Rediff: Art of the global village

Delhi-based Vij hails
from a Fatehpur hamlet

In an art world in which living in a big city was almost necessary to be taken seriously, the web is opening up a once-closed market to rural artists, craftsmen and ethnic folk culture artisans. The story linked above, taken from an Indian publication, gives several examples of obscure hamlet artists finding success once their work is linked with the outside world.

Where "art" has been in the eyes of New Yorker or Parisian beholders, the online demand for creative products may actually help lessen the effects of globalization and trade liberalization. Concerns that artists will conform to the greater online market are beginning to fall in the face of realizations that new, and sometimes massive, audiences can be brought to arts that might otherwise go unseen or even die out.