Lectures & Talks
Baat Cheet: A Feast of Talks about Indian Culture
Saturday, December 10, 2:00 pm, followed by networking over chai and snacks provided by CurryUpNow.
FREE with museum admission
Ten Bay Area taste-makers give five-minute presentations about the impact of Indian culture and art on their creative work. From Bollywood to yoga, street food to poetry and art, South Asia has inspired creativity across the world. Speakers include: Pixar animator Sanjay Patel, poet and psychiatrist Ravi Chandra, artist Sita Kuratomi Bhaumik, LACMA curator Julie Romain, artist Ranu Mukherjee, musician Cory Combs, India West editor Lisa Tsering, contemporary art collector Dipti Mathur, yoga instructor Monica Desai Henderson, and music and dance professor Nalini Ghuman.
Maharajas: Political Theater and the Romance of the East
Saturday, January 28, 10:30 am
Samsung Hall
$40 (does not include museum admission; price includes lunch). Register online.
In this symposium, speakers will address various aspects of the maharajas' cultural patronage and its impact on Indian art and politics from the eighteenth through the early twentieth century. Topics will include responses to British colonialism in India, issues of identity during the British Raj, and Indian engagement with European culture.
Speakers include:
Tushara Bindu Gude, Associate Curator of South and South East Asian Art at LACMA; Barbara Metcalf, Professor Emeritus, History of South Asia, UC Davis; Thomas Metcalf, Professor Emeritus, History and Indian Studies, UC Berkeley; Sudipta Sen, Professor of History and Middle East and South Asian Studies, UC Davis
Presented by the Society for Asian Art and co-sponsored by SACHI (Society for Art & Cultural Heritage of India)
The Royal Family of Travancore
Her Highness the Princess of Travancore Gouri Parvathi Bayi in Person
Saturday, February 25, 2:00 pm-3:30 pm
Samsung Hall
FREE with museum admission. Seating is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis.
Don’t miss this engaging, first-hand account of the impact of a thoughtful royal family, the continuity of tradition, and the changing role of royals in present-day India. Her Highness Princess Gouri Parvathi Bayi of the Travancore Royal Family will introduce the history of her family – an illustrious dynasty that governed, using a sacred concept of trusteeship, one of the most progressive princely states of pre-Independence India.
Her Highness is the niece of the late Maharaja Chithira Thirunal Bala Rama Varma and the current Maharaja, 90-year old Sri Uthradom Thirunal Marthanda Varma. The Travancore family descends through the female line. Her Highness will share the history of the Padmanabhaswamy Temple, a Hindu Temple with close associations to the royal family and recently much in the news as India’s “wealthiest temple.” She will also talk about the Padmanabhapuram Palace, a beautiful 450 year old structure that was renovated by Maharaja Marthanda Varma in the 1750s, and other palaces associated with her family.
Arun Kumar, a Travancorean and Bay Area resident of thirty years, will serve as moderator. Arun, who is a senior partner with KPMG LLP, is the author of Plain Truths, a book of poetry.
Masala Madness with PechaKucha SF
Thursday, March 22, 7:00 pm-8:30 pm
Samsung Hall
Members free; $10 general (includes admission to the special exhibition)
Are you ready to spice it up? The Maharaja exhibition has been a fabulous hit and it is closing soon, but before it does, we want to celebrate it with a great night of presenters covering all things Indian. More specifically, we'll be seeing and hearing about cross-cultural connections and evolution in design. All the while, we'll also be sipping drinks, nibbling on food from Curry Up Now, and hearing lively tunes from our own DJ.
PechaKucha Nights are informal and fun gatherings where creative people get together and share their ideas, works, thoughts, holiday snaps - just about anything really, in the PechaKucha 20x20 format, a simple presentation format where you show 20 images, each for 20 seconds. The images forward automatically and you talk along to the images. The format was developed because, architects, along with many creative professionals, talk too much!
PechaKucha 20x20 format was devised by Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham of Klein Dytham architecture and the first PechaKucha Night was held in Tokyo in their space SuperDeluxe in February 2003.
Shakespeare and Hindi Cinema
Saturday, March 31, 1:00 pm-2:00 pm
FREE with museum admission
This talk, co-presented with 3rd i, will explore adaptations of Shakespeare in popular Hindi cinema, a.k.a. Bollywood. Through clips from films as varied as Shakespeare, Wallah, Angoor, and Omkara, Gitanjali Shahani will explore the colonial contexts of Shakespearean production and the post-colonial contexts of Shakespearean reproduction in India. Shahani is Assistant Professor of English at San Francisco State University where she teaches courses on Shakespearean and non-Shakespearean drama as well as contemporary South Asian literatures.
3rd i Films promotes diverse images of South Asians through independent film. The organization showcases films from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and the global South Asian diaspora. 3rd i's annual film festival is held at the end of October in San Francisco.
