The Bikalpa Arts Center is hosting a workshop that includes five women artists and tailors from the Janakpur Women Development Center (JWDC)- Prem Mishra, Anjana Pandit, Indu Mishra, Manjula Thakur and Phuluwa Mandal–and two international designers, Susie Vickery (www.susievickery.com) and Claire Burkert. Together they are making toys inspired by traditional images of gods, frogs, crabs and other creatures. The artists are working 9 – 5 daily until November 8. You are welcome to come by to see the artists at work.
The Janakpur Women’s Development Center was established in 1989 and was the first organization in Nepal to promote the traditional art of Janakpur’s Maithili women. The JWDC is based in Kuwa village, Janakpur, and employs over forty women. The artists at the JWDC initially learned to transfer on to paper the images from ritual paintings that they made on the mud walls of their homes. Later they learned to utilize their imagery to make a whole new range of ceramic, tailored, papier maché and printed products.
