Museum Walk to start from June 16 at Odisha Crafts Museum

Bhubaneswar: Adding another colourful city event to its fold, ‘Ekamra Walks’ is soon to have a guided museum walk towards the end of this week.

The inaugural walk will be held at Odisha Crafts Museum (Kala Bhoomi), the newly-inaugurated museum for handicrafts and handlooms at Talabania near Gandamuda, along the Pokhariput-Khandagiri Road.

The first museum walk will be held between 3.30 pm and 5 pm on Saturday.

Museum walk would be an important activity to create awareness among people about the history and culture of Odisha. Through a museum walk association with available historic settlements and environment can be developed.

It motivates tourists, and local population to visit rich cultural, archaeological and architectural sites. These experiences also have the capacity to sensitise local population and in turn to preserve and conserve their own culture and heritage. Through this, a sense of pride is inculcated and people start appreciating their heritage. Museum walk is also one of the mediums to initiate community-based efforts for conservation and preservation of heritage, art and crafts.

The museum walk at Kala Bhoomi is an initiative by the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation, Bhubaneswar Development Authority, Odisha Tourism along with Handlooms, Textile and Handicrafts Department. The event would be curated by Detour.

The Odisha Crafts Museum celebrates the craftsmanship of our artisans by putting on display their breath-taking masterpieces to the world. Divided into eight separate sections, the museum has tried to encapsulate the living traditions of a multitude of cultures residing in extreme corners of the State.

The architectural style of the edifice is an imitation of the traditional Odia type of household, with similar courtyards and corridors connecting the galleries.

The crafts of Odisha are a household name in every nook and corner of the country. The age-old practice of sculpting, weaving and painting has generated scores of handicrafts and handlooms that explicitly reflects the diverse culture of the state.

Odisha Crafts Museum is the first of its kind to be established in the State. With its chief purpose of promoting state crafts, the museum will also serve as a repository of ageless artefacts from all districts of the State. The entire property of 12.68 acres has been aptly named as “Kala Bhoomi” referring it to be a significant cultural hub of the city.

The entire establishment, along with the museum, also includes an amphitheatre for cultural performances, a souvenir shop and workshop for live demonstrations of the artworks and a cafeteria.

It can be mentioned here that by naming the Odisha Crafts Museum as “Kala Bhoomi” the authorities have perhaps tried to revive the name of ancient Odisha as “Utkala” in which “Kala” or art had reached its pinnacle of success (Utkarsh in Odia).

There would be craft workshops, crafts bazaar, cultural performances, traditional food, live music, storytelling sessions and quiz episodes on regular basis at the venue.