Gathering Threads In Celebration Of National Handloom Day at KCC

  Kolkata Centre For Creativity presents  Gathering Threads   In Celebration Of National Handloom Day.  A two day symposium that explores t...

 

Kolkata Centre For Creativity presents Gathering Threads In Celebration Of National Handloom Day. 

A two day symposium that explores the layered ecosystem of handloom - not just to celebrate handloom, but to critically engage with its entanglements with state policy, markets, identity, and cultural survival. It brings together designers, artists, scholars, and stakeholders to discuss how India’s textile heritage is preserved, performed, and positioned in a world of accelerated change. 

Where: 4th floor, Kolkata Centre For Creativity

When:  7th - 8th August 2025 

Timings: 10:45 AM Onwards

DAY 1:

·       11:00 AM – 12:00 PM: Opening Session by Sanjay Garg, which will be a conversation with Ina Puri, on handloom, memory, and materiality, reflecting  on Sanjay Garg’s journey and the deeper resonances of textile practice. 

·       12:20 PM – 1:20 PM: The Panel, “Ethics: The Moral Aesthetics of the Handmade”  having Kallol Datta, Malika Dudeja Varma in conversation with Ina Puri, will be a sharp and timely conversation that will unpack the ethics, affect, aesthetics, and provocations borne out of the handmade. 

·       2:30 PM – 3:30 PM: The first day’s roundtable, “Legacy and Regeneration”, moderated by Nandita Palchoudhuri, will explore the layered histories of Indian handlooms—tracing their transformations across colonial, Gandhian, post-liberal, and contemporary moments. Speakers will reflect on how tradition can become a site of regeneration rather than repetition, and how new forms of collaboration might honour past vocabularies while responding to present-day urgencies (BY INVITATION ONLY)

 

DAY 2

·       11:00 AM – 12:30 PM:  Keynote Address by Gaurang Shah, delving into the intricate relationship between design and heritage, and sharing insights from his journey of reviving forgotten weaves, and reimagining traditional textiles for a contemporary world. 

·       12:30 PM – 1:30 PM: The Panel, “Woven Selves: Intersectionality, Identity, and the Act of Making” having Parama Ghosh, Papri Basak and Anamika Debnath in conversation with Ina Puri, will be a reflection on the layered ecosystem of handloom and an exploration of the same as a site where identity, labour and lineage intersect.

·       1:30 PM – 2:30 PM: An enlightening session, “The Future of Handloom in the Age of Technology with Jaya Jaitly, will be followed by a book signing of her recent publication, The Little Indian Gamchha Book.   

·       2:30 PM – 3:30 PM: With the Roundtable, “Handloom and Praxis”, moderated by Ina Puri, the conversation will move from discourse to action. How do practitioners balance innovation with ethics, and scale with care? What models exist — or must be created—that position weavers not as passive custodians of heritage, but as active agents of aesthetic and economic choice? (BY INVITATION ONLY)