Lakshmi Narayan and Maianna von Hippel may be described as 'socially conscious entrepreneurs'. They are the co-founders of Village India Arts, Inc founded in 2005 to introduce beautifully hand-embroidered textile articles made by a collective of Lambani tribal women artisans in Southern India to the global marketplace. Lakshmi Narayan is a textile artist who was a design and project consultant for the Collective for ten years before she moved to the US.  She maintains her connection to the Collective and continues her design consultation and support of the artisans, their textiles, and their culture.  Maianna von Hippel, worked for many years as a social worker and advocate for women and children, and a community organizer, and brings these experiences to the company as well as her skill as a writer. 

When I meet them at Maianna’s home in Cambridge, I am greeted with a riot of amazing colors and eye catching products that range from floor cushions, belts, scarves, spectacle cases, mirrored caps and credit card cases. It is an astonishing variety of work that is being prepared for an upcoming cultural revival show in Cambridge. They hope to showcase these intricate and exquisite designs to the visitors and sell these goods that will help not only their business but also the cause of the girl child of the Lambani tribal group. Mainaana tells me that her research into the Lambani tribe has revealed so many aspects of the lives. For instance the women designed these patterns to traditionally decorate the articles for a Lambani’s girl-child’s dowry. Adds Lakshmi,” The mirrored front panels that are sewn on the shoulders or sleeves of the blouses on the Lambanis’ women indicated their married status” Maianna also traces their history to the nomadic salt carriers or gypsies that were left without work once the trains came to India. However the local maharajah family started a collective and helped to revive the art. Lakshmi worked with the collective for years before she moved to the US and as a textile designer decided to keep her connection through Village India Arts, Inc.

After much thought they contacted the administrator of a local residential school with a reputation for academic excellence to inquire about the tuition cost to enroll artisans' daughters as day students. The administrator agreed to support the cause and the total tuition cost per day student is $2000 for twelve years of education. In order to address this need, Lakshmi and Maianna have introduced a new product - custom-made large wall panels. These superbly designed wall panels can adorn and highlight any wall space as a centerpiece. Lakshmi says that they are all custom designed to suit the customer. “We meet with the customer, discuss backgrounds, design a pattern and get their approval. We then communicate their needs via email and phone calls to the person at the collective in Sandur and it does work well. As to the quality of the product we stand by that.  We also provide the customer with a framed photo of the Lambani women artisans and a photo of the child who will receive the tuition grant to attend the Sandur School”. They hope that corporations and museums will support this panel project. Some of their other products are already displayed at the Peabody Museum.

Maianna hopes that they can  take advantage of the current explosion of Information Technology development that is leading the Indian economy. "We feel that it is important that the artisans working in traditional crafts remain a viable and vibrant sector of the culture in modern India”. We believe in the product and the cause"The company is a member of the Fair Trade Corporation and have a partnership with a non profit group Volunteers In Service To Education In India (VSEI), which is a charity authorized by the United States Internal Revenue Service to accept tax deductible donations. VSEI is located in the United States and has been supporting education projects in India since 1968.

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