Hasta Shilpa Trust to Launch New Museum of Toys for Children on November 14

Manipal: Hasta Shilpa Trust, Manipal will launch a new Museum of Toys and Playthings on Children’s Day, November 14, 2017. The museum will be housed in the restored Hasta Shilpa Heritage House, Manipal, flagship project of Vijayanath Shenoy, Founder-Secretary of Hasta Shilpa Heritage Village.

The museum showcases a collection of toys and playthings, many of which were traditionally used in different parts of Southern Karnataka in the care of children from infancy onwards. Some of these objects have had an important role to play in the development of skills among children such as motor, neurological and cognitive skills. These objects are no longer used in the modern era.

There are also miniatures such as animal figures, kitchen utensils, Chennapatna wooden toys, traditional board games, and interesting little knick-knacks from different parts of the modern world to hold the attention of the child. Lastly, there are a number of beautifully carved wooden cradles.

The museum is probably the first of its kind in India showcasing such a collection, which is inextricably linked to early childhood care and learning in earlier times. In addition, its modern curios are also bound to arouse curiosity.

The house which hosts the museum is the newly restored Hasta Shilpa Heritage House, Manipal. Although built as his family home in the period 1985-1990 by Vijayanath Shenoy, it was later vacated and sealed off after the privacy of Shenoy and his family was destroyed by the constant arrival of bus-loads of visitors, curious to see his remarkable home. Shenoy thenceforth dedicated his energy to setting up Hasta Shilpa Heritage Village.

Re-opening Hasta Shilpa Heritage House is significant as it displays the formative stages of Shenoy’s ideas on Hasta Shilpa Heritage Village which now draws a steady number of visitors. The Hasta Shilpa Heritage House is the place where he first experimented with displaying his collection of old, salvaged materials in culturally appropriate and aesthetic ways. This is where he dreamed of the idea of translocating entire houses, rather than only their remnants as artefacts, and thus was born the idea of Hasta Shilpa Heritage Village.  Locating the museum in the house is an attempt to encourage young children to observe and engage with an aesthetic heritage environment.

The Heritage house museum of toys and playthings is conceived as a dedicated space for school-going children, which will soon become a vibrant learning space. Exhibitions, performances, story-telling sessions, summer schools and workshops appropriate for school-going children are also planned.

The Hasta Shilpa Trust was able to raise a substantial part of the money required for the Museum from outside South Kanara in order to bring it to this stage. Jagannath Shenoy, Mysore, Arun Joti, Mumbai, Vaidehi Nandyal and Raghu Varadan (San Francisco and Bangalore) have contributed generously to the project.

The museum will be open only 3 days a week from November until the end of February, exclusively to groups of school children, only through advance booking by phone/email. Interested schools can contact Anuroopa Shenoy at Mobile +91 9483634576 or email at hastashilpahouse@gmail.com