Folkartopedia; Archive of Folk Arts is the first digital archive in Bihar and an open online resource of folk arts of India. It is a sincere endeavor in the direction of preservation, documentation and creating a digital archive of history and culture of folk arts in India. The vision of the Archive is very clear; to support the art and crafts communities of India, enhance art education and creative practices through digital culture and become a finest tool to boost the creative economy of the state.

The Archive is bridging the gap of between the traditional knowledge and the practice of digital culture in contemporary world. The Archive and the Foundation is led by the its founder director and an advisory committee of dignitaries from the diverse field that includes Padma Shri Brahmdeo Ram Pandit, eminent ceramist of India, Shri Jai Krishna Agarwal, Former Principal, College of Art and Crafts, Lucknow, Dr. Madan Meena, Director (hon.), Adivasi Academy, Vadodara and, Shri Nabin Roy, AGM, NABARD, Suchetana Banerjee, Assistant Professor, Symbiosis School for Liberal Arts, Pune, Maharashtra and two media personals from Delhi. The team Folkartopedia Archive is a composite of art enthusiasts of different backgrounds, working together for one cause, documentation, preservation and promotion of art and crafts culture.    

The team voluntarily running documentation project and archiving our living libraries and other pioneer folk artists of Bihar, including periodic Osara talks and other online educational activities. Documentation of arts and crafts culture, archiving the Living Libraries, and generation of born digital art and crafts contents are the mammoth tasks, we are into. These projects are underway. One of the major initiatives of Folkartopedia Archive is the promotion of art and crafts of Bihar through an open online resource or art education. You can access the resource here.

Folkartopedia Foundation, the organization behind the Archive, has a many projects and activities to carried out, that include Osara Talks, Symmetry Seminars, Khover (an art residency project) and creation of an artist’s archive, creation of folk art fund as a contingency fund for the folk art communities and Folkartopedia Fellowship to promote research and documentation in folk traditional and tribal arts.

For further information about our projects, please visit the dedicated section of the website here.

The Archive is run and govern by Folkartopedia Foundation, Patna a registered charity working in the field of folk Arts and culture including the contemporary practices since 2021 in the joint efforts with FoCarts India (OPC) Private Limited, a social entrepreneurial company based in Patna. Journalist and art writer Sunil Kumar is the founding director of Folkartopedia Foundation and FoCarts India also. The Archive was officially launched in 2020 by Sunil Kumar, with the help of his proprietorship firm Art News Network India, while seeking support from Government of Bihar under Start-up Policy. In 2021, FoCarts India was officially become a registered start-up initiative of Bihar, that has the prime focus to support and develop the archive up to the next level where it can generate it’s own resources for funding support. 

During the coronavirus period, Bihar lost it’s many living libraries and urgency of documenting the state’s living libraries and helping the artisans of Bihar in an emergency created the base to build upon the Folkartopedia Foundation and in 2021 it become a registered charity. Though the functionality of the Archive suffered a lot financially due to coronavirus pandemic, the collection of the Archive, in the form of artworks and digital contents is growing continuously, which is unique and rare.

The collection is based at the Folkartopedia Foundation office, in Patna. 

The Archive received it’s opening funding support from the Government of Bihar under Bihar Start-up Policy and now it has no funding support from any government. With the help of public support and individual donations, the Folkartopedia Foundation is managing funds to fuel the Archive independently. We need your support and donations to run the Archive. Please visit the support page or click here for instant giving.      

The Folkartopedia Archive is a collection of art content, held in textual, digital and multimedia formats and shared through our website. We have an administrative office in Patna, Bihar, which is not open to the public due to coronavirus pandemic outbreak. If you plan a visit to our office or have a concern, please feel free to write an email or give a call at 91-6203677877 anytime between 11 am – 6 pm. We are happy to help you. 

The Folkartopedia Foundation, Patna is registered as a not-for-profit organization under Section- 8 (1) of the Company Act 2013. The Section-8 license number of the foundation is 128604.

The Folkartopedia Foundation has a permanent office in Patna, Bihar and does not currently plan to open any office outside Bihar. The Foundation is also in the process of developing a permanent art centre in surrounding Patna. Also, the Foundation is open to collaborate any art and craft institution of similar nature outside Bihar.

To support the Archive financially, you can donate to the folkartopedia foundation by credit / debit card, cheque, demand draft, bank, online / wire transfer, or by demand draft or writing a cheque in the favor of Folkartopedia Foundation. Please visit Donation or Support page for more details. . 

You can send Folkartopedia a donation only from an Indian bank account, in Indian rupees. We are currently not registered with FCRA for accepting foreign funds.

All donations made to the Folkartopedia Foundation are eligible for exemption under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act, 1961.

Digital content creation for Folkartopedia: The team at Folkartopedia is continuously creating digital content of folk and traditional arts, i.e. textual content, photos, video etc. The Fund bears the costs, including maintenance of the website. 

Projects: Digital Culture and Living Libraries. To know more about the projects, click here. 

Staff: Most top websites like ours employ a huge staff. We have non. As the mission is high and tasks have to taken, we need to employ professionals. We need you funding support. 

Yes, you can. To make a pledge / monthly sustaining gift, please visit our donation page and click ‘Thanks Giving’ and indicate how much you would like to contribute.

All donors who give through our online donation flow will receive a receipt via email. Depending on the payment method used, it can take 2 – 4 weeks for the receipt to arrive. Donors using an offline method such as sending a check will receive their receipt at the mailing address provided with the donation, unless they provide us with an email address. 

There are many ways to show your support. Your time is just as important as a monetary contribution. If you would like to volunteer for the Archive, please email folkartopedia@outlook.com for more information. Please mentioning Volunteer in subject line. 

• Any request for cancellations and refund of online donations via our online payment gateway once placed on the website, shall not be entertained. No cash or refund of money is possible after completing the online donation. We therefore request you to be sure before you donate.
• We strongly support ethical practices and reserve the right to return any donation, in the rare circumstances, should the donation be from a source that does not align with our ethical approach.
• All donations made through this page will go towards building the Folk-Art Fund of Folkartopedia Foundation.
• All donations made to the Folkartopedia Foundation are eligible for exemption under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act, 1961. For any queries, comments, or feedback, please write to us at “folkartopedia@outlook.com”.