Tribal Women Artists Cooperative (TWAC)

Tribal Women Artists Cooperative, Sanskriti, Hazaribagh

The TWAC was formed in l993 from a project for creating tribal art funded by the Australian High Commission, New Delhi. This cooperative was founded and is directed by Bulu Imam, the environmentalist, who also happens to be the Regional Convener of the Hazaribagh chapter of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH). The raison d’etre for the founding of the cooperative was 1. To highlight illegal opencast coal mining and destruction of forests vital to the tribals as well as tigers and elephants using them as corridors, 2. For highlighting the prehistoric rockart of the region which is a continuing tradition in the art of the tribal people of the North Karanpura valley threatened since l987 by the opencast coal mining by the Central Coalfields Limited through the North Karanpura Coalfields Project which will destroy l800 sq. kilometers of forest and tribal lands and displace 203 tribal villages, and 3. To bring to the tribal women of the region a sense of strength in their identity and as a means of economic support in facing both official harassment in face of the mining project destabilizing their lives and the traditional contempt for these women in Indian society at large.  All moneys received through sale of artworks are divided into three accounts, A. The Sanskriti Welfare Fund for tribal women, B. The Sanskriti Employment Fund through which a third of all earnings goes directly to the artist, and C. Sanskriti Centre Maintenance fund. About fifty tribal women benefit from this unique self-support project which is being coordinated by Bulu Imam under the auspices of the INTACH, Hazaribagh Chapter.

MAYUR Newsletter, INTACH Hazaribagh Chapter

The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) is a NGO that seeks to make strategic and timely intervention in order to conserve and promote India’s natural and cultural heritage. INTACH is a nation wide network of volunteers who spread awareness about heritage, preserve acts likely to degrade their regions cultural and natural wealth and act positively to preserve and enhance local heritage. INTACH today is the nation’s foremost and largest NGO working in the field of culture.

The Tribal Women Artists Cooperative is an association of mine displaced women who have been protesting against the coal mining in North Karanpura and who in 1995 formed themselves into a group under the aegis of INTACH to give publicity through exhibitions of their art in India and abroad of their situation due to the mining and the rich cultural heritage of their art which is a continuation of the mesolithic rockart of the region threatened by coal mining

PHOTO GALLERY- Sanskriti Centre, Hazaribagh

Copyright © Sanskriti, Hazaribagh
 

Exhibitions and Mural Painting Projects of TWAC

Hazaribagh Tribal Art Exhibition, State Museum Pigorini, Rome, 2011

List of International Khovar and Sohrai Exhibitions

Organized by the Tribal Women Artists Cooperative (TWAC)

Hogarth Gallery, Paddington, Sydney, 1995

National Gallery Of Australia Vision of Kings(shoppe), Canberra ,Jan. 1996

Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Casula, Sydney, May-June, 1996

Footscray Community Centre, Melbourne, Nov.-Dec. 1996

Morree Plains Gallery, Morree, NSW , Feb.1997

Freemantle Arts Centre, Perth, Western Australia, March 1997

Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Casula, Sydney,July-Aug, 1997

Bathurst Art Gallery, Bathurst, NSW, Mar-May, 1998

Tamworth Art Centre, Tamworth, NSW, Dec-Feb. 1998

Gallery 482, Brisbane, Qld., Feb-April, 1998

Nexus Gallery, Adelaide, SA, Jun-July,1998

Hogarth Gallery, Paddington, Sydney Aug-Sept. 1998

Djamu Gallery, Customs House (Australian Museum), Circular Quay, Sydney, March-June 2000

Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London, May-June, 2000

Victoria Crafts Council, Melbourne, April May, 2001

Bellevue Gallery, Berlin, August,  2001

Therese Dion Gallery of Contemp. Art, Montreal, Canada, Sept. 2001

Eppelheim Gallery, Germany, March-April, 2002

Kassel Gallery, Germany, July-August, 2002

Stuttgart Gallery, Germany, October, 2002

Boras Kunst Museum, Boras, Sweden, September,  2003

Heinrich Böll Foundation, Berlin, September, 2003

Volkerkunde Museum, Heidelberg, Sept.-Oct., 2003

Catholic Information Centre, Ludwigsberg, Feb.-March, 2004

State Museum of Ethnography (Volkerkunde), Dresden, May-Sept. 2004

Mandat International, Geneva, July, 2004

Indian Embassy, Berlin,  December 2005

Tarshito Studio,  Rome, July, 2006

Bari Studio, Milan, October, 2006

Wirtschaftswetter (Online Exhibition),  Germany, April- June, 2007

Eppelheim, Germany, June, 2007

Bonn, Germany, March, 2008

Girasole Galley, Udine, May, 2008

Museum Pigorini, Rome, May-Sept. 2008

Norden, Northern Germany, July, 2008

Emden, Northern Germany, Aug.2008

Tarshito Exhibition, Milan, March, 2009

Nehru Centre, London, April, 2009

Aachen, MISEREOR Centre, Germany, April, 2009

Two Exhibition in Hanover,Germany, May-June, 2010

Exhibition in Friebourg, Germany, April-May, 2010

Catholic Youth Organization, Linz, Austria, March, 2011

FIAN Office, Bad Honeff,  (Bonn), Germany, March, 2011

Brunei Gallery, SOAS, London, March- June, 2011

Italian Institute for Africa and the Orient (ISIAO), Rome, Italy, April,2011

Milan Exhibition, Milan, Italy, April, 2011

Espace ENCAN, Arts Atlantic Festival, La Rochelle, France, Nov.,2011

Rietberg Museum, Zurich, Switzerland, Aug.-Sept.  2012

Arts Atlantic Festival, La Rochelle, France, Nov.,  2013
Brunei Gallery, SOAS, London, Oct.-Dec., 2015
SADACC Trrst, Norwich, July 2017

                        

Exhibitions in India

Gallery Chemould, Bombay, July, 1995

Sakshi Gallery, Bangalore, Sept-Oct,1996

India International Centre, New Delhi, Aug., 1998

Gallery Chemould, Calcutta, April, 1999

Gallery Chemould, Bombay, July-Aug, 1999

Paramparik Karigar (National Gallery of Modern Art), Bombay, Dec.1999

Cymroza Gallery, Bombay, March, 2000

Cymroza Gallery,  Bombay, August, 2002

Max Muller Bhavan, Delhi, August, 2002

Madras Crafts Council, Madras, 2003

Merkha Lutyens, New Delhi, March, 2007

Artisana, Crafts Council of West Bengal, Calcutta, February, 2009       

Major Collections

Australian Museum, Sydney

Art Gallery of New SouthWales, Sydney

Casula Art Centre, Casula, Sydney

Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane

Powerhouse Museum, Sydney

Flinders Museum Collection, Adelaide   

Dietmar Rothermund Collection, Heidelberg

Volkerkunde Museum, Heidelberg
Museum of South Australia, Adelaide
Museum of West Australia, Perth
Museum of North Australia, Darwin
Museum of Northeast Australia, Cairns

(Late) Soli P.Godrej Collection, Bombay

Kekoo & Khorshed Gandhy collection, Bombay

Daniela Bezzi Collection, Milan 

Tarshito Studio, Rome (14 - 8’x8’ feet Cloth Paintings)

Marcus Leatherdale Collection, New York

Michel Sabatier Collection, La Rochelle, France

INTACH Collection, New Delhi

Museum of Man Collection, Montreal

South Delhi Polytechnic, New Delhi

Museum Rietberg, Zurich,Switzerland (Search: 1. Philomena Tirkey, 2. Putli Ganju)

Espace de Congress, La Rochelle, France

Volkerkunde Museum, Heidelberg

S.P.Godrej Collection, Bombay
British Museum, London
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge

Photo Archive

The Painted Houses and the Women Artists of Hazaribagh

A Kurmi Sohrai house in Bhelwara village