Established in 2016, Chanakya School of Craft is a first of its kind.
The non-profit school and foundation is dedicated to craft, culture
and creating new autonomy for women.
Established in 2016, Chanakya School of Craft is a first of its kind. The non-profit school and foundation is dedicated to craft, culture and creating new autonomy for women. The goal for the school, is to create a platform of multi-dimensional learning, focused on the arts and crafts while providing equal opportunity to an often ignored backbone of our communities: women. The school teaches over 300 hand embroidery techniques through a holistic curriculum anchored through the voices and lives of historical female figures.
Cultural sustainability is at the core of everything they do — acknowledging that culture is embedded in craft, working towards preserving it and transferring this knowledge to keep it alive for our future generations.
This means dealing with interdependent social, cultural, ecological systems. It also means considering fashion from the perspective of many stakeholders users and producers, all living species, contemporary and future generations of our planet.
While some choose to start their own business, many find employment within the Chanakya Ateliers and creatively collaborate with the master-artisans.
The graduated women of the school pursue projects across wide disciplines, collaborating with artists such as Judy Chicago, Manu Parekh and Madhvi Parekh, fashion houses such as Dior and non-profit organizations to spread the message of inclusivity and excellence in craft. In the future, they hope to create a global network where design students from across the world can learn ways in which craft can be seamlessly integrated into art and design.
