Michelle Obama to be treated to Zari, Phulkari

The exhibition galleries, usually closed on Mondays, would be specially opened for her.
According to museum officials, artisans are enthusiastically preparing for the visit, picking their best works for display.

Michelle will be treated to cane and bamboo crafts from Assam, pata chitra from West Bengal, crochet lace from Andhra Pradesh, zari-bid work from Delhi, Lajwanti Phulkari from Punjab and Madhubani paintings from Bihar.

Baul singers from Birbhum in West Bengal are also likely to welcome her with their music.
Soon after independence, various projects and schemes for preservation and development of handicrafts were envisaged in the first and second five year plans. The establishment of a crafts museum was an integral part of this policy.

The core collection of the crafts museum was put together in the 1950s and 60s to serve as reference material for the craftsmen whose hereditary traditions were fading on the face of industrialisation.

The low-lying museum building for displaying India's rural and tribal arts is designed by the renowned architect Charles Correa as a metaphor for an Indian village street - affable, accommodative and active.

A walk across the crafts museum building would be through open and semi open passages covered with sloping, tiled roofs and lined with old carved wooden jharokhas, doors, windows, utensils and storage jars and perforated iron screens; through courtyards having domed pigeon houses adorned with arches and lattice work panels, terracotta shrines dedicated to basil plants and massive temple chariots.

The scales and proportions of the building are based on those of the traditional Indian village where objects of everyday life are hand made and used.