Museum Rooms: Design institute’s ‘chamber of ideas’ inspiring artists with priceless handicrafts

LUCKNOW It may seem outwardly that tools and raw material play a large role in the artistic process but they are all somewhat incidental to the idea behind the art. Any artist/artisan worth his/her salt first goes behind that Eureka moment — when a bright idea strikes like a bolt of lightning. For some gifted artists, the idea may just take a few minutes, and for others, it may take months.

But what if, there was a way to simplify this process; a way to inspire artists and hit them with tonnes of ideas? As surreal as it sounds, the Uttar Pradesh Institute of Design and Research actually has three chambers where artistic ideas flow in like the Ganga. These three chambers — called the ‘museum rooms’ — have 1,163 rare artefacts displaying designs and handiworks from various parts of the country.

The best part is that these rooms are completely accessible to the students of the institute. Treated and conserved by INTACH (Indian National Trust for Art and Culture Heritage) in 2017, these 1,163 items are kept under lock and key on the college premises itself.

“Students often refer to these artefacts to come up with innovative new designs. This repository of artefacts from across states and decades of India’s history is inspiring to budding artists/artisans. The students get to take inspiration from the art readily available around them,” said Shikha Chantia, centre coordinator at UPIDR.

The first room displays ivory, silver and soft stone pieces, with intricate handiwork carved onto the pieces in locked glass cases. The delicate handiwork on the 2.5 feet long (approx) elephant tusks are a sight to see, as are the sparkling silver plates, vases, incense pots, jewellery safes, jewellery pieces and other items. The soft stone pieces resemble the minute artworks on the walls of the Taj Mahal.

Another room has an assortment of materials, ranging from clay to textile work. One section of the room is dedicated to only terracotta pieces — including showpieces up to four feet high as well as miniature sculptures which are not as popular as they used to be before. Draped intermittently through the room are yards of cloth long and short, with gilded zardozi work in the ‘jangla’ weaving style with real gold threads. Ceramics and pottery with ancient Persian motifs, bonework and wooden printing blocks with over 100 designs and woodwork originating from Saharanpur can also be seen in this room.

The final ‘museum room’ holds a considerable batch of Bidri engraving pieces originating from Karnataka. “This is something you do not see around very much these days,” said Sakshi Munjal, assistant professor at UPIDR. This bidri work can be seen on decorative plates nearly four feet in diameter, ancient gongs, life-sized lampshades and on smaller artefacts as well. The room has a moonj (dry grass handiwork) and cane wall with art form adorning decorative pieces and furniture, along with copperware and meenakari pieces as well.

While these expensive and rare artefacts are kept under lock and key, the institute uses many such pieces as decor for the corridors and entrances of the campus as well. A floor length patchwork quilt adorns the back wall of the school lobby in front of which is a larger-than-life sized model of a man sitting before a handloom, and a terracotta horse stands smack in the middle of the second-floor corridor as well. The institute has found innovative ways to keep the students surrounded by art and craft, and insists on taking elective courses of such crafts outside of their textile and design intensive curriculum as well.

Rare collection of first editions

The Uttar Pradesh Institute of Design and Research also has an awe-inspiring library. The library boasts of 1,000 titles which largely predate the late 1900s and 2000s. They are currently in the process of conserving these books so that they do not deteriorate from their already tattered state. According to the librarian Somit Kumar, “These books were gifted to the institute by various benefactors, and some of them are first editions.”

The archive includes books by notable artists and litterateurs writing about design, dyes and handicrafts, including PR Ramachandra Rao’s book on Nagarjunikonda sculptures, books on Egyptian pottery and ceramics, tomes on Japanese, Korean and Islamic pottery dated 1926, and a lot back.