Mural Painting at Raghurajpur

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Introduction Raghurajpur, a small artists village near Puri, is home to a community of traditional artisans called chitrakaras, best known for pattachitras - exquisite paintings executed on cloth.A project on the revival of mural painting skills was developed and implemented by INTACH ICCI with support was provided by NORAD, Norway, India Foundation for the Arts, Bangalore and Government of Orissa.The main objective was to retrieve lost skills, gather information from ageing artists and document the collected information. The Raghurajpur experiment also aimed at imparting training to the younger generation of chitrakaras. Although mural painting is traditionally a male domain, for the first time women came forward and volunteered to paint breaking existing gender biases.Raghurajpur has received a new look following this revival project. The exquisite paintings attract many visitors and so income from tourism has increased. Mr. Jagmohan, ex-Minister for Tourism and Culture, Government of India, gave a fillip to the revival momentum with the announcement of Raghurajpur as a heritage village.The main objective was to retrieve lost skills, gather information from ageing artists and document the collected information. The Raghurajpur experiment also aimed at imparting training to the younger generation of chitrakaras. Although mural painting is traditionally a male domain, for the first time women came forward and volunteered to paint breaking...