Crafting Indian Scripts

Jaya Jaitly studied in Japan, Burma, Belgium, UK and India. She graduated from Smith College, USA.

She has an intimate knowledge of the craft traditions of the country having worked in the field for over 40 years. She is considered a leader and expert in this field.

She founded a platform called the Dastkari Haat Samiti, which enables traditional craft practitioners to gain confidence in the marketplace through innovative strategies. She guides crafts people in design, organization and marketing all over India and abroad. She is the creator of Dilli Haat, a popular crafts marketplace in Delhi. Her work in bringing together crafts people of India and other countries has helped share skills and capacity building.

She was in mainstream politics for 25 years. She is a prolific writer and has published books on the Crafts of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh, the Craft Traditions of India, Viswakarma's Children, a socio-economic study of crafts people, and Crafting Nature. She has created a vast documentation of the arts, crafts and textiles of India compiled in a major publication called Crafts Atlas of India. She edits and publishes a monthly political journal, The Other Side.

Subrata Bhowmick is a graduate student of India's premier design school The National Institute of Design, Ahmadabad. Later he studied in Europe and Japan.

He is perhaps Indian's most lauded designer with over 60 prestigious national and international Awards.

He has served as Design Director of Calico Museum of Textiles and the Calico Design Center; Design Editor of Marg; Advisor, Arvind Mills; Creative Director, Mudra Communications; Director, Kanoria Center for Arts.

He is an Honorary Member of the World Graphic Biennale Czech Republic; Member of International Biennale Coordination Committee (IBCC) Ambassador to the International Trademark centre Belgium; one of the Designers of the United Nations Climate Change Communication Project. He has also presented insights on Indian design internationally in the Czech Republic, USA, Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Ukraine, Moscow, China and Laos in 2011.

It was rare honor when the Brno Biennale association hosted a solo show of his work (posters and calendars) - the first ever for an Indian designer. He also visited China in 2010 as an International jury member and lecturer at four premier design universities.

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