What’s in a story?
“How the Craft & Community Development Foundation is helping tribal artists weave their own narratives.”
Throughout history, storytelling has remained one of the most defining human characteristics that we rely on. It is by way of stories after all, that we have been able to build the identities of entire nations, families, causes, and even ourselves. It is the way of our world, and our world’s very way of existence. But for anything to survive, it needs to be cared for. As identities increasingly need to be preserved, and heritage faithfully passed down, it is our stories that we must thoughtfully consider. Like seeds that need to be regularly resown for the vibrant blossoming of any culture, our stories not only need to be retold, but reheard and re-celebrated in new contexts – a task most fervently undertaken by the Crafts and Community Development Foundation (CCDF) in India.
Committed to weaving the indigenous stories of India into the more globalized, modern fabric of the country today, CCDF, founded by Sundeep Bhandari, resolutely works to champion and revitalize its tribal & folk-art communities. These rich visual traditions and legacies that are bequeathed from one generation to the next, carry the very flavour of our earth more so than any other form. Capturing the homegrown beliefs and values of traditional communities, it is tribal and folk-art that rhythmically beat as the heart of a land. These are stories that not only form the foundation of India’s cultural heritage but continue to contribute diverse perspectives as they depict their evolving experiences.
By funding projects and residency programs that support the livelihoods of artisan communities, CCDF seeks to foster a new generation of tribal art, one that is authentically rooted in tradition yet in meaningful dialogue with contemporary cultural systems. Through the ongoing Gondwana Art Project, the organization celebrates the creativity and craftsmanship of the tribal art forms of Gond, Warli, Pattachitra, and Bhil art, which emerge from the Gondwana Region in Central India. As a part of this program, CCDF provides funding and close mentorship with designers to introduce local artisans to new markets, opportunities to present their work, and contemporary collaborations. Despite periods of complete lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the organization remains unwearied and continues to ensure their artisans’ manners of sustained livelihood by equipping them with additional digital tools to adapt their ways of creating and collaborating remotely. With no signs of slowing down any time soon, CCDF has already put plans in place to further foster creative empowerment and cross-cultural exchange between international artists and local artisans.
By providing these artisans with the space to experiment and develop their own unique voices, CCDF unleashes the otherwise overlooked creative potential of Indian artisans upon the world and expands the pool of our nation’s storytellers. Groundbreaking in every sense of the word, CCDF’s efforts are rooted in fierce accessibility, broadening the scope of not only those who tell our stories but those who hear these stories as well.
I never thought that I would learn about my cultural heritage through Instagram, but that’s exactly where CCDF’s strength lies – in meeting the contemporary world where it is and bringing to life lineages of heritage stories. With simplicity and ingenuity, CCDF demonstrates how traditional craft can be uplifted through modern modes of connection and spurs within us the realization that what existed in the past doesn’t end with the past but can evolve and thrive within the present.
And so, let us write our own collective story. A story of love, pride, and celebration, to support our own, make space for our own, and to exercise our inherent capacity for compassion and appreciation that I know is far greater than we think.