Craft as Knowledge System: NID Hosts International Open Electives Celebrating Indian and Asian Traditions

• Bilkul Online
• Ahmedabad | 12 Jan 2026

The National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad, along with its extended campuses, is hosting the International Open Electives 2025–26, themed “Shilp Sangam: Rooted in Heritage, Shaping the Future,” from January 5 to January 16. The programme has drawn participation from 460 students, enrolled across 29 elective courses conducted on three NID campuses.

The Ahmedabad campus is hosting 14 immersive workshops, led by artisans and craft practitioners from six Indian states and three international locations. The electives bring together a wide spectrum of craft traditions spanning geographies from Ladakh to Majuli in Assam, and extending to Japan and Sri Lanka. Students are engaging with materials such as clay, glass beads, thread, jewellery, bamboo, felt, and tie-and-dye textiles, offering a rich cross-cultural exploration of making practices.

At the core of Shilp Sangam is an emphasis on craft as a living knowledge system—one that embodies indigenous wisdom, cultural memory, and sustainable practices. Through hands-on making, collaborative experimentation, and reflective dialogue, participants explore the ritual, social, and cultural dimensions of craft, while examining its relevance in contemporary design contexts. In an increasingly digital environment, the electives consciously return attention to hand-building, foregrounding values of humility, respect, and care inherent in the act of making.

This year’s International Open Electives adopt a distinctive pedagogical approach by inviting traditional craft practitioners as ‘design–maker teachers’. By positioning artisans as co-educators, the programme challenges conventional hierarchies within design education and opens up spaces for interdisciplinary exchange. The collaboration encourages students to co-create with practitioners, fostering alternative design outcomes that balance rigor with experimentation, while remaining rooted in tradition.

Through Shilp Sangam, NID aims to reframe how craft is perceived—not as a static heritage practice, but as a dynamic, evolving system capable of shaping sustainable and culturally grounded futures in design.

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