Cholamandal Artists' Village

Cholamandal Artists' Village, established in 1966, is the largest artists' commune in India, whose artists are credited for the Madras Movement of Art (1950s–1980s), which brought modernism to art in the South India. Their work is widely recognized as some of the best art produced in postwar India, and is shown regularly in galleries across the country; in fact several Cholamandal artists have also shown in Europe, the United States and South America. Situated at village Injambakkam, 9 km from Chennai, India, it has over twenty resident painters and sculptors, who live as a community and pool their skills; they also run the Artists Handicrafts Association, a cooperative which manages the village and sale of works through the permanent exhibition at the complex, which includes paintings, sketches, terra-cotta/stone/metal sculptures, batiks and handicrafts etc., made by the artists living the village, making the village a self-supporting entity.

The community was founded by K. C. S. Paniker, the principal of the Madras School of Arts, along with his students and a few artists associated with the college. It used the `art-meets-craft' approach where artists made handicrafts for a living even as they pursued their art. By 1970s, the village became self-sufficient, and grew into one of the most important meeting places for international artists in India, and today, it remains one of the few artist-driven movements that India. Four decades on, it is one of the few artists' colonies in the world to survive successfully and its foundation remains one of the "10 biggest art moments" in India.