by Arathi Cowlagi
The beautiful Renaissance Courtyard at the Worcester Art Museum is usually bustling and filled with spectators of all ages enjoying the melodious music and the colorful dances. Every year in partnership with the Worcester Art Museum, ISW presents the Community Day program. This was the fifth year of this wonderful partnership and the theme was ‘Travel the Silk Road’. The event was held on Sunday, Nov 8th and looked a little different this year due to Covid.
Despite it being a virtual event ISW members, choreographers and participants put on a great show! The show began like every year with lighting of the lamp by ISW President, Ashish Cowlagi. Some of the highlights were, a classical dance item presented by the students of the Natyamani School of Dance, Power of Om and Ladies Sangeet by Ekta Dance Academy students, Ganesh Vandana by New England School of Dance.
We also had Mansi’s Hindustani bhajan in praise of Goddess Durga that evoked some emotional responses from our viewers online! Pooja Srivastava, who is involved with the ISW Cultural school, read the story of Diwali and talented artist Rashmi Pitre showed how to make your own Rangoli. In past years, her Rangolis have welcomed visitors as they came to the museum for this event.
Rachel Parikh, the new assistant curator of Asian and Middle Eastern Art at the Museum gave a virtual tour that highlighted the Asian and Middle Eastern Art collection at the Museum. She also explained the significance of lighting the lamp during Diwali.
There were some great items like puppet making, creating your own story through art, the Chinese lion dance, story time and ‘Meet a Samurai’ that allowed online viewers to participate and enjoy! ISW looks forward to another great event in partnership with the Worcester Art Museum next year, hopefully in person!