Goa – a land of blended cultures is uniquely expressed through its arts and crafts especially in temples and churches adorned with ‘folk paintings’ depicting scenes from Mahabharata or Ramayana or the new testaments. In Goan arts, one can clearly get a glimpse of how the Portuguese and Indian forms merge in humble households.
Among the crafts of Goa, some prominent craft forms in Goa are the bamboo craft, woodcarving, brass metals, sea shell crafts, papier Mache and wooden lacquer ware. Connoisseurs of the art world have time and again appreciated Goan artists for their extraordinary skills and fine impressive works.
Pottery is an art of traditional form made with earthen clay, terracotta is ceramic clay. These are the traditional crafts forms of Goa. Brass items are very famous with tourists especially samais. This craft is available in plenty in the markets of Goa. Laquerware/Wood turning is a form of woodcarving that is used to create wooden objects (e.g. a bowl or a table leg) on a lathe using cutting tools. Similarly, Crochet and Embroidery in Goa can be realised by the fact that every bride brings her crochet and embroidery work which is displayed to demonstrate her expertise in the craft.
Though crochet and embroidery has been in India since time immemorial it came to Goa with the arrival of nuns and missionaries in 15th century. Bamboo craft initially was more of a utility-based thing where in ‘mahras’, a scheduled community made items required by farmers and fishermen. They made things to store food grains, sell fish. With time this traditional craft has taken shape of decorative cum utility items. Nuns from Kerala brought the fibre craft to Goa.
Today the fundamental question is how do we nurture further the growth and development of Goan artists, arts organisations, or arts enterprises. In my opinion, one of the possible answers could be through creation of Art Incubators in Goa.
Arts incubators are a platform that empowers artists and organisations to implement their business and artistic ideas. Arts incubators are a new but growing phenomena in the world of local arts agencies. All of the elements involved in arts incubators have long been around, but it is the combination of these aspects – the physical co-location of arts groups, the shared resources, the intensive technical assistance over a multi-year period, and the emphasis on collaboration – that make the sum more than its parts and herald a new organisation that can be recognised as an arts incubator.
Goa has several Arts and Crafts colleges – both in private and public domain. I personally feel some of these colleges should be positioned for creating fine arts and crafts incubator.
In conclusion, I sincerely feel that Goa definitely needs art and craft incubators to promote the creation of jobs by assisting in the growth and development of new businesses. Funding for such incubators can come from both Government and Industry to encourage local arts agencies to explore the richness and diversity the arts incubator model offers to their community.
