“For years, I’ve felt that the idea of Indian craft—and Indian craftspeople—has been reduced, as if it’s a separate, lesser category from contemporary design,” Misra says. “At the same time, I’ve met extraordinary makers whose understanding of material, process, and the meaning embedded in objects, is just as sophisticated.” Her goal is to bring design and craft together—not just on equal terms, but in creative harmony.
With a fast-growing population of 1.4 billion and several of the largest cities on earth, India is a world—and a market—unto itself. But Misra had larger ambitions in establishing Shakti—a Sanskrit word meaning strength, energy, or power. “For a long time, the reference points for what counted as ‘good design’ were almost entirely Western,” she observes. “And that shaped how Indian makers saw their own work. That’s now shifting.”
The shift is visible everywhere: Indian artists and architects are gaining real traction globally, and events like Kerala’s Kochi Biennale—Asia’s largest noncommercial art exhibition—and the India Art Fair draw big names like David Zwirner and Carpenters Workshop Gallery. That momentum extends well beyond the country’s borders. In midtown Manhattan, House of Santal has opened an 8,000-square-foot gallery of Indian-designed furniture and objects just blocks from MoMA, while in Mumbai, the collectible design gallery Aequō collaborates with AD100 Hall of Famer Kelly Wearstler and represents international talents including Estúdio Campana and Linde Freya Tangelder.
Against that backdrop, Shakti is already emerging as a thought leader on the future of craft in a postindustrial world. That’s a key subject for jury member Kulapat Yantrasast, part of the rotating panel of global design leaders who select and mentor the residency’s participants. Yantrasast, the architect behind Thailand’s new Dib Bangkok Museum, is now at work on a vast national museum in New Delhi.
