share their name. They deserve the visibility and validity after so many years of hard work,” she points out.
Given the competitive market, we must look for ways to include and recognise them. “Artisanship is expensive, timeconsuming and involves labourintensive work. So keep these factors in mind before bargaining with them. Try to engage with artisans at workshops, exhibitions and museums. There are many institutions ethically working with artisans and promoting their products.
By training artisans in social media marketing, photography and innovative ways of presenting their products, we can establish a direct connection between them and consumers. It’s in our hands to ensure we don’t lose this artisanal heritage. And, for that, it’s key to understand the art and artisans,” she sums up.