TravTalk India Online Magazine
Art experiences are a high-value social currency that no one is talking about. Kartik Gaggar, Founder and CEO at Rajasthan Studio, explains why having at least one art experience in your client’s travel itinerary should be a must if they are seeking the real pleasure of travel.
You have planned the travel itinerary to a tee – the hotels, the transport, all major attractions, the food joints. But aren’t you missing something? The exploration of the true beauty and culture of the place your clients are visiting. How many seek the localities of the place, interact with the native people of the city, and hear their stories about their place, the culture, the arts it is famous for?
Having travelled to dozens of places within the country and internationally, what I have learned is that the real pleasure of travelling to a new place lies in the people you meet, art forms you discover, learn and collect. This creates a strong sense of connection with the place that goes beyond the market-bought souvenirs or the gallery full of Instagrammable pictures. A local touch helps in transforming you from within and such experiences liberate your soul, expand your vision and satiate your wanderlust from within. In short, connecting with the roots gives you such a high that no other thing can probably ever give. But, don’t take my word on it! Try it yourself to believe it.
The local culture is its people
No matter how many tourist guides or Google pages you cram to understand the history, demography and culture of a place, the truest way to know a place is to visit it and know it from internally. Hence, the best way to accomplish it is through having unhurried and intense conversations with the people who live there. An art experience or a workshop with the native artists can help you not just learn a local art/craft but also know the cultural aesthetics and the stories of how the people of the place have been preserving their glorious past by entwining them into the present times through art forms, food, collection galleries, and other ways.
The real FOMO
Art experiences are a high-value social currency that no one is talking about. People never fear missing out on material things; they always regret the things they didn’t do. Indulging in an art experience is like uncovering the layers to seek the light within. It helps you understand the art in its raw form, when it’s not even art, its abstract things, culminated mind. In that moment, you become art! This feeling of submerging yourself into art and creating art along with the impassioned narration of tales by the artist is beyond any materialistic indulgences. It’s also a beautiful way of contributing to the sustenance and building of local communities.
Contribute to the community
When you buy art directly from the artist, you are helping them sustain themselves. There are so many invaluable art forms across the world that are dying or are already forgotten because the new generation didn’t pursue them. While artists and artisans are driven more by passion, they have families to feed. Therefore, when people stop preserving, promoting and acknowledging the native art forms, they begin to diminish, and just like that they become history.
Authentic and adventurous
What’s better than learning art forms from a master artist? Learning it together with your close ones! Trust me, turning this art experience into a family time activity, a friends’ day out, or a team-building exercise can do wonders for your bonding and rapport with the others. Creating art teaches you patience, appreciation, teamwork, and most of all love for handmade things.
