NATIONAL CRAFTS MUSEUM AND HASTKALA ACADEMY

A visit to the National Crafts Museum in Delhi is enough to amaze its visitors about the diversity and multiplicity of the handicraft culture of India. Established with an aim to preserve, protect, and revive the tradition of local handicrafts, the Crafts Museum in Delhi showcases textiles from several different states of the country along with other antique and local products.

About the Museum

Celebrate the rich diversity and the practicing craft traditions of India with the National Handicrafts and Handlooms Museum, popularly known as the National Crafts Museum and Hastkala Academy. Located in the vast campus of the famous Pragati Maidan, the Crafts Museum was designed by the well-known architect Charles Correa and presently houses a rich collection of 33,000 specimens in several crafts that have been acquired over a period of more than 60 years from numerous states of the country. Among the famous galleries housed in the museum, the galleries that attract the most attention include Bhuta Sculpture Gallery, Tribal and Rural Craft Gallery, Gallery of Courtly Crafts, Textile Gallery, Gallery of Popular Culture, etc. The diverse collection of crafts in the museum depicts the ongoing traditions of handicrafts and handlooms of India.

The collectibles in the museum comprise a multitude of traditional artifacts such as textiles, wide-ranging metal lamps, sculptures, urn ware, etc., woodworks, folk/tribal paintings, a range of cane and bamboo crafts, clay, and terracotta items, and much more. The museum has an impressive collection of textiles which includes kalamkaris, jamawars, pashmina, and shahtoosh shawls, embroidered fabrics especially kanthas, chikankari work, bandhani fabrics, baluchar jamdani sarees, phulkaris, Ikat fabrics of Orissa, block print textiles of Gujarat, Chambarumals, himru textiles of Maharashtra, Naga shawls, chanderi sarees, and several other tribal textiles of Lambadi, Toda, and Naga tribes from Northeast India.

Apart from the fascinating galleries, the museum also has a mini model of a village that is spread over in 5 acres of land which showcases the actual general exhibits portraying the life of people in rural India. Other collections in the museum which ask for attention include jewelry and valuables, metal objects, matting and weaving, textile products, and other antique stuff. After exploring the museum, visitors can also take some rest and eat delicious Indian cuisines at the Café Lota inside the premises of the museum to quench their hunger.