Collecting to Promoting - The journey
What it took Sundeep Bhandari, founder-trustee of Craft & Community Development Foundation, to create a platform for an overlooked community.
Sundeep Bhandari, founder-trustee of Craft and Community Development Foundation, in front of a Gond Painting
Finding pieces that speak to his heart, Sundeep Bhandari, the founder-trustee for Craft & Community Development Foundation, has been collecting art for as long as he can remember. While his art collection has names akin to S. H. Raza & M. F. Hussain, his collection also has some of the most beautiful tribal and folk artworks by artisans only a handful of people would be aware of. Through CCDF and its current initiative, The Gondwana Art Project, Sundeep and his team have been trying to take the tribal & folk arts sector and put it up to a spot where it not only gets more exposure but also marks itself as an important part of the Indian art market.
In this interview, Sundeep talks to the audience of CCDF on its formation, his early days’ researching, forming and selecting artisans to work with, his ideas for The Gondwana Art Project, its exhibitions and the upcoming future of tribal and folk arts in India.
On his professional journey leading up to becoming a founder-trustee for CCDF
For the past two decades of my professional life, I have been involved in the energy business working with several multinational petroleum companies, on projects in several different countries. Having been quite passionate about art and crafts from a very early age, visiting museums globally during my travels was inevitable. Art has always been fascinating but unaffordable to me during my early professional journey. But, eventually, as I could start to afford to buy art, I started with (as most collectors do) buying some of the Indian Masters, then gradually adding more to build my current collection. Today, I am glad to have acquired something that I enjoy every bit of. During the process of collecting art, I have visited many artist studios and have enjoyed seeing the process of developing a painting. It fascinated me to a point that in recent years I decided to take some time off and start painting as a way of relaxation. I can spend hours on a canvas, fully immersed in creating a painting, even though I have just been a hobby painter. I paint whenever I get the time and so every painting takes me a few weeks and up to several months to complete. As I started getting more and more involved in the arts fraternity, there were several artists, I could see, who were inspired by Indian folk arts or Indian culture, and that is what got me to start looking at the fantastic art forms we have as traditions in rural India. I decided to set up a not for profit foundation, named it the Crafts and Community Development Foundation, and funded it myself initially. We worked on a few different art & craft forms, to begin with, and finally, focus on the three major tribal and folk art forms Gond, Bhil and Warli.
On the creation of this initiative
When we look at African tribal art or Aboriginal art from Australia, we notice these art forms have a global market and are being sold for thousands of dollars. While the Indian tribal and folk arts, even with a much richer cultural history as well as visual appeal, have a very limited market value at a much lower pricing structure. We go to these craft bazaars and craft melas and unfortunately see these artisans become factory workers, producing the same thing over and over again and selling them at cheap prices, continuing with their struggle. Looking at the talent of these tribal artisans and the rich culture of the folk arts, I decided on helping mentor these artisans to start developing artworks that will have a more contemporary look and a global appeal. The artisans under this initiative are mentored on new design concepts, colour palettes, and convinced that they should not copy either their own works or someone else’s. Each artwork they develop with the help of CCDF designers should be unique, contemporary and yet an authentic piece of tribal or folk artwork. Having said all of that, I must admit that in the process, we have found that there are so many different art forms and so much talent available in this sector, and all of it has been largely neglected.
On working with artisans to upskill them
If you look at any of our cultural folk or tribal art, each one of them has got some kind of story behind it and that's the fascinating thing about these art forms. However, because artisans make copies of their own artworks and sell them at a bargain price (almost like products) at melas and bazaars, while there is a low-end market for volumes, it does not encourage artistic talent. Furthermore, there is fatigue amongst the buyers as they see the same thing over and over again in the form of these artworks. This made us realise that for the folk arts sector to reach the level that we were hoping for, we would need to upskill the artisans, help in skilling their talent further through new design concepts, colour palette as well as a more contemporary look to their art.
So, through this foundation, we are aiming at helping the artisans create an artwork that involves narrating a story but is different every time while maintaining its uniqueness and authenticity and keeping the modern taste in mind.
On the experience of the process of founding CCDF and working with the artisans
As a supporter of artisans, I think the sheer talent that exists in this country just amazes me. India has so many folk and tribal artisans who are practising their art forms through generations, but in recent times are moving away from it due to the lack of fair markets and low demand for copied art, which has all started to look similar. This has been happening to the arts and crafts sector despite the prevalent talent. My wife, who is also in the arts and crafts sector, is a professor at NIFT and has authored several books on Indian textiles and crafts, so we share a lot of research on arts and crafts. I remember once when researching for one of her books she went to interview an artisan and I went along with her - this guy working on a fabulous gold leaf print on textiles belonging to a family of artisans who excelled in such an artform, mentioned, only (surprisingly) a handful of families practice that particular artform in India now. This is only because the craft is poorly represented while paying very meagerly leading up to the artisans leaving their craft and taking up jobs because practising their arts alone is not enough for a stable livelihood. There are not enough people supporting it, and they do not have the avenues to put their art out to the world. Just the sheer talent that is available and the number of art forms that we have in India is fascinating and I think everybody needs to contribute to sort of put it out there. It is important to contribute enough resources to help the arts and crafts sector, the government is doing its bit, and I think the private sector needs to do its bit as well.
On CCDF’s effort in alleviating the plight that continues to remain in the under-supported tribal & folk arts sector
With our initiative, we are not only hoping to provide a sustainable and continuous livelihood for the artisans but also during the process hope that the art collectors will start looking at the folk and tribal arts of India as an important part of the entire art collection that they have. There have only been a handful of folk & tribal artists who become famous but there is so much more talent that is available here. Right now, tribal art pricing is extremely low and I do hope that it will pick up in the near future as it is determined by the market. Any contemporary painter, even a very early stage painter, expects (and gets) prices much higher than some of the best tribal art painters. As a not for profit organisation, CCDF is making efforts to create good quality artworks that not only attract people but also lead up making enough returns on it so we can continue to support the project.
On the process of selecting artisans for the Project
Initially, we started with ‘how do you reach out to these artists?’ Fortunately for us, the government has done a fantastic job of collating the names and details of the majority of these artisans under the Tribes of India, where we were able to obtain details of some artisans from different states practising different kinds of tribal & folk arts. To start with, we had a list of about 100-150 artisans for the artforms that we decided to focus on. We had to build criteria to shortlist them because there was no way we could work with so many artisans - which, for us, was very straightforward – their current livelihood status, talent, and willingness to learn and adapt new design techniques. With these criteria in mind, we shortlisted about 20 odd artists, called all of them to our office in Delhi to meet us face to face, build their confidence in the fact that this was not a one-off thing, that we were talking about a six-month or a one-year-long project wherein we would ensure their livelihood with a commitment from both sides. We got a tremendous response, as each one of the shortlisted artists agreed to join the project. The project was titled The Gondwana Art Project, as the artforms that we have decided to focus on were from the central part of India which is geologically known as the Gondwana region. The artisans have always been extremely thankful for The Gondwana Art Project given, we have been able to provide them with a livelihood right through the pandemic shut down periods, while constantly upskilling them with inputs in all regards for each of the artworks developed.
On how The Gondwana Art Project has been working to smoothen the challenges the artisans are facing in day-to-day sourcing and order delivery since the pandemic
During the pandemic, the tribal and folk artisans have had very little to no support from the government. The traditional markets, all the bazaars and melas were shut down given that they are all physical markets, there were very few avenues for the artisans to sell their art, so The Gondwana Art Project was a welcome relief for the artisans as our approach to them was, 'do not worry about your livelihood, just keep developing good artworks and we will keep paying you a stipend while skilling you in the process.' We put on some good designers along with them, some young designers from NIFT, NID etc, and got them to give the artisans new ideas, new concepts, building on the folklore, the stories, the culture, their festivals, the art they create on all sorts of customs trying to build on those narratives and create something new.
On the idea that a designer was needed for the upskilling of the artisans
One of the very first decisions we had taken even before we started working on getting the artisans on board was the upskilling of the artisans. And given that would require inputs on new design concepts and better use of colour palette, bringing in designers was our motivation. We have artists and designers approach us wanting to volunteer for the project. Our designers Anmol and Janvi helped to upskill the artisans and coordinate the artworks by hand holding the artisans at every step of the development of the artwork till the finish. The artisans live in remote villages, are not very tech-savvy, some of them are educated but not all, and a lot of the artists are women, essentially housewives or co-farmers with their husbands in their villages. So the initial challenge was - 'How do you communicate with these people?' We started teaching them how to start using smartphones and digital technology, sending images of all their sketches to the designers, which then the designer corrected and also sent them colour palettes for the artwork, new design concepts etc! So it has been a wonderful journey and I am so glad that today each one of the artists is very savvy with smartphones and all the communications, as well as an exchange of images and concepts, happen digitally. Since everything is remote, we do not even need to meet these artists physically and they work from their own homes faraway in villages in Madhya Pradesh or Maharashtra or Jharkhand and all of them coordinate with our office in Delhi or the CCDF designers' workplaces/homes.
On where The Gondwana Art Project stands with the larger Indian art ecosystem, expectations of its reach in the long run and international expansion
I think what is important is that through The Gondwana Art Project, we are trying to take the tribal and folk arts sector and put it up where it gets not only more exposure but also is an important part of the Indian art market. Initially, when we started, we wanted to do an exhibition at the India Art Fair so in January of 2020 we conducted an exhibition at Le Meridien hotel in Delhi in conjunction with the India Art Fair. Suffice to say, it was a great success with almost 60% of the artworks being sold. This was a fantastic encouragement and great support from the Indian art ecosystem because everything that CCDF gets from its sales goes back into the project and helps us extend to more art forms and more artisans. We already have many interested buyers overseas and have had good support from people working in the embassies as well. Our Instagram handle has attracted a lot of attention and is today one of the most followed Instagram handles for Indian tribal arts. I do not doubt that there will be a huge global market for this art and CCDF will plan several international exhibitions to showcase the artforms and the tremendous talent that exists for these traditional arts in India.
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