Workshop Opens New Doors For Nepal’s Design Industry

U.S. embassy officials participated in the closing ceremony of an Industrial Design workshop, on August 5 at Kathmandu University’s Center for Art and Design. Sponsored by the U.S. embassy, the workshop was a pilot program held by Notre Dame University Professor Ann-Marie Conrado. According to a press statement by the embassy, for two weeks, 26 students and working professionals participated in the workshop to improve their handicraft product design skills. 'The program is part of a larger initiative to strengthen and diversify Nepal’s handicraft industry so that more Nepali handicrafts can be exported to western markets,' says the statement. The Pokhara-based Hope Initiative, founded by Ms. Conrado, received $73,280 from the US Department of State Innovation Fund to develop and implement this new curriculum on handicraft product design in Nepal.

 

The closing ceremony was a creative culmination of the work of students, who used traditional Nepali techniques in paper-making, silk screening and other fields to create new designs for the handicraft industry.