Name: Kutchi Artisans Design Co-Creating Education with Textile Artisans in India
Start: 2025-03-15T13:30:00-07:00
End: 2025-03-15T15:00:00-07:00
Location: Hillside Club

Kutchi Artisans Design Co-Creating Education with Textile Artisans in India

Judy Frater will speak about her cooperative work with artisans in Kutch, India and have a TRUNK SHOW of their work after the presentation.
About this Event

The presentation will take place at the Hillside Club in Berkeley. Attendance is free for all. This lecture is in-person only, but will be recorded, and a link to the recording will be sent to all TAC members.

Parking for The Hillside Club is available only on neighborhood streets; there is no off-street parking. There are no time restrictions on weekends.

A trunk show of the Kutch artisans' work will follow the lecture.

Judy Frater is an Ashoka Fellow steeped in the world of contemporary textile artisans of

Kutch, India. Residing in Kutch for 30 years, she co-founded and operated Kala

Raksha, a cooperative for women embroiderers, established the Kala Raksha Textile

Museum, founded Kala Raksha Vidhyalaya, the first design school for traditional

artisans, and reinvented the school as Somaiya Kala Vidya.

Prior to residing in India, she was Associate Curator of Eastern Hemisphere Collections

at The Textile Museum in Washington, D.C. She authored the award-winning Threads of

Identity: Embroidery and Adornment of the Nomadic Rabaris and The Art of the Dyer in

Kutch. In 2022, she was the Interdisciplinary Artist in Residence at the University of

Wisconsin, Madison.

Judy's book Artisans by Design: An Odyssey of Education for Textile Artisans in India chronicles the journey of developing the first design school for artisans in India and fifteen years of artisans learning design. Spanning 50 years, the story is told in vignettes of artisans who were part of the journey, intertwined with the author’s story. Through this dialogue, the reader experiences what happened, how and why, and what its impact has been on traditional artisans in the contemporary world. A rare, intimate portrayal of artisans, the book offers personal connections to people usually glimpsed from a distance and insights into tradition, craft, and the creativity of traditional artisans. It provides textile afficionados and people concerned with sustainability an authentic, fresh approach to development, illuminates sustainability as cultural heritage and presents development as human centered.

About the Author Ashoka Fellow Judy Frater lived with artisans of Kutch for three decades, where she founded Kala Raksha Trust and Museum, Kala Raksha Vidhyalaya, the first design school for artisans, and reinvented the school as Somaiya Kala Vidya. She has been honored with the Sir Misha Black Medal for Design Education, the Crafts Council of India Kamla award, the Designers of India Design Guru Award and more. Previously Associate Curator at The Textile Museum, author of Threads of Identity: Embroidery and Adornment of the Nomadic Rabaris, and The Art of the Dyer in Kutch, she has written and lectured extensively on craft, and has an over 8,000 following. She now lives in Santa Fe.