Workshop on Warli art brings Bhopal closer to its grassroots

Bhopal: A workshop on tribal arts, that began here on Wednesday, has a unique mission – bring city-dwellers closer to grassroots, with underprivileged girl students from a ‘museum school' beginning a section on Warli art at a city hotel. The section, which would run for a year, would have guests and visitors to the hotel learn how to make their own artwork in Warli style and carry them home.It's an initiative by Courtyard by Marriott and ‘Parvarish—The Museum School', an NGO-run, Unesco-awarded educational model, which has been utilising museums as educational spaces in the city. The workshop is being run by 28-year-old Pooja, who lives in Rahul Nagar. "I hope to have lively interactions with people while creating the artefacts and that it helps me in delving deeper into my craft as well," Pooja said. The art originates from the Warli tribe, predominantly found in the Sahyadri region of Maharashtra. Considered harbingers of good luck, the art form makes use of geometric shapes like triangles which adorned the mud walls of tribal homes during weddings, harvests, and dates back to 2500-3000 BCE. Much like cave paintings, Warli art too depicts and documents stories and practices of the tribe. "Pooja and another member, like many students at our school, support their families financially and their works are being purchased at fairs and haats all over the city. But, with this, we got a chance to bring artists in the limelight along with the art. And the workshop could be interactive. For instance, if someone wishes to create Taj-ul Masajid out of Warli art, that would ground the experience even more in Bhopali culture," said Shibani Ghosh, co-founder of Parvarish, accompanied by Nishant, the general secretary of OASiS, which manages Parvarish."We were on the lookout for such an initiative and we chose Warli art as it would help our guests at our hotel, especially kids and parents, learn about a unique tribal artform. It also supports local artisans while connecting everyone involved to India's tribal heritage." said Isha Rai, co-ordinator at Courtyard by Marriott.