Home i»i About iKala iMadhyam i»i FAQ
 
1. How does Kala Madhyam make a difference? How do people benefit from our work?
Kala Madhyam is not just about a craft Store. The Store is one of the organisation’s activities. We also organise the Kala Madhyam Arts Mela, an event that our crafts people keenly look forward to. Besides this, we hope to initiate various programmes that would help nurture and promote community enterprises and protect craft traditions. This would not only make people self–reliant, but, with alternate avenues for income generation, it would ‘ease the pressure on land and forest reserves’.
Our Activities:
The Kala Madhyam Store operates on a profit sharing system. We try to ensure at least 60% of proceeds go directly to our crafts people. When it comes to Mural projects, our crafts people take home a good 70% of the total. A sizable part of our income is used to cover rentals, framing costs, storage and damage, transportation, etc. and our administrative expenses are kept well under 10%.
 
We make prompt payments to our producers and advance payments when necessary. Most importantly, our crafts people know that they can rely on Kala Madhyam in difficult times, to follow up on payments from customers or as a fall back measure, to house excess stock after attending an exhibition in Bangalore.
 
The Kala Madhyam Arts Mela is more than just an arts festival. We create a family friendly environment where people can find traditional art, as well as folk craft with a contemporary edge, savour a flavour of the rural and appreciate the performing arts in a warm, charming atmosphere.
Our Future Plans:
• Encourage and financially support crafts people to train and develop talent from within their communities to secure craft traditions and give more people the opportunity to learn their craft and sustain livelihoods
• Conduct workshops beneficial to crafts people: marketing, book keeping, design and merchandising etc
• Engage designers in these workshops: to expose crafts people to contemporary needs and designs and enable them incorporate elements in their crafts
• Open a chain of folk art and craft stores across India and the world
• Organise festivals that show case tribal and folk art, craft, foods and cultural performances in metropolitan cities of India and at international venues
• Introduce folk art topics and activities in school curriculums so that children may understand, appreciate and respect our culture and heritage
• Establish an arts and crafts village in Bangalore: provide direct and continual opportunity for crafts people to market their products, develop a creative space for both the visual and performing arts, build a centre/museum that showcases nuances of our culture, promotes cultural tourism in a sensitive manner and generates revenue for the State
Our Principles:
Be accredited as a As we are a small organisation and our products come from across India, it is difficult to closely monitor
work environments and processes. However, we hope to gradually get aligned with the Fair Trade policy such that all our crafts people are able
to understand and adopt these principles.
 
2. Do we have a method of selecting crafts people?
We promote genuine, skilled crafts people who have been registered with the Department of Handicrafts. We also house a range of crafts from organisations supporting crafts people; such as Harmara Leather society, self-help groups from Rajasthan, the Andhra Pradesh Rural Livelihood Programme and RUDA from Rajasthan.
 
3. How many crafts people have we reached out to?
To date we are 250 strong and still growing. Of these, 100 crafts people regularly supply products to our Store.
 
4. Are our products from organic sources?
While some of our products are organic, we have many produced from non-organic sources. We hope, to the maximum extent possible, be able to encourage and support our crafts people in producing organic crafts.
 
5. How many branches do we have?
We have only one office-cum-Store located in Bangalore.
 
6. Do we sell online and supply to other countries?
Yes, we can service product requests from places outside Bangalore as well as other countries upon full cash payment. Product enquiries can be made through our website enquiry form, email or by phone.