Delhi Crafts Museum
Location : Bhairon Road, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi.
Timings : 10 am-5:30 pm Closed on Monday
About the museum
Located in Bhairon Road, near Gate No 2 of Pragati Maidan, Delhi Crafts Museum is a synonymous symbol to India’s rich tradition and culture that came to existence in year 1956 by the Delhi Government with the motive and vision of preserving the traditional crafts of India. The imprint of India’s finest art and handicrafts is brought from all the corners of the country under one roof and displayed in the most ethnic fashion in Delhi Arts and Crafts Museum. The idea behind setting up such a place was to encourage the local craftsmen of all states to showcase their talent which was losing its name and very rarely recognized due to industrialization. The museum was designed by Charles Correa, a French architect and a recipient of Padma Shri and Padma Vibhushan built this place in location with Purana Qila on the one side and the Village Complex of the Museum on the other. In short the crafts museum is contemporary mixture of past traditions in a modern designed building meant for a modern Indian Crafts Museum. Crafts Museum is a heaven for the traditional artisans and artworks.
The Crafts Museum is divided into several galleries namely the Tribal and Rural Craft Gallery, Gallery of Courtly Crafts, Textile Gallery with different varieties of saris from all over the country like Chanderi, Kota, Ikkat, Banarasi, Bengal tat, Paithani, Balkalam, Kanjivaram, Bandhini, embroidered clothes, Lakhnavi Chikan work, Kantha work of Bengal, Punjab's Phulkari work, Kalamkari art and many more rare pieces of art and Gallery of Popular Culture with a vast collection of over 20,000 items of folk and tribal arts, crafts and textiles along with a reference library for the scholars, designers, crafts persons and general people interested in crafts. The museum’s collection comprises of bronze images; lamps and incense burners; ritual accessories; utensils and other items of everyday use; wood and stone carvings; papier mache; ivories, dolls, toys, puppets and masks; jewellery; decorative metalware including bidri work; paintings; terracotta; cane and bamboo work and a large number of textiles, from different regions of India. There is a ‘Visual Store’ for reference, comprising about 15,000 objects which can be used by scholars, designers, craftsmen and interested public for study and research. In addition to all this there is a Crafts Museum Shop where tourists can pick books, picture postcards and other finest handicraft stuff from the hands of real artists.
A visit to this historical monument is experience for a life time as it takes you back in history.