Chitpur Local is an ongoing socially engaged art initiative that was initiated by a collective of artists and designers in January 2014 in order to reactivate Chitpur's historic 'Bottola' locality and showcase its dying heritage art forms like printmaking, publishing, jewellery making and bamboo crafts. We wanted to intergrate these artforms into contemporary art and design, capture forgotten local narratives, and use public art as a means to once again activate Chitpur's heritage sites as shared cultural spaces for the community.

Through workshops, exhibitions and art events we have worked with the local community to develop exciting new cultural experiences like pop-up museums, a public game and an interactive travelling story box. These projects have been developed at some of this neighbourhood's most interesting heritage sites- Diamond Library a 139 year old publishing house, Shilpi Srishti, a local art school run by fifth generation residents in their historic house, and Garanhata Lane the bustling centre of jewellery making.  

For a complete documentation of this initiative visit our Blog and Facebook page.