Our Team

Introduction

Padmashree Sardar Gurchan Singh, pioneer potter of India, started Delhi Blue Art Pottery in 1952 on the outskirts of Delhi. Set up primarily as a production and a teaching centre, it remains the oldest pottery institution in the country, with an extensive history of more than 65 years, for the promotion of pottery. In 1991 he founded the Delhi Blue Pottery Trust, to take forward his objectives. Presently his son, eminent potter, Sardar Mansimran Singh heads the Trust, supported by the Trustees.


Sardar Gurcharan Singh : Founder (1899-1995)

For details check history.

Our Team

Sardar Mansimran Singh

Managing Trustee

Renowned potter, both at the National and International level, has been in the field of pottery for 5 decades. On returning from UK in 1960 after apprenticing under Bernard leach and Geoffrey Whiting he joined his father at Delhi Blue Art Pottery and continued to work there till 1983. During this period he held innumerable exhibitions all over the country, and taught an endless stream of students from many countries. In 1983 he and his wife Mary moved to the village of Andretta in Kangra Valley in the state of Himachal Pradesh. Starting the Andretta Pottery and Craft Society, he trained local potters in the production of glazed terracotta and has made Andretta Pottery a household name. He continues to teach students, hold workshops and work with the local craftsmen.

Ravi Batra

An engineer by profession he has been a founder trustee since 1991. His activities for the Trust include administrative and financial inputs. He is the main coordinator between the Trust and Sanskriti-Delhi Blue Ceramic Centre, all of whose activities he oversees.

Dr.Raj Kubba

A doctor by profession, he has been actively involved in collecting ceramics for the last thirty years. Extremely knowledgeable on the subject, his inputs have been invaluable for ceramic artists’, especially from a collectors point of view.

Anuradha Ravindranath

An avid pottery lover, she trained under Mansimran Singh in 1975. She has been collecting pottery for the last 40 years and has perhaps one of the largest collections of Gurcharan Singh’s and Mansimran Singh’s works. She joined the Trust in 1996, since then she has been involved in the conceptualisation and execution of all the major events of the Trust, including the Terrafest and the Ceramicsfest. She compiled a book titled ‘Pottery and The Legacy of Sardar Gurcharan Singh’, which was published by the Trust in 1998.

Sudha Pillai

Sudha Pillai IAS (Retd.), served as the Secretary for the Ministry of Labour and Employment, GoI. She has 45 years of experience in policy formulation relating to Technology Transfer, Foreign Investment and Competition Law, National Skill Development Policy and Safety, Health & Environment at the Workplace. Painting is for her a serious hobby. She works at the Delhi Blue Studios whenever time permits. Her ceramic murals are installed at prominent places in Delhi. She joined the Trust in 2014 and regularly advises it on policy matters, and participates in all its promotional programmes.

Soni Dave

Soni Dave has been a practising potter for 20 years. She studied under Devi Prasad, an inspirational and thorough teacher, who included in his teachings, the fine art of kiln making. She has been part of several group shows and had her first solo show in 2016. She joined the Trust in 2016, and assists the trust in the technical aspects of all its ceramic programs and events. She is a sketching artist and designs the trusts memorabilia.

Indu Rao

Indu Rao has done her BFA and MFA from M.S.University, Baroda. She studied under Devi Prasad, from whom she learnt the making of, and an appreciation for, the pure functional form. Being in this field for nearly twenty five years, she continues to work at Sanskriti Delhi Blue Ceramic Centre. As a trustee, she also oversees the functioning of the Ceramic Centre. She has taken part in several group shows and done a one month residency in Jingdezen, China. She joined the Trust in 2016.