Conversation | Indian Textiles: Bridging Arts and Craft
Indian Coromandel Coast, Palampore, 18th century, cotton (plain weave), hand-drawn, mordant-dyed and resist-dyed, the Banoo and Jeevak Parpia Collection.
August 26, 2023
Textile collector Banoo Parpia and Amy Poster, consulting curator of Asian art, explore ways of appreciating textiles, and bridging arts and craft. Three leading experts in the arts of South Asia provide their perspectives on global textiles, the revitalization of Indian hand-loomed textiles, and how to judge and value quality of textiles.
Following the talk, you are invited to a walk-through and conversations about the exhibition Woven Wonders: Indian Textiles from the Parpia Collection, on view through September 4.
Plan Your Visit
This program is included with general admission. To attend, RSVP to spark@mfah.org by Friday, August 25. The talk takes place in the American General Conference Room on the second floor of the Beck Building, and the exhibition is located on the lower level. On Saturdays, the Museum is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
About the Speakers
Sarah Fee is senior curator of global fashion and textiles at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, and curator of the recent exhibitions The Cloth that Changed the World: India’s Painted and Printed Cottons and Global Threads: The Art and Fashion of Indian Chintz.
Janice Leoshko is associate professor of art history at the University of Texas at Austin and teaches courses about various issues concerning the art of South Asia as well as Buddhist art throughout Asia. She participated in a webinar held on the occasion of the first installation of the Xuzhou Collection at the MFAH. Her recent focus on Sri Lankan art led to her current book project on the significance of the early writing of scholar and curator Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy.
Cristin McKnight Sethi is a curator specializing in textile and craft history. Her expertise in South and Southeast Asian art stems from her graduate studies at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of California, Berkeley. Her pursuits involve delving into archives, gender’s role in crafting, community traditions, informal craft economies, material techniques, and postcolonialism. She is the director of education at the Textile Center in Minneapolis, contributes to the Textile Museum Journal, and leads the selection committee for the International Folk Art Market.
Learning and Interpretation programs receive generous funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services; Samuel H. Kress Foundation; The Brown Foundation, Inc.; Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo; Houston Junior Woman's Club; Sharon G. Dies; Sterling-Turner Foundation; Susan Vaughan Foundation; and additional generous donors.
“Woven Wonders: Indian Textiles from the Parpia Collection” is organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Lead Underwriters:
The Sushila and Dr. Durga D. Agrawal Family
Additional generous support is provided by:
Sesh and Prabha Bala
Milton D. Rosenau, Jr. and Dr. Ellen R. Gritz
Chitra Kumar and Kumar Bashyam
Paul and Manmeet Likhari
Nidhika and Pershant Mehta
Drs. Kumara and Usha Peddamatham
Special exhibition programming is made possible by The Medha and Shashank Karve Endowment Fund.