Glimpses of Asian Indian Culture
Saturday, October 26
The Everhart Museum is celebrating Asian Indian artistic traditions and the fifth year of the Pennsylvania Asian Indian Organization with the exhibition Glimpses of Asian Indian Culture: Paintings by Mona Pande, on view October 23–27, and a special community event on Saturday, October 26.
From 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. on October 26, come see beautiful works in the Madhubani and Rajesthani styles while enjoying a variety of activities, including lectures, demonstrations, music, dance, and food, all free with regular museum admission.
Schedule
2:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m.:
• Introduction and talk about Indian culture by Prasanna Rao and Sunita Arora
• Indian Art introduction by folk artist Mona Pande
• Followed by Indian music, folk dance, traditional dance, and discussion
• Zardozi work, Indian embroidery demonstration by Anuradha Nuguri
3:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m.:
• A Taste of Asian Indian Cuisine food, Cooking Demonstration and talk about Indian culture by Prasanna Rao and Sunita Arora
• Display of Indian Photography by Leela Baikadi
• Cooking demonstration by Ramya Kunapalli
• Finale–A group folk dance, Garba/stick dance demonstration with audience participation
Madhubani Krishna by Mona Pande
About Mona Pande
Mona Pande was born in India surrounded by family who immersed her in the practice of traditional Indian folk arts – specifically Madhubani, Rajesthsni Art, Pichwai Art, Rangoli Art, and Warli Art. She remembers vividly seeing her grandmother and aunts painting and being very attached to these various art forms.
“My aunt and my grandmother – they loved painting Rangoli art, Madhubani art and Rajesthsni art. My great-grandfather was a scholar and an Indian folk artist who painted in palaces in Uttaranchal, a fact which I found about from my dad after I started learning traditional arts myself.”
She traveled continually throughout India with her family and learned by watching various art forms performed by both skilled artists and everyday people in many different villages. She was fascinated and emotionally attached but didn’t begin her training until later in life when she began practicing these arts herself. Mona considers herself self-taught, and in the course of her studies, she went back to those many different villages to talk with those traditional artists and practitioners.
“I mainly work in the traditional Indian and folk art like Madhubani, Warli Art, Pichwai art, Rajasthani art, and Kerala mural and Kalighat art. In my paintings, I combine traditional Indian art with an element of my imagination. I have transferred traditional Indian folk art forms, which village women of India did hundreds of years back on their mud hut walls, to my canvases using oil and acrylic paint.”
Ganesha by Mona Pande