VirtuArte.com

Too many times we get bogged down in the minutiae of our daily lives, trying to get things done and thinking about all the things that are not going the way we want them to go, we forget why we took the job or started the project. Over the past few weeks I had been so focused on getting ready for the Meet the Artist Event with Carol Cassidy, thinking about what I was going to blog about, making sure I tweeted and obsessing about the things that are not going right I was losing sight of why I had started VirtuArte. Then I was reminded.

Late last week I received a telephone call from a woman named Judy Frater from Kala Raksha, an organization that works with a co-op of artisans in India. She had seen my website, was going to be in Washington and wondered if we could meet so she could show me some of the products made by the artisans she works with. As I am always looking for new artists/artisans and products, we set up a date and time to meet. When I hung up the phone I immediately said to myself this is the reason I started the business.

Judy Frater is the Project Director Kala Raksha Vidhyalaya, a design school for working traditional artisans which is part of the Kala Raksha Trust in Bhuj, Kutch, India. She was born in the US and holds a Masters degree from the University of Washington and the University of Minnesota. Between 1989 and 1992 she was Assistant and then Associate Curator of Eastern Hemisphere Collections at the Textile Museum here in Washington, DC. In 1992 she went to India on a Fulbright Scholorship to study textiles and decided to stay.

The Kala Raksha Trust is a greassroots social enterprise that started as a project in 1991 and focused on a group of embroiderers in Sumrasar Sheikh, a village 25 km north of Bhuj. It became a trust in 1993 and now works with nearly 1000 embroidery artisans of seven ethnic communities. Kala Raksha means "art preservation" and the Trust aims to preserve traditional arts of the region by making them culturally and economicially viable.

The Trust encourages community members to work together toward the goal of self sufficiency. Generating income through their traditional craft enables community members to realize their strengths and maintain their identity as they improve their economic well being. Income generation, preventive health care, basic education, and group savings are all part of a comprehensive development program delivered by Kala Raksha. To further the goal of self sufficiency, Kala Raksha is embarking on a decentralization of their operations and, within three years, would like to have a federation of autonomous producer groups working together as Kala Raksha.

The finest handwork of Kutch is the hallmark of Kala Raksha products. The artisans begin with traditional embroidery styles and then are encouraged to innovate within those traditions. For the artisans, the process of designing and producing is as important as the product itself. Each piece is one woman's personal creative expression. Judy showed me beautiful handbags, games, dupattas, shawls and belts.

I also found out Judy, on behalf of Kala Raksha, will be submitting an application for the 2010 Santa Fe International Folk Art Market. If accepted, we discussed the possibility of doing a Meet the Artist event with the artisans of Kala Raksha here in Washington before they go to Santa Fe. An order was placed with Judy and in the coming months products from Kala Raksha will be on the website. To find out more about Kala Raksha go to www.kala-raksha.org

Sign-up to be on the VirtuArte mailing list to be alerted when the products arrive and to stay up to date on Kala Raksha's application to the Folk Art Market.