New Delhi: As reported by The Indian Express on August 29, Jaya Jaitly, president-founder of Dastkari Haat Samiti, who brought these artisans together for the project, had written to Birla on August 27.
Days after 400-odd artisans, who created a set of installations for one of the galleries in the new Parliament building, sought his intervention to view their works on display, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Friday invited them to take a guided tour of the Parliament.
As reported by The Indian Express on August 29, Jaya Jaitly, president-founder of Dastkari Haat Samiti, who brought these artisans together for the project, had written to Birla on August 27 seeking permission for them to be allowed inside the gallery, in small groups if needed, when the House is not in session. She also also suggested guided tours be arranged for the public.
“We have received a call from the Speaker’s office to give the names of the artisans who have worked on the project and organise their visit to the Parliament,” Jaitly said on Friday. She said her organisation would now get in touch with all the 400-odd artisans to come to Delhi for the visit and that the names of those who confirm their presence will be passed on to the Speaker’s office.
Shilp Gallery in the new Parliament building has eight installations by these craftspeople. For the gallery, artisans specialising in diverse craft traditions were roped in from across the country — from Srinagar to Aligarh, Kutch to East Midnapore — to create the installations under themes assigned by the Ministry of Culture like gyan (knowledge), prakriti (nature), aastha (faith), ullas (happiness), parv (celebration), swavlamban (self-reliance) and yatra (journey).
From using traditional forms of storytelling like the kavad to showcase the country’s festivals, or calligraphy to present the different scripts of India through poems and shlokas, the gallery is a rich layering of India’s numerous crafts.
