Nov 07 2025 to Nov 30 2025 5 p.m.

Where

Courtyard Koota

Ground floor, Good Earth Tarana Good Earth Malhar, near Rajarajeswari medical college Kambipura, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560074

Event Description

CRAFT FORWARD
Exploring the potential of Craft.
A month long conversation.
 

Launch event on 7th November 5pm - 6pm - Open to All
Details of the Program

Traditional Craft is a powerful knowledge base, born from the deepest needs of society—for functionality, ritual, and a response to the local environment. However, in today's urban context, its relevance is diminished, leaving it as a mere artifact. How can we approach craft and study its wisdom as an active potential to imagine necessary new manifestations for the future?

This November at Courtyard Koota we bring you an exploration of Craft in collaboration with CraftCanvas.

Our exploration is prompted by three questions.

How can we use traditional craft knowledge to create new things instead of just copying old ones?
How do we use a craft responsibly ? How can we properly thank and credit the original makers? Who are the modern people working with crafts now?
How do we explain the deeper meaning and value of a craft to society? How can busy people experience a craft's value in their daily life, beyond just owning a piece of it?
This is our first of what we hope will be a series of explorations - Join us in this very exciting conversation.

We have been privileged to work with Nisha Vikram of CraftCanvas who has brought her passion, enthusiasm and expertise to the program.

A Note from our Curator  - Nisha Vikram
 

Craft Forward is a shift in perspective — seeing craft as potential.

Too often, craft is spoken of in the language of loss or nostalgia. In this month-long conversation and interaction, we see craft — and the craftspeople behind it — as equal collaborators in the modern design landscape. A painted scroll, or a leather puppet or a handwoven textile is not a relic of the past but a living, thinking form — one that continually adapts, innovates, and responds to new ideas, materials, and spaces.

Throughout November, Courtyard Koota transforms into a space of making, dialogue, and discovery.

Installations emerge from collaborations between designers and artisans.
Workshops invite children and adults to play, paint, and experiment with craft.
Talks with industry experts explore how craft intersects with design, technology, and contemporary practice.
Performances that bring together contemporary theatre and traditional craft practices.
Craft Forward is not about rescue or revival, but about relevance and resonance — a celebration of how craft continues to spark imagination, innovation, and a shared sense of community.

About Nisha Vikram

Nisha Vikram is the founder of CraftCanvas, a design collective that bridges artisan traditions and contemporary design. An engineer by training, she left a corporate career over fifteen years ago to work with craftspeople across India. Since then, she has collaborated with more than thirty craft clusters, translating age-old techniques into contemporary expressions for clients such as Hermès, the Taj and Oberoi hotels, the Prime Minister’s Office, and several award-winning architecture studios.

Nisha has taught at CEPT University and the National Institute of Design and has led artisan-training programs with CEPT and the Development Commissioner (Handicrafts). Her work blends design, research, and collaboration to keep crafts relevant in modern contexts.

She believes that craft is a living organism with the ability to adapt to any milieu and stay relevant to changing times.

About CraftCanvas

CraftCanvas is a design studio that collaborates with craftspeople across India to create large-scale murals and installations for luxury, hospitality, and cultural spaces. Working with more than thirty artisan clusters across India, CraftCanvas transforms traditional crafts into contemporary, site-specific works.

At CraftCanvas, artisans are not producers but co-creators, integral to the design process. Each project begins with deep research, evolves through collaboration, and results in timeless handmade work that feels both rooted and relevant.

CraftCanvas envisions a world of crafts—everyday, everywhere.

The Program:
 

LAUNCH EVENT
7th November | 5pm - 6pm  :  Curated walk with Nisha Vikram (open to all)

WORKSHOPS 

8th and 9th November | 11am - 1 pm : Beautiful Bizarre 
Mask making with Sunayana Guhesh and Cheriyal Painting Artisans
15th November | 10 am - 1pm : Becoming Pattachitra
Basics of Pattachitra with Rohit Bhasi & Layala Chitrakar.
TALKS 

8th November | 6pm - 7 pm : Varnam Craft Collective
A conversation with founder Karthik Vaidyanathan 
15th November | 6pm - 7pm : Folk Indica
Narrating Native Land and Legacy by Sudarshan Shaw.
23rd November | 10.30am - 12pm : Craft in Animation
Aditya Vipparthi & Fahad Faizal from Plankton Collective. 
ARTIST COLLABORATION 

9th November | 6pm - 7pm : Cheriyal Masks Reimagined
Cheriyal Mask Artisans in collaboration with Sarah Thomas & Shweta Pai.
Exhibition and Talk. 
16th November | 6pm - 7pm : Pattachitra Reimagined
Pattachitra Artisans in collaboration with Rohit Bhasi.
Exhibition and Talk. 
30th November | 6.30pm - 8pm : Can you beleive it?!
A Play By Sachin Ravindran & the Tholu Bommalata Artisans. 
EXHIBITION AND INTERACTIONS

7th - 30th November | 11 am - 6pm : Craft Forward Exhibition. (Monday Closed)
29th - 30th November | 11 am - 6pm : Puppetry Corner
Explore the World of Nimmalakunta Shadow Puppetry.
Library event - Every Wednesday in November | 4pm - 5pm : Children led crafts sessions - for ages 6-12