CYCLONE HIT ODISHA PATACHITRA SUPPORT PROGRAM | Milaap
CYCLONE HIT ODISHA PATACHITRA SUPPORT PROGRAM
  • Heart for Art

    Created by

    Heart for Art Public Charitable Trust
  • OP

    This fundraiser will benefit

    Odisha Patachitra Artisan Pramod Kumar Maharana And His Family

    from Pune, Maharashtra

Help Fund the Infrastructure needs of the family in Puri, Odisha that is preserving this craft against all odds



Prafulla Kumar Maharana, Pramod Kumar Maharana and Prakash Kumar Maharana - skilled veteran brother artists from Nayaka Patana village, Puri, Odisha – the most-affected state by Cyclone Fani belong to a family of accomplished chitrakars and specialise in Patachitra & Silk Painting. The Maharana family is a joint family where the three brothers live with their parents, wives and children (total nine members). On 3 May Cyclone Fani has turned the lives of this brother artist family upside down.


While talking to the couple we found that the cyclone tore through their house. The roofing sheet of their home was blown away and rain poured through the open roof. The cyclone flattened their one of the kutcha house with hay thatched roof. There was no community centre, where they could take shelter nor had the Government constructed a temporary shelter. The artist family with their homes destroyed and livelihoods endangered has nothing to armour themselves. 

The uprooted trees, broken houses, tangled cables, lying all over the village left them worried and helpless as the members of at least 140 families in their village. It has been 10 days since since the devastatingly powerful Cyclone Fani hit Odisha’s coast, but they are still without electricity and drinking water. They received only 50kgs of rice and Rs. 2000 from Government but no other help has reached them.


The ferocity of the storm has inflicted heavy damage on their art and craft as well as the cyclone has affected their livelihood.


Due to torrential rainfall through their open roof, salty marine water inundation along with fiece sand storm they have apparently lost many valuable artefacts like the Pattachitra paintings and paper mache masks worth three to three and half lakhs rupees in the cyclone. Not just the art and craft, cyclone Fani has also destroyed the vast stretches of palm trees from where the artists used to source their raw material and their palm leafs, stored for usage, got rain-soaked. The Maharana family used to get painting-related materials, tool kits from Puri. Now, that it is devastated. So they will face problems in procuring raw materials for their artwork. Tourists have stopped coming after cyclone. This has hit their business.

Devastated brother artist families are now trying to salvage their paintings which had taken them months, sometimes years to make. The years of hard work and the painful artistry invested in the damaged Pattachitras is something the artists will never get back.


We would help Maharana brother artist family get additional income recently by conducting several consumer workshops in different cities (already done in Pune, Bangalore and Hyderabad where close to 200 art and craft lovers participated in paid workshops) and also bought a lot of their products.

But the artists don’t do farming or are engaged in other forms of profession, so we then talked to them on what will help them to restore / rebuild infrastructure needs and recover their means of income- the craft for starting regular business was their answer!


We are now working on getting regular business for their family in several ways including taking their products into more exhibitions, doing more consumer workshops, etc. This fund-raiser is to help fund the family’s restoring / rebuilding infrastructure needs. Quite basic really, that they have been doing without for all these years!


· Reconstruction efforts to erect their fallen kutcha/mud home with thatched roof.

· Restoring of the roofing sheet of their pakka home which was blown away to be able to reside in and store the pattachitra artworks.

· Repairs of a wall of their kutcha house collapsed during heavy rains

· Relief supplies especially dry food like biscuits and milk powder to distribute to their children.

· Bedsheets, mats and mosquito coils to the family members with food supplies

· Distributing basic medicines and health care

· Support their children’s education


The costs related to these add up to Rs. 3.5 Lacs and details of these costs are given later in the document.


About Odisha Pattachitra


The Pattachitra, one of the fascinating art forms of Odisha has a tradition that goes back centuries. As a religious art form it evolved from the temple rituals, more specifically from the temple of Jagannath at Puri and else where in Odisha. In the art of Odisha Patachitra the drawing is done by hand engraving on the palm leaf using iron stylus- an iron pen. A paste made of bean leaves, charcoal made of burnt coconut shells, til oil and turmeric is rubbed on the etching that highlights the figures. Vegetable and mineral colors are used as fillers and in very subdued tones.


Pattachitra is a generic term for the traditional scroll painting typically undertaken in the state of Odisha. Dating back to the 12th century AD, this art form was traditionally made on fabric or leaves while the colors were extracted from natural stones, conches and lamp soot. The motifs are typically mythological in nature with emotive facial expressions and were originally used as offerings to the Lord Jagganath.


The Maharanaa brothers were introduced to this art form by their father at very early age and later they got trained by the master artists Jaganath and Dinabandhu Mahapatra. They continue the craft traditions in spite of very meagre incomes and extreme hardships. The maharana brothers travelled and demonstrated the Pattachitra craft in Europe (Germany). Pramod draws Rs 10,000 every month from his art work sales in a Chennai museum. Prafulla Kr. Maharana is a State Handicrafts award (1998) winner and Rajiv Gandhi Sadbhawna Award (2007) winner. He was also honoured with the Certificate of Merit 2006 by Ministry of Textile.

Borrowing from the contemporary style, they have introduced newer designs. While tradition dictates for palm leaves to be attached in the form of scrolls, they have widened the scope of the practice. Now, Pattachitras come in shapes of wall hangers, bookmarks and even game boards.


80G Exemption & Progress Reporting


Heart for Art Public Charitable Trust is registered under the Bombay Public Trusts Act 1950 and donations to which are exempt from Income Tax under section 80G. The program will be supported by quarterly progress and financial reports.


Please call Mildred at 9850510779 or write to us at mildred@heartforart.co.in for further information.

About Heart for Art

Heart for Art is a Public Charitable Trust that works on reviving the traditional Arts + Crafts of India and helps increase Rural Incomes.

We at Heart for Art, work towards bringing urban consumers products from rural artisans of India, who passionately create them! We create partnerships to find space for art and craft in private and public spaces and help craftsmen get back their pride. Our endeavor is to provide these products in the best traditions of artisanal masterpieces, yet adapted to contemporary lifestyles and sensibilities.

Heart for Art is currently working with 50+ grass, metal, wood, durries, pottery and traditional games crafts from around the country.


How do we increase Rural Livelihoods?


We provide market linkages to Rural Artisans by creating opportunities for Exhibition and Sales of their Art & Craft in multiple cities through multiple formats:

1. Online store – all India delivery

2. Popular Exhibitions & Shopping Fests

3. Products in Lifestyle Stores – multiple cities

4. Artisans Consumer Workshops

5. Commissioned Projects with architects

6. Sponsoring artisans for Art & Craft Festivals

7. Corporate Events

8. Corporate Gifting Opportunities


Kindly support our cause by donating and sharing our fundraiser.

Here's how the funds will be utilised


Budget to Support Cyclone Affected Maharana Family Business & Home
Sl. NoItemCostUnitsTotal Cost
1Renovation & Utilities



Installing Roofing Sheets (12ft x 80ft) blown away by severe cyclonic winds for rain and dust protection (Protection shed)
 Reconstruction to erect their fallen kutcha/mud home with thatched roof which destoryed by xtremely severe cyclone
 Repairs of a wall of their kutcha house collapsed during heavy rains
3,10,0001 3,10,000
2Relief Supplies



Household supplies like- bedsheets, mats, mosquito coils, sanitation products, toiletries to the family 5009 4,500

Distributing dry food for the family including biscuits and milk powder for their children and distributing basic medicines and health care to them and elderly members
 8509 7,650
3Artisan Families Support That Would Help To Rebuild Their Lives



Raw material supplies like paints, tool kits, palm leaves etc. 3,0001 3,000

Misc. Expenses like school uniform, shoes etc. for artisan's children ( 500) 5755 2,875
4Workshops Support - for 2 Workshops in 2019-20 to Quickly Revive Their Earnings 
 

Artisans Local Boarding & stay for 7 days and for 2 persons 7,0002 14,000

Artisans Travel for 2 persons 4,0002 8,000
TOTAL  3,50,025 


We are grateful for your help!


                                   

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