Saptasajya Festival will bring together craft artisans, artists, designers, art historians and handicraft enthusiasts and help develop contemporary handicraft creations
Bhubaneswar : Saptasajya is gearing up to host the third Saptasajya Festival – from December 26, 2022 to December 29, 2022. After completing its two successful editions in 2019 and 2021 respectively, Saptasajya Festival will yet again bring a variety of handicrafts of Odisha under one roof to engage in a creative and interactive process aiming at production of contemporary design, thereby supporting the exquisite crafts.
Saptasajya Festival 2022 is being curated by Sidharth Mohanty, a designer, artist and academician. Through a series of discussions and debates, Sidharth will be working with a group of 10 mentors from different fields of art and design to brainstorm and develop ideas and strategies of new intervention in craft design. This year the festival will include a proportionate mixture of metal and non metal crafts from various different clusters of Odisha, namely, Sadeibereni (Dhokra) , Nuagaon (Dhokra) , Karamul (Metal Jewelry) , Bhubana (Bell Metal) , Cuttack (Silver Filigree) , Dhenkanal (Bamboo) , Badjod (Sabai Grass) , Keonjhar ( Paper Mache) ,Sonepur (Teracotta) and Bhubaneswar (Applique) . During this festival each cluster of artisans will be working under the mentorship of a participating designer/artist to create new products which cater to the demands and changing tastes of the consumer today.
The idea of the festival was born of the twin objective to promote traditional crafts and designs and showcase the natural beauty of the Saptasajya region and promote village tourism. The festival seeks to provide a unique, rich and immersive experience for participants that is both creative and educative. While the first edition of the festival in 2019 was focused on metalcrafts, this year’s edition will include other forms of handicrafts from different parts of Odisha. Saptasajya Festival is sponsored and organized by Saptasajya Foundation, a not-for-profit organization, that works in skill development and livelihood training for artisans and youth.
The festival will take place at Kalakruti Grama/Artisan Village in Sadeibereni Village of Dhenkanal district of Odisha, a few kilometers away from the Saptasajya Panchayat Office.
Saptasajya Foundation is a self-funded not-for-profit promoted by two professionals – Gayatri Rath and Pravin Kumar. The founders have over 45-years of combined work experience and have worked closely with large global brands as well Indian companies and government organizations. In August 2018, the Foundation started a computer literacy course for students of Patrabhag Ashram School. With Saptasajya Festival, the Foundation is expanding its community outreach and hopes to drive greater positive community impact.
