Arts of different kinds, over centuries have risen to their pinnacle and fallen. Some lost forever to time. Subtle changes in culture and shifts in peoples interest decided the fate of many an art.

The Craft Katha, an initiative to revive almost disappearing arts, by getting artists to innovate to compete with other contemporary art and cope up in the digital era.

In the last three score years, industrialisation and rapid shifts in culture have driven our lives to a break neck speed, the pace picking up each passing calendar year. The last twenty, especially have been a whirlwind of changes. The fast paced lives we chose left no room for the appreciation of the slow but sure movement of a Tholubommalata artist’s brush drawing impeccable lines on leather or an unhurried but practiced hand of a Kalamkari artist hold a chisel to wood to give it a new incarnation, or the time-consuming art of crocheting where the nimble hands of women weave cotton threads into intricately woven lace, making each item being a piece of art.

Most art disappears slowly, it’s absence barely noticeable, not being able to withstand change or not being able to change with the times. Artists are lost in the art and tend to ignore the pace at which the world around them moves or even if aware, are seldom able to integrate with the times. The Craft Katha plays an integral part in identifying arts that need a helping hand with innovation to catch up with the times. Helping to transform artists and their art to change so they are viable in today’s world.

The Craft Katha strives to be both a bridge between the times and one between cultures. Taking art that was almost obsolete and giving it a more contemporary form that fits in with the times.

Sudha Mallena

Founder