News
April 24, 2009, India Abroad Sensational India draws over 3,000 people
The first annual Sensational India! festival held at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, attracted over 3,000 people April 4 and 5 from across the New England area.
The celebration of India's sights, sounds and tastes - slated to be an annual event for the next six years - is a partnership between the Burlington, Massachusetts-based nonprofit Desai Family Foundation and the PEM. It is also a celebration of the museum's 200-year legacy of cultural exchange with India.
Samir Desai, president, Desai Family Foundation, said the museum had "come alive with the sounds of the veena and tabla, the aroma of the finest in Indian cuisine and the color and vitality of Indian classical and folk dance."
Megha Desai, Samir and Nilima Desai's daughter who founded the Desai Foundation and directs it, said that a day before the festival, the PEM held "a private opening for its inner circle of about 130 board members, trustees, longtime supporters and friends to provide them with a sneak peak at the ReVisions Exhibition," which kicked off the first day of the festival and will run through April 2010. The exhibition presents 14 contemporary Indian art works in tandem with traditional pieces including Mughal court painting, medieval temple sculpture and photography. Among the artists featured are M F Husain, Gieve Patel, Ravinder Reddy and Jogen Choudhury.
At the event, Megha said exposure to Indian culture and art 'was an essential part of my growing up' as a second-generation Indian American 'and it made me proud of my heritage and proud to call myself Indian.'
The festival included a riveting lecture from bestselling cookbook author and actress Madhur Jaffrey about her most recent book, Climbing the Mango Trees: A Memoir of a Childhood in India, and a dialogue between Susan Bean, the PEM's curator of South Asian and Korean Art, and Surupa Sen, artistic director of the Nrityagram Dance Company. From the Durga Krishnan and Suchita Rao performed with their students and the KrishnaRasi Group presented Carnatic-jazz fusion.
April 16, 2009 Lokvani PEM Celebrates Sensational India
The Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA celebrated its illustrious 200-year legacy of cultural exchange with India with an elaborate "Sensational India!" festival over the weekend of April 4-5. The first of seven such annual events being planned, the two-day festival explored the cultural interplay between the rich and intricate Indian fine art forms of painting and sculpture, and the glorious performing arts of India rooted in hoary antiquity and towering tradition. The festival also pitched in various ethnic cultural participatory activities and traditional art, music, film, Indian story telling, fortune telling and live cooking demonstrations for good measure.
March 16, 2009 India New England Sights, Sounds of ‘Sensational India!’ on Tap
The Peabody Essex Museum in Salem is hosting an elaborate two-day festival April 4-5 in conjunction with the opening of a new exhibition, “ReVisions, Indian Artists Engaging Traditions.” The festival is the first of seven annual “Sensational India!’ events being planned.
March 12, 2009 Boston Business Journal - Peabody Essex lands India exhibit
A collaboration between the Desai Family Foundation and the Peabody Essex Museum will bring the “Sensational India!” festival to the museum each year for the next seven years.
The program will showcase both ancient and modern aspects of India’s culture.
February 16-28, 2009 - India New England Desai Family Foundation Creates ‘Rituals’ Resource
In every culture, the subject of death is handled differently. Western cultures tend to see death as a final, feared conclusion whereupon the fates of afterlife are ultimately decided. Many Eastern cultures view death as merely an extension of one’s time on earth and treat it as an occasion for the person in question to be celebrated, revered and remembered. In many cultures, talking about and preparing for death can be an uncomfortable experience or even a taboo subject. According to local businessman Samir Desai, death is a topic from which many members of the local Indian community shy away despite its importance.
October 1, 2008 IndUS Business Journal - Indian Americans Should Be Philanthropic Force
India has a rich tradition of supporting public works, arts and architecture throughout its history and culture. From time immemorial the Rishis of the Upanishads have exhorted their disciples to engage in charity, to give according to their wealth with faith and humility. Over two thousand years ago the Emperor Ashoka undertook immense public works projects ranging from rest houses for pilgrims to hospitals and universities. In later times rulers like Emperor Akbar patronized the arts and architecture and were instrumental in building striking monuments that still stand as testimony to their largesse. In the South, the Vijaynagar Empire helped lift Kannada and Telugu literature to new heights and encouraged Carnatic music.
April 3rd, 2008 -Gala Benefit Auction held by Community Impact at Columbia University
Gala Benefit Auction will be held by Community Impact at Columbia University on April 3, 2008 from 6:00pm – 9:00pm at JP Morgan Chase. The gala enables staff and 900 student volunteers to provide youth development, adult education, health and social service referrals, food, computer training and many other urgently needed services to more than 8,000 disadvantaged residents of Upper Manhattan. Members of the Columbia University community, the business and finance community, and generous individuals contribute by donating high quality items for the auction, and by purchasing sponsorships and event tickets. Please join the gala to help a worthwhile cause. Thank you for the support and making the difference. For more details click here or go to www.columbia.edu/cu/ci/
July 16-31, 2007 - India New England Gateway Bombay
SALEM, Mass. — On hearing the word “Bombay,” one probably thinks of chat, Chowpatty, or cinema. The management student might think of the dabbawallas, the lunch carriers who won the Six Sigma rating from Forbes Magazine with just one instance of a mistake in 6 million. Perhaps, one might also think of the crowded morning commute, and the “locals,” trains that carry 6.1 million passengers everyday.
August 3, 2007 - Boston Globe Gateway Bombay
Can you name a famous contemporary artist from India? OK, other than Anish Kapoor? I couldn't either before I saw "Gateway Bombay," an exhibition at the Peabody Essex Museum that, despite being small and muddled, serves to introduce uninitiated viewers to some of India's most celebrated modern and contemporary artists.
