Warli Painting Workshop at Kalaghoda

Kalaghoda mini festival scheduled from 30th October to 2nd November is a smaller version of the actual event that takes place in the month of February every year.

Presented by the Kala Ghoda Association (KGA), the cultural had close to 80 stalls for arts and crafts, performances by renowned artists like Jagjit Singh, Gary Lawyer, Shilpa Rao and Niladri Kumar.
The festival also had a children's section. From magic workshops to Origami workshops (CRY) and Puppet making to Witchcraft, several activities have been incorporated for the little ones. Once again Kala Ghoda spread art and culture with full enthusiasm.

Keeping in mind the popularity of the festival among mumbaikars it was great news indeed that SOMAIYA SOCIAL CELL had successfully organised a Warli workshop at the Kala Ghoda mini festival on 1st November '09.

The warli team had with the assistance of Mrs. Brinda Miller set up a warli painting workshop for children. Social cell members present there were Ritica Bhardwaj, Gunjan Bhutani, Rishabh, Gauraav Singh Pardhi and Sumit Loya. They arranged for all the art works and supplies and also arranged for the painters to come from warli.

Ritica bharadwaj who was there at the festival shares her experience:

“Painters handled the kids very well making the workshop a success.The response we got there was really great. There were only 25 seats, but the children as well as their parents were very enthusiastic about the workshop, that we had no other option but to accomodate more students ( around 35-40).The kids were really happy and content with the workshop and many of them even enquired about the enrollment in regular Warli classes !! Holding a workshop in the midst of other workshops being held by big names like CRY really gave us a boost. We were really lucky to get this opportunity. The happy faces and the eagerness of the children gave us all a very satisfying experience.”

MYNTRA-----Another feather in Warli’s cap

Warli---the flag ship project of Somaiya Social Cell has taken yet another step forward in helping out the artists who practice this art form.

Myntra.com a website that offers customers a variety of goods online is our new partner for marketing Warli products. Myntra offers a variety of products like personalized T-shirts, mugs, pens, wallets etc. It attracts a lot of people especially youngsters who like to make their statement. It is through this website myntra.com that we at Somaiya Social Cell are trying to bring more business and exposure to the Warli painters.

In response to the application sent in by our Warli team, the team at myntra.com, did their own research and found our products feasible, following which the deal to allow us set up an account in myntra.com was finalized in September 2009 and the Warli account in myntra.com became operational in October 2009.The shop on myntra.com called SIFE somaiya now offers T-shirts with warli designs on them.

The Warli team is now the design partner for myntra.com and through its account on the website, T-shirts with Warli paintings are sold . For every T-shirt each costing RS 350/- sold we receive commission which will go to the Warli painters.

The dedicated efforts of our Warli team has enabled us grab this opportunity and has opened a new avenue to showcase the forgotten art form. This platform will not only bring in more business for Warli products but more importantly it will give the art form and its painters much needed exposure and well deserved attention.

It is a number of small but firm steps like this that contribute towards the success of our projects and give us the boost to take forward our motto….Touching Hearts…Challenging Destinies.