The artisans’ success largely depends on pride in his vocation. Being commercially successful does not necessarily bring pride; recognition and respect is what counts. To encourage artisans to continue their tradition, excellence in work, and contribute to the community, the National Craft Council presents awards, prizes, medals, and certificates in all fields of creative work to honour quality, merit, and excellence in creations. Such awards are, distributed at the Provincial and National levels.
Provincial Exhibitions
Sri Lanka has nine provinces. Annual exhibitions are held in, each province. Awards, Prizes, Medals, and Certificates are, distributed to works of quality according to merit. The best exhibits are, selected for participation at the National level. Workmanship, creativity, design, innovation are the criteria applied in selection.
“Shilpa Abhimani” Presidential Awards Handicrafts Competition & Exhibition
The annual handicraft exhibition known as “Shilpa Abhimani” is currently the highest handicraft exhibition held in Sri Lanka. Prizes are awarded in 54 categories representing 31 basic fields. Two gold awards are awarded in two categories, traditional and new creations.
National silver awards are awarded in each field, in addition to certificates and monetary prizes for the first, second and third place winning creations.