Facilitators and mentors

Anil Chitrakar promotes local economic development across Nepal, collaborating with all government levels. With a focus on conserving Nepal’s unique heritage and advancing renewable energy, he draws on his background as an engineer and energy planner, trained at the University of Rajasthan and the University of Pennsylvania. Beginning his career in the 1980s as an energy engineer. His global recognition stems from conservation education campaigns that engage youth. 

Ani Chitrakar is an engineer and energy planner who focuses on efforts on heritage conservation and environmental management across Nepal. He is the founding member and promoter of Nepal Art Village which aims at promoting the artisans' families for a vibrant destination for the future generation. 

Dishebh Raj Shrestha is a lecturer at Kathmandu University and teaches Graphic Design.Dishebh holds a Bachelor's in design from Raffles College of Design and Commerce, and an MBA from Westcliff University. He has also completed courses in Human Centered Design and Social Entrepreneurship. He strives to merge passion with sustainable careers for aspiring creatives, and currently runs Square Studio, a collective for designers, to pursue passion projects along with commissioned ones. 

Dr. Inge Panneels, artist and Research Fellow at Edinburgh Napier University, Creative Informatics, is looking at how data and technology can help the creative industries and the role creativity can play to implement a culture shift towards a circular economy which operates within social and ecological boundaries. She is a current Trustee of Edinburgh Tool Library; Crafts Advocate for Creative Arts Business Network (CABN) and Specialist Advisor for Creative Scotland and Scottish Arts Council. 

Kirti Man Shakya is a faculty member at Department of Arts and Design at Kathmandu University since 2011. He comes from a traditional crafts family, basically working on metal casting, jewellery, and accessories based on lost wax casting and sheet metal work. He was a visiting faculty member at the Department of Jewellery Design, Beaconhouse National University, Pakistan from 2008-2010 as well as at Qinghai Nationalities University, 2018. 

Dr. Lynne Hocking is a handweaver and trained scientist whose work sits at the intersection of art/craft and science, creating handwoven objects that turn data into physical objects. Her practice has a strong focus on environmental sustainability, upcycling and aiming for minimal waste. Along with her own work and teaching, she also supports creative, multi-disciplinary collaborations through academic research projects and presents this work regularly at conferences and other forums. 

Rosha Bajracharya is trained as a journalist, who launched Crafted in Kathmandu not as a business company but to help trained skilled artisan families to sustain their livelihood. She furthered the concept to develop it into a bigger goal to join hands with master craftsmen to create Nepal Art Village after the 2015 earthquake. 

Pratisthit Lal Shrestha is an Engineer and Assistant Professor of Design and Manufacturing, Mechanical Engineering at Kathmandu University, Nepal. He is the team leader and principal investigator at Design Lab (working on innovation, digital manufacturing and design closely with artists and engineers). He has been involved in the field of Bio mechatronics, Prosthetics, Assistive Devices and Product Development in the Design lab. 

Prina Bajracharya is a Computer Engineer who ended up being a Human Centric Designer. She is passionate about understanding people, and their needs (why they do what they do?) and believes that a good design can make a difference in creating meaningful experiences. Her work is motivated by a deep belief in design as a medium for problem solving, understanding and establishing relationships between ideas and reality, and strengthening the interactions between people and the product they use.