In heartland India, midst mustard fields, you’ve grown a product rare

Which needed passion, vision true to crest beyond compare

A retreat that is source, resource, a place where art, craft bind

And ideas, ideals meld in hi- end furnace of the mind

A world class multi-art centre you’ve carved out of the earth

As Art Ichol is spun by you to give creativity full berth

In just a year of existence, your brainchild’s sprouted wings

To fly and soar and bird-pick talent—creating craft of kings

Homage too we pay to one who ceaselessly did make

With architectural tenacity—your Papa’s genius take

Where waste is art, where clay is smart, where minds have met and grown

Where every cranny, nook and spaces with fresh ideas are sown

You dreamed, you did, all fears you rid, and came out hugely ace

This web of magic you have spun will surely grow apace

This was my poetic tribute to Art Ichol after my dip into its conglomerative, creative ambience in Maihar. It is that sort of place, where you go, not just to gawk and talk, but to be in the midst of painters and installation artists and ceramicists; of photographers and curators and poets;  textile artists and gallerists; international journalists and writers of tomes, art critics and musicologists. It is a destination that needs to happen for anyone who is sensitive to all forms of art, to participate, to create, to imbibe.

The name Ichol is actually a peripheral hamlet, and Art Ichol, according to the introduction provided us “is a platform for the creating, sharing and promoting of the creative arts. It is a commune where resident artists, craft enthusiasts and talented artisans can collaborate and envisage concepts under open skies and relish the subtle symphonies of nature.”

One couldn’t have described this cultural chrysalis better. I was there at the invitation of Ambica Beri to celebrate the complete a year of setting up of this remarkable retreat. Ambica’s Gallery Sanskriti, is a happening, edgy art space, which completes 25 years, but it is the parallel pathway that she has trodden simultaneously which makes the tale so palpable.

We ask you to tarry here for a bit, just to get our geography in place. Art Ichol is on the Khajuraho Bandhavgarh Highway, at Ichol village, pretty close to Maihar in Madhya Pradesh. So, for those who wish to have a totality of experience, there’s the magnificent temples of Khajuraho at one end of the spectrum, and the Bandhavgarh National Park at the other end, home to a large tiger population. You could coincide visiting Art Ichol with the Khajuraho Dance Festival which takes place towards the end of February each year, for an entire week, featuring a wide range of Indian classical dance styles against the backdrop of the temples.

Or of course, Art Ichol exists anyway to induce and inspire you into visiting, creating and exploring the various facets available across three separate locations. There is Maihar - the heritage residency and ceramic studio in a colonnaded yellow-ochre century-old home − Sunderson House,  Art Ichol − the art center with India’s first open-air studio for artworks in stone, metal, wood, clay and fiberglass. And Amaria − the writer’s retreat in an idyllic setting by a lazy river, the Tamas.

And Maihar itself, a name we are all familiar with, because of the famous evocation of the Maihar Gharana. As one of the most prominent gharanas of the 20^th century, it was formed principally by the Sarode Maestro Ustad Alauddin Khan. We were able to pay a visit to his modest home in Maihar where all instruments and the place he taught and played in, are intact and we could stand awestruck before his Padma Vibhushan award.

During our visit, on the ceremonial one-year completion evening at Art Ichol, it was the Maihar Band that played under a spreading mango tree. Incidentally the Alauddin Khan Sangeet Samaroh also takes place in February every year. So there is much to add to your travel cart.

For starters, the stay itself at the heritage residency. Having been-there-done-that in terms of the Bandhavgarh-Khajuraho bit, I was totally focused on being hosted at the residency, to crenellate with a diverse group. A hospitable table accords us all, especially at the morning breakfast interaction with the hosts themselves—Ambica and Sanjiv and their son Aditya, (director of Gallery Sanskriti). The looming presence of longtime supporter of art and Ambica’s curations—Edward Oakley, who has contributed hugely to the revival and commercialization of Mirzapur carpets through his company Obetee; atists Jagannath Panda, Samit Das, Nobina Gupta, Rao, musician sister in law, Bhavana Sabherwal, journalist Sheema Mukherjee, cultural theorist Alka Pande, sculptor Debabrata De. And more artists were coming in like Laxma Goud. There’s shared anecdotes, poetic musings, bursts of song and structured showing of work in progress, very short siesta moments so that nothing is lost to a continuum of camaraderie.

A quick detour for me for an hour to try my hand at the ceramic centre – for you cannot but resist the temptation. And then we all go on to experience Art Ichol−something that is a museum cum artistic centre, that is unique in the way it has happened, and where many of the artists I have mentioned have worked and whose creations adorn many parts of the center to give it a grandeur of permanence.

And this is where I go back to Ambica’s story. Here she is, running a very successful gallery of contemporary and modern art in the comforting confines of her own hometown in Calcutta, and the next thing we know our leading artists are being taken to Maihar to work in a rural setting, close to nature, while staying at the heritage home, enjoying its own special vibes. I recall Ambica telling me about Bikash Bhattacharjee going there in the late nineteen nineties and coming back to Calcutta, to use her own words “bringing renewed life into the images of his mind onto canvas.”

And then workshops started blossoming every year, and national and international artists were invited to participate in artists in residency programs, and some of the creations just went on to set the foundations of a project that was meant to be – the physical structure of Art Ichol.

You might question—why Maihar, why Madhya Pradesh? What could impel citified Ambica to search into her heart and thrash into the wild wide open paddy and mustard fields and dry, baked earth to envisage an arts center?

A simple explanation, even if it is a mundane one—husband Sanjiv Beri’s limestone business. The business carries on apace, a company that has been around, through partnership changes for many decades. But it is here that Ambica would come, where the initial bungalow with its courtyard would be, the place where mother- in- law would supervise the grinding of masalas, and the family camaraderie would be sucked into its centripetal force.

The visits became more frequent, the bungalow was subtly transformed,  while part of it is the office and the residence of the family, the rest is there for visiting creators of art in all its forms.

So let’s rewind to the two decades of Ambica’s hosting and facilitating of national and international workshops and her interaction with artists, craftsmen and other professions—all of these being the spark to further ignite a grand passion. Of a multi-dimensional residency and art center in India’s rural heartland.

How to build the center? What materials? Who would ideate it? Everything seemed to fall in place with her father, renowned architect Suraj P. Sabherwal, in his eighties, giving his whole expertise, time and energy, in endless hours of blazing sun, to create a stunning piece of architecture for his own daughter, who, also, toiled alongside him. Add to this the genius of Narayan Sinha, our very own quirky artist who has the ability to transform scrap into the most functional and fabulous interiors. And Art Ichol in just three years was up and running. Modern, minimalistic, yet retaining the essence of tradition, sustainable, retaining an ancient stepwell or baori and a temple—chhatri, while the rest sparkles in the midst of bountiful wheat and mustard fields.

We rewind to 2014, a year when textile designer and writer Gopika Nath curated a significant residency, bringing together a group of highly talented individuals. It included two textiles designers, Gopika herself and Maggie Baxter, art facilitator Arshiya Sethi, fashion designer  Shalini Jaikaria, poet Sudeep Sen, film-maker and video-journalist Sapna Bhatia, photo editor of Fortune magazine Bandeep Singh and professor-photographer Amitabha Bhattacharya. Each of them brought alive the residency concept, and have, we believe, become an intrinsic part of Art Ichol. There’s more-- The Art Ichol foundation is sponsoring five underprivileged artists every year.

At the completion of its first year, it was an exercise in inclusivity as women and children from nearby villages were roped in to perform, thus gifting them a sense of belonging to this magical world which they would otherwise have only viewed from the outside. In fact, there is a ticketed system when anyone can come into the center for just Rs. 50 and take a tour of the artifacts and the sculptures and enjoy a quick snack at the café.

One cannot but be inspired to paint, write, sculpt, chisel at Art Ichol. It is there to access and be activated by.

Accessing Art Ichol

An overnight train from Calcutta takes you there. Or fly to Khajuraho or Jabalpur. And then drive the rest of the distance. We took the Mahakoshal Express from Delhi—a comfortable overnight journey, starting at 4 p.m. and got to Maihar at 8 a.m. You are always received at the station which is very close to Maihar House.

Your stay: There are 8 rooms in the bungalow, all done keeping both tradition and great comfort in mind. At a cost of US $ 100 per night, you can have all meals there, free wi-fi, laundry access to the gym, and local commute with driver services. These are A/C rooms, with double or two single beds, some with four posters, en suite bathrooms, flat screen TVs. Or you can opt to stay at the idyllic writers retreat, Amaria, very modern and extremely functional. It is a studio apartment. Where, as a writer, you could spend several days and perhaps get a novel up and running. And at Art Ichol itself, a beautiful set of five rooms. All of these cost US$ 100 per night. There are discounts during the summer months and also for those staying for two weeks or more.

Sightseeing

Art Ichol itself! But a visit to the Sharda Devi temple is a must, accessible by cable car. Must see the home of Baba Alauddin Khan too. Other visits recommended:  the Maihar Fort, Bandhavgarh National Park and Khajuraho and the Panna Tiger Reserve. The newest: the White Tiger safari in Rewa. And if you want to cast your net further, go on to the marble rocks near Jabalpur.

In heartland India, midst mustard fields, you’ve grown a product rare

Which needed passion, vision true to crest beyond compare

A retreat that is source, resource, a place where art, craft bind

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