A team of students from the California College of Art are touring villages in Karnataka to meet artisans and visit handicrafts centres. Their three-week-long visit is part of their academic calendar and their experience here adds to their credits.
The students come from varied backgrounds like fine arts, humanities, business and design.
They spent a few days in the crafts maker’s space in Devarayanadurga near Tumakuru, speaking to craftspersons and trying their hand in learning a few new tricks.
Then, they spent three days in Kannada University, Hampi, meeting folk performers, listening to their songs and enjoying their dances. They interacted with associate professor of tribal studies Chaluvaraju and others in Hampi.
In Belagavi district, they spent two days meeting artisans and cultural organisation members. They left Belagavi on Thursday.
Faculty members Karen Fiss and Meghana Bisineer are leading them. Karen Fiss, author of three books on cultural studies, says India is the only place left now for young people for field studies on heritage and cultural issues.
She is working on nation branding, collective memory, political trauma and national unification. The family system in the U.S. is disintegrating. This has had an impact on various aspects of society - social, economic and even political life. Unbridled consumerism coupled with the collapse of the welfare state has led to this. The situation has worsened under President Donald Trump, she told The Hindu. It is very difficult for a young student growing up in the U.S. to realise that culture, politics and other dimensions can be so intricately connected, Prof. Fiss said.
Valuable experiences
Meghana Bisineer, an alumnus of the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, teaches animation and design. She said the visit was important for students to understand not only the subjects set out for them, but other cultural experiences. They have noticed how art is part of India’s culture and how simple village men and women are engaged in creating beautiful artefacts for daily use. The students will surely pick up inputs from what they have seen or observed, Prof. Meghana said.
Student Brandon Kahn is a photography major. He is working on urban migration and other issues that impact people at different levels. He will continue to study cultural history before he settles down to a job. He said he had gained unique and rare insights into subjects like the rural-urban divide and migration, that he was interested in.
Danielle Cho, who has just finished high school, wants to explore a career making animated documentaries. Lauren Adams has taken a break from journalism to study cultural history and art.
They said they were happy to have visited India and that the visit had inspired them to come back.
In Belagavi, the team interacted with M. Gopikrishna, founder of `Mitan’ cultural organisation, T.B. Dinesh of ServeLots, master craftsman Nazeer Ahmed and others. They leave for the U.S. in the last week of June.