The National Crafts Museum & Hastkala Academy (NCMHA)
The National Crafts Museum & Hastkala Academy, celebrates the rich, diverse, and practising craft traditions of Bharat. Situated in a large campus at the corner of Pragati Maidan, opposite the majestic Purana Qila, the museum was designed by the renowned architect Charles Correa.
Vision And Mission
The Vision of National Crafts Museum was to build a collection of crafts and textiles specimens that would provide storehouse for the knowledge of our disappearing traditions and also their preservation, revival, reproduction, development.
The mission was to take this core collection to the public, students, researchers as well as craftsmen, weavers, performers at different levels. The disintegration of handicrafts and handlooms in their traditional set up required finding new platforms for marketing the skills as well. They are all now in close and integral relationship with the museum.
History of the Museum Buildings
The NCMHA building is a reflection vernacular architecture and fine craftsmanship. Several architectural elements like jharokha, internal courtyards, open and semi-open passages, roof tiles arches, carved doors, posts, pillars, perforated iron-screens etc. are all the visual delights.
National Crafts Museum & Hastkala Academy collected artifacts from various states of India named as Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal. The collection reflects the continuing traditions of handicrafts and handlooms.
The exquisite examples of textiles include Kalamkaris, Jamawars, Pashmina and Shahtosh Shawls, embroidered fabrics especially Kanthas, Chikankari works and Chaklas Tie and Die (Bandhani) fabrics, Baluchar and Jamdaani saris, Pichwais, Phulkaris, Ikat fabrics of Orissa, Chamba Rumals, Block printed textile fabrics of Gujarat and Rajasthan, Himru textile pieces of Maharashtra, Naga Shawls, Chanderi Saris and a variety of tribal textiles of the Lambadi, Toda and Naga tribes of North- Eastern India.
The rare and finest specimens of traditional Indian handicrafts and hand-looms are preserved with the objective that these would serve as source material for the revival, reproduction and development of Indian crafts. These source materials are meant for the master craftsmen, art-historians and craft designers along with the people who are interested to know our age-old cultural heritage. Museum is a special attraction for foreign tourists who wish to have a glimpse of our material culture.
Instead, the various courts give access to different exhibits opening off a meandering pathway in an informal manner; Village Court, Temple Court, Darbar Court, etc. As in Bharat Bhavan, the podium is elaborated at two levels; on the ground floor through a series of courts and above through a set of roof terraces. At the same time, most of the single story accommodation provided is totally enclosed.
The exquisite artistic spaces includes:
- Folk and Tribal Gallery
- Cultic objects and Courtly Craft Gallery
- Textile Gallery
- Village Complex
- Aiyanaar Shrine
- Haveli
For more information and details please visit the
NCMHA official website at https://nationalcraftsmuseum.nic.in/
Bhairon Marg, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi – 110001
Phone: +91 11 2337 1641
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