Unnati Cultural Village

Chaudhary Foundation

Chaudhary Foundation was established in 1995 by Chaudhary Group (CG) for philanthropic activities and social endeavors. Since its inception, social commitments across the nation for the most vulnerable communities have been integrated as programs and projects of the Foundation. Along with the evolution of the Chaudhary Group, its responsibility and expectation towards society have also evolved striving towards bigger responsibilities and achieving effective social impact towards the nation.

“ Chaudhary Foundation feels a strong sense of responsibility towards society and strives to build a better, healthier Nepal. We are committed to improving lives and strengthening our communities.

Unnati

Unnati is an initiative of the Chaudhary Foundation catering towards sustainable development of traditional livelihood programs and women empowerment. Unnati’s philosophy is the revival and survival of national heritage, through forms of crafts, dance, music, foods, language, habitat, and essentially encompassing the philosophy of life by which civilizations once thrived in culture and traditions. The essence is to bring the lost and found, old and new back into our everyday life.

“ Eventually, everything connects - people, ideas, objects. The quality of the connection is the key to quality per se.

- Charles Eames, 20th century

Abastract

UNNATI (Upscaling National Natural, Artistic, & Traditional Industries), conceived as a transdisciplinary initiative proposes to structure and augment Nepal’s Creative and Cultural Sector.

It will grow to address design-led imperatives ensuring the Future of Traditional Livelihoods. UNNATI will fuel the engine for rural economies by building value chains for the skilled vulnerable keepers of National Heritage.

Decentralized capacity building, generation of original contented strategic global branding will go hand in hand to position an ongoing and sustainable celebration of South Asia’s legacy enterprises

Chaudhary Foundation through its Unnati initiative has established the first center of excellence for the Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) and artisanal community of Nepal at ‘Unnati Cultural Village’ (UCV). Looking at the prospect of the multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic, and diverse geography of Nepal, the Unnati team has embraced the importance of its national heritage and the need for conservation.

Meet Our Team

Advisory Board

Rahul Chaudhary

CEO- CG Hospitality Holdings & MD- CG Corp Global

Surabhi Chaudhary

Director, Unnati

Narayan Shrestha

Sr.GM, CG Corp Global

Management Team

Mahesh Phuyal

Senior Manager, CG Hospitality

Prasanna Bajracharya

Deputy Manager, Chaudhary Foundation

Himal Giri

MEP Incharge

Muse

Gopal Kalapremi Shrestha

Sculptor, ceramist, and visual artist, Gopal Kalapremi Shrestha is a Nepali artist who occupies an important place in the artistic milieu of his country. He creates, exhibits, animates workshops, and participates in residences in Nepal and abroad since the 1980s. His production is a unique universe, inspired by tribal shapes that he revisits with very clean lines of great sophistication. Gopal Shrestha freely uses all that surrounds him: clay, plants, minerals, wax, metal, sand, sawdust, gold leaf, and many other mediums to give us his own vision of the world through a syncretic prism.

Gopal Kalapremi Shrestha teaches at the Kathmandu University Center for Art and Design and has also taught at Jeonju University in South Korea. He animated ceramic workshops in Korea, Pakistan, France, Denmark, Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka. He has published several books on ceramics and sculpture techniques as well as poems. This interdisciplinary artist carries out a work of cultural interbreeding that highlights the contrasts of the modern and traditional society in which he evolves. For more information: Clik here!

Ramesh Pradhan

Ramesh Pradhan hails from Bhaktapur, the city famous for its exquisite Newar art and architecture. And his place of residence at Potters Square (Bolachhen), two minutes’ walk from Durbar Square, has been a big influence in shaping Pradhan as a Sculptor. Pradhan has been actively working in the line of clay for 22 years now. He upholds respect for skills and techniques in his crafts. Much of his art deals with human relationships and struggles in life.

Terracotta is the medium of his sculptures, although he has experimented with metal, wood, stone, and cement cast. He amazingly creates wheel-thrown and hand-built studio potteries, figurines, sculptures, and other artworks. His works are contemporary, but he uses the traditional way of firing his clay products in straw and wood. In 1997, he set up a Ceramic Art Studio to teach traditional and modern terracotta techniques and design.

Sabita Maharjan

Sabita Maharjan is passionate about textile-based craft. Sabita produces various ranges of a machine and hand-knitted items. Her products mostly use natural fiber textiles, which are either digitally printed with water-based inks, or screen-printed locally.

Sabita is among few women who are running her reputed cottage industry ‘Kirtipur Hosiery Industry’ (KHI). She is a strong-willed domestic violence survivor and has been empowering hundreds of local women of Kirtipur through her knitting venture. Her industry has adapted by catering to the local market with products like garments, wool sweaters, bags, and more. She also makes good use of recycled materials. Once a month, she and her colleagues collect waste plastic from her locality and use it to make recycled handicraft products.

Meena Kayastha

Meena Kayastha is a young Nepali artist who builds contemporary sculptures that incorporate elements of the traditional Nepalese art. Her works combine hybrid garbage collected from junkyards in Nepal with figurative elements made from papier mache which brings about a transformation into the art of elements, a priori deemed unnecessary and destined to destruction.

Kayastha‘s work of recovery and transformation of waste into art takes on a particularly strong dimension in this context, as a reflection of the cultural changes taking place in Nepalese society and as a mechanism to accelerate them. The new life that the artist offers to these objects recalls certainly the social change experienced by Nepal but it also echoes the process of reincarnation inherent to Hinduism and Buddhism. Meena leaves the outer aspect of objects recognizable and identifiable, but she changes their value and meaning by modifying their form and assembling them. Strangely enough, she possesses the magic power to transform garbage into extremely elegant and precious art pieces.

Reshma Maharjan

Known for Macrame, Reshma Maharjan creates watergrass and elephant grass macrame products. Reshma has been experimenting with knotting techniques since the late 2000s. A master of her artwork, she has taken to using primary knots and various forms of hitching to develop products like custom plant hangers and wall hangings, lampshades, rope necklaces, chokers, cushions, and many more. In 2019, Reshma established a handicraft enterprise called Nature Craft with a motive to empower women by creating employment opportunities.

Sushma Shrestha

Sushma Shrestha is a skilled and trained artisan from handmade papercraft. The unique style of Sushma’s work combines an outstanding level of composure and steady hand along with the traditional touch. She uses her obvious gain of design knowledge to regularly create Nepali paper, Diaries, Notebooks, Earrings, Jeweler, and more. Sushma is an entrepreneur who independently runs her business, Sushma Handicraft based in Jiri, Dolakha, Nepal.

Lain Lama

Lain Lama is a multi-talented artist as his expertise is in line with the visual arts like Thangka painting, drawing, and designing sculpture and stone craft. Lain mostly works for a monastery; designing and creating Thangkas, mandalas, masks based on Nepalese, Indian, and Tibetan style. Lain encourages others to pursue a career fearlessly as a visual artist if someone really desires for.