Saddi Dilli’s famous Crafts Museum is situated on the Bhairon Road at Pragati Maidan facing the Purana Qila Complex, the museum offers a refreshing change from the hectic metropolitan life of Dilli. The Crafts Museum takes you through the rural surroundings that have been painstakingly created to imitate typical Indian villages, with craftsmen sitting outside the museum and displaying their skills. Also known as the National Handicrafts and Handlooms Museum, the Crafts Museum Dilli, is a huge complex that houses a range of traditional and creative crafts that ranges from terracotta horses to handmade jewelry from different ethnic groups and states in the country.
Some of the crafts that are on display at the museum are pottery, wood carvings, metal-ware crafting, image and toys sculpturing among other things. The museum also displays folk paintings, tribal textiles along with handmade jewelry from ethnic groups from Bihar, West Bengal, and Madhya Pradesh among other states. Managed by the Government of India under the expert supervision of the Ministry of Textiles, the Crafts Museum with its beautiful setting, which has been designed by a renowned architect named Charles Correa, is an exact replica of a typical Indian village.
Huts made of mud and haystacks, hay roofs that have been made in an untidy manner, pathways that have been created using mud and covered with sand are some of the scenes that greet a visitor when they enter the Crafts Museum. Various craftsmen sitting under these huts showcasing their skills and art work, which are on display and for sale as well further characterizes the very essence of a village life. The rural ambience and the peaceful environs of the museum are both relaxing and rejuvenating at the same time to the museum visitors.
The Crafts Museum was built in 1956 post independence when the country felt the need to keep its rich but fading art and craft work by launching projects to develop and show these beautiful pieces of work. It was then the government created a platform like Crafts Museum, which exhibited a collection of crafts that was put together by the craftsmen between the 1950s and the 1960s. Since then the museum has grown steadily to its present size and area space.
The museum, which has been divided into five different galleries namely Bhuta Sculpture Gallery, Tribal & Folk Art, Ritual Craft Gallery, Courtly Craft Gallery and Textile Gallery, today, boasts of a huge collection of tribal and rural textiles and crafts 300years old un, all under one roof thus making Crafts Museum an ideal crafts destination for researchers, designers, students and craftsmen. In addition, the museum also features a Village Complex that was built in 1972 and is spread over an area of five acres.
The main aim of this complex was to show and recreate the theme of ‘Rural India’ and has 15 architectural structures depicting villages complete with courtyards and temples from all over the country.
The Crafts Museum also houses a Research and Documentation centre that has a collection of more than ten thousand books ranging on topics like Indian Crafts, Arts and Textile Industry, History all under one library, which is open to all for reference and reading. The Crafts Museum also has a gift shop from where one can buy some nice gift items, this shop sells authentic souvenirs and handicrafts that have been made by the skilled craftsmen of the country. The Crafts Museum celebrates various art related events and festivals that tells visitors everything they want to know about that particular art form.
Timings:
July to September : 0930 a.m. – 5 p.m.
October to June : 0930 a.m. to 0600 p.m.
Closed on:
Mondays and National Holidays.
Leave a Reply