Our Founder
Iti Tyagi Singh
Cultural Institution-Builder | Social Entrepreneur | Designer | Author | Filmmaker
She has helped the future of living heritage through design, culture and social innovation.
Executive Profile
Iti Tyagi Singh
Iti Tyagi is an Indian designer, cultural entrepreneur, author and social innovator whose work lies at the intersection of living heritage, contemporary design, sustainable livelihoods and cultural storytelling. As the Founder of Craft Village and India Craft Week, and the force behind the International Craft Awards, she has worked to create new institutional platforms through which traditional craftspeople, indigenous knowledge systems and India's diverse creative communities can engage with contemporary society and international audiences.
A recipient of the Nari Shakti Puraskar, conferred by the President of India in 2019 for the 2018 award cycle, Tyagi represents a distinctive approach to social entrepreneurship—one that treats culture not merely as a legacy to be preserved, but as a living resource for economic participation, creative expression and community development.
Her work has consistently sought to address a fundamental imbalance within the craft economy: the separation of the people who create cultural value from the markets, institutions and audiences that benefit from it. Through Craft Village, she has championed platforms that connect artisans directly with designers, businesses, collectors, cultural institutions and contemporary consumers, while creating opportunities for skill development, collaboration and sustainable livelihoods.
Over the years, her work has evolved beyond craft promotion into a wider engagement with cultural research, filmmaking, literature, education and social advocacy. Having travelled extensively across India, she documents its lesser-known communities, artistic traditions, spiritual landscapes and cultural narratives through films, photography and writing. Her approach brings together the sensibility of a designer, the curiosity of a cultural explorer and the conviction of a social entrepreneur.
At its core, her work is guided by a larger proposition: heritage remains relevant when the people who carry it forward have the opportunity to shape its future.
