This is the story of Cholamandal, which began in 1966 as an artists' village situated on a ten-acre plot on the Coromandel Coast near Chennai. It offered a place where artists could live, create, and share their art with others within the community. At Cholamandal, the creative artist is an equal participant in society, self-employed and independent. This book profiles a series of such creative artists, who have each carved a place for themselves in the world of art, some of them, internationally. Illustrated with over 130 beautiful colour plates depicting the artists' work, this is a wonderful and important document of a novel and sustainable idea, one which deserves emulation.