page_title: National Handicrafts and Handlooms Museum
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: National Handicrafts and Handlooms Museum / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Teracotta shrine figure of Aiyanar, who is a male village guardian deity.
context_page_description: The National Handicrafts and Handlooms Museum commonly known as National Crafts Museum in New Delhi is one of the largest crafts museums in India.
  It is run by the Ministry of Textiles, Government of India. The museum is situated on the corner of the Pragati Maidan, facing the Purana Qila complex.
context_section_description: It was set up over a period of 30 years starting in the 1950s and 60s by the efforts of Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, when the area was envisaged as an ethnographic space where craftsmen from various parts of India would come in to work towards preservation of various traditional arts and crafts. By the 1980s it already had a substantial collection, and in time the museum space gradually evolved and transformed into its present shape.
  Today the museum holds over 35,000 rare and distinctive pieces reflecting the continuing tradition of Indian craftsmen through painting, embroidery, textiles, various crafts of clay, stone and wood, all housed in a building designed between 1975 and 1990 by architect Charles Correa, incorporating traditional architectural vocabulary into a modern design.
caption: Terracotta shrine figure of Aiyanar, who is a male village guardian deity
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