Tribal Women Artists Cooperative (TWAC)

The Tribal Women Artists Cooperative (TWAC) was initially founded by Bulu Imam[1] (Convener, INTACH Hazaribagh Chapter) in 1993 out of a Tribal Art Project funded by the Australian High Commission, New Delhi. The Cooperative continues to be directed by Bulu Imam, Padma Shri awardee (2019) as a Social Worker for promoting the ritual Khovar and Sohrai mural painting tradition,[2] benefiting thousands of village women, and has gained international recognition through several exhibitions in major art galleries around the world.[3]

TWAC
Group of TWAC Artists in Sanskriti
Born (1993-08-31) 31 August 1993
Hazaribagh, Jharkhand, India
NationalityIndian
OccupationArtists
Known forTribal art and culture
AwardsPadma Shri (2019)

This unique Tribal Art Project was started with about 40 women artists which began to bring the art on walls of the mud houses to paper and paint professionally. Today, the Cooperative's initiative empowers over 5,000 women enabling their art to be exhibited in over 60 international venues in Australia, Canada, America, Japan, Italy, Germany, France, Sweden, Switzerland, and England.

The tribal art created by these women artists over the decades has been displayed and preserved in the Sanskriti Museum & Art Gallery, and accessible for research and study to anyone interested in the development of tribal art and culture in Jharkhand. The first collection of tribal paintings made by the Cooperative in early 1990,s are a part of the Bulu Imam Collection, and which is made available exclusively through the Cooperative.

Objectives

The raison d’etre for the founding of the Cooperative was to highlight the Meso-chalcolithic rockart of the region connected with the tradition of Khovar and Sohrai mural painting done by the tribal communities in Jharkhand as an economic resource. It also aimed to highlight the issues of displacement and indigenous rights threatened by opencast coal mining, and destruction of forests vital to the tribals as well as tigers and elephants using them as corridors. This art project was created to bring to the tribal women of the region a sense of strength in their identity and as a means of economic support.

The profits received through exhibitions and sale of artworks are divided into three accounts,

(i) Welfare Fund for women artists.

(ii) Employment Fund through which a third of all earnings goes directly to the artist, and

(iii) Cooperative Maintenance fund.

TWAC Exhibitions

1.   Hogarth Gallery, Paddington, Sydney, 1995

2.   National Gallery of Australia, Vision of Kings, Canberra, Jan.1996

3.   Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Casula, Sydney, May–June, 1996

4.   Footscray Community Centre, Melbourne, Nov.-Dec., 1996

5.   Morree Plains Gallery, Morree, NSW, February, 1997

6.   Freemantle Arts Centre, Perth, Western Australia, March, 1997

7.   Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Casula, Sydney,July-Aug, 1997

8.   Bathurst Art Gallery, Bathurst, NSW, Mar-May, 1998

9.   Tamworth Art Centre, Tamworth, NSW, Dec-Feb., 1998

10.  Gallery 482, Brisbane, Qld., Feb-April, 1998

11.  Nexus Gallery, Adelaide, SA, Jun-July, 1998

12. Hogarth Gallery, Paddington, Sydney Aug-Sept., 1998

13.  Djamu Gallery, Customs House, Sydney, March–June, 2000

14. Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London, May–June, 2000

15. Victoria Crafts Council, Melbourne, April May, 2001

16. Bellevue Gallery, Berlin, August, 2001

17. Therese Dion Gallery of Contemp. Art, Montreal, Canada, Sept., 2001

18. Eppelheim Gallery, Germany, March–April, 2002

19.  Kassel Gallery, Germany, July–August, 2002

20. Stuttgart Gallery, Germany, October, 2002

21.  Boras Kunst Museum, Boras, Sweden, September, 2003

22. Heinrich Böll Foundation, Berlin, September, 2003

23. Volkerkunde Museum, Heidelberg, Sept.-Oct., 2003

24. Catholic Information Centre, Ludwigsberg, Feb.-March, 2004

25.  State Museum of Ethnography (Volkerkunde), Dresden, May-Sept., 2004

26.  Mandat International, Geneva, July, 2004

27.  Indian Embassy, Berlin,  December, 2005

28. Tarshito Studio, Rome, July, 2006

29.  Bari Studio, Milan, October, 2006

30. Wirtschaftswetter (Online Exhibition), Germany, April- June, 2007

31. Eppelheim, Germany, June, 2007

32.  Bonn, Germany, March, 2008

33. Girasole Galley, Udine, May, 2008

34.  Museum Pigorini, Rome, May-Sept., 2008

35. Norden, Northern Germany, July, 2008

36. Emden, Northern Germany, Aug., 2008      

37. Tarshito Exhibition, Milan, March, 2009

38. Nehru Centre, London, April, 2009

39. Aachen, MISEREOR Centre, Germany, April, 2009

40. Two Exhibition in Hanover, Germany, May–June, 2010

41. Exhibition in Friebourg, Germany, April–May, 2010

42. Catholic Youth Organization, Linz, Austria, March, 2011

43. FIAN Office, Bad Honeff (Bonn), Germany, March, 2011

44. Brunei Gallery, SOAS, London, March- June, 2011

45. Italian Institute for Africa and the Orient (ISIAO), Rome, Italy, April, 2011

46. Milan Exhibition, Milan, Italy, April, 2011

47. Espace ENCAN, Arts Atlantic Festival, La Rochelle, France, Nov., 2011

48. Rietberg Museum, Zurich, Switzerland, Aug.-Sept.  2012

49. Arts Atlantic Festival, La Rochelle, France, Nov., 2013

50. Brunei Gallery of SOAS, London, Oct.-Dec., 2015

51. Exhibition, (Diedi Von Schawen),Paris, 2016

52. Exhibition, (Diedi Von Schawen),Paris, 2017

53. Exhibition, (Diedi Von Schawen),Paris, 2018

54. Abadakone Exhibition, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada, Oct., 2019

55. Exhibition, (Diedi Von Schawen), Paris, 2021

Exhibitions in India

1.   Gallery Chemould, Bombay, July, 1995

2.   Sakshi Gallery, Bangalore, Sept-Oct, 1996

3.   India International Centre, New Delhi, Aug., 1998

4.   Gallery Chemould, Calcutta, April, 1999

5.   Gallery Chemould, Bombay, July-Aug., 1999

6.   Paramparik Karigar (National Gallery of Modern Art), Bombay, December, 1999

7.   Cymroza Gallery, Bombay, March, 2000

8.   Cymroza Gallery, Bombay, August, 2002

9.   Max Muller Bhavan, Delhi, August, 2002

10.  Madras Crafts Council, Madras, 2003

11.  Merkha Lutyens, New Delhi, March, 2007

12. Artisana, Crafts Council of West Bengal, Calcutta, February, 2009  

                                    

Major Collections

·       Australian Museum, Sydney

·       Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

·       Casula Art Centre, Casula, Sydney

·       Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane

·       Powerhouse Museum, Sydney

·       Flinders Museum Collection, Adelaide  

·       Dietmar Rothermund Collection, Heidelberg

·       Volkerkunde Museum, Heidelberg

·       (Late) Soli P.Godrej Collection, Bombay

·       Kekoo & Khorshed Gandhy collection, Bombay

·       Daniela Bezzi Collection, Milan

·       Tarshito Studio, Rome (14 - 8’x8’ feet Cloth Paintings)

·       Marcus Leatherdale Collection, New York

·       Michel Sabatier Collection, La Rochelle, France

·       INTACH Collection, New Delhi

·       Museum of Man Collection, Montreal

·       South Delhi Polytechnic, New Delhi

·       Museum Rietberg, Zurich, Switzerland

·       Espace de Congress, La Rochelle, France

·       Volkerkunde Museum, Heidelberg

·       S.P.Godrej Collection, Bombay

·       Diedi Von Schawen Collection, Paris

·       Herve Pedriolle Collection, Paris

·       British Museum, London

·       SADACC Trust Collection, Norwich

·       Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge

·       National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

References
  1. "Creative Crusader". democraticworld.in. Retrieved 2022-03-17.
  2. ArtsPositive (2018-10-05). "Saving Khovar and Sohrai Tribal Art". Medium. Retrieved 2022-03-17.
  3. "79-YO Padma Shri Awardee Spent 30 Years Preserving 10000-Year-Old Art". The Better India. 2022-02-23. Retrieved 2022-03-17.
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