Bridging Continents: Exploring South Asian Art Saturday, March 8, 2025 | 1:30-3:00 pm M&T Bank Ballroom | Memorial Art Gallery
2025-03-08 13:00 - 15:00 (America/New_York) | Memorial Art Gallery (MAG), University of Rochester, New York, United States
Join us for the 2nd annual
Bridging Continents: Exploring South Asian Art
Saturday, March 8, 2025 | 1:30-3:00 pm
M&T Bank Ballroom | Memorial Art Gallery
Sleuthing Provenance: The Strange History of the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s South Indian Temple Hall
Dr. Darielle Mason, the Stella Kramrisch Curator Emerita of Indian and Himalayan Art and head of the Department of South Asian Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, will uncover a detective tale that spans half a millennium! In 1913, an adventurous American couple on their honeymoon around the world, bought over sixty huge carved granite blocks from a temple in India. Six years later, those stones arrived at a Philadelphia museum. Drawing from her book, Storied Stone, Dr. Mason will present a gripping case study that challenges how we consider authenticity, sacrality, and heritage.

Dogra Art Foundation: Honored with Prestigious Award and Art Unveiling at the Indian Consulate, New York, to be awarded on 18th March 2025, please come and join.
2025-03-18 15:00 - 17:00 | Indian Consulate, New York, Consulate General of India, 3 E 64th St, New York, NY 10065, United States, New York, NY, 10065, United States
Invitation to a Special Celebration at the Indian Consulate, New York.
The Dogra Art Foundation (DAF) is honored to be recognized by the Indian Consulate in New York with a prestigious award, originally presented on Republic Day, January 2025. Due to unavoidable circumstances, we were unable to attend the ceremony at that time, and we now have the privilege of receiving this honor in person.
To mark this special occasion, DAF will also gift a magnificent 6×4-foot Nathdwara Pichwai painting to the Indian Consulate for display. This exquisite piece of traditional Indian art will be unveiled by Indian Consul General, Mr. Pradhan, in a ceremony celebrating India’s rich artistic and cultural heritage.
We warmly invite you to join us in commemorating this proud moment.
📅 Date: March 18, 2025
🕒 Time: 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM
📍 Venue: Indian Consulate, New York
Your presence will bring grace and joy to this occasion as we honor the timeless legacy of Indian art and culture.
We look forward to welcoming you!
Dogra Art Foundation.

Save The Date : Meet & Greet Event With Consul General of India, NY & Dogra Art Foundation
2025-06-22 17:00 - 21:30 | Memorial Art Gallery (MAG), University of Rochester, New York, United States
Cordially invite you to a meet & greet event with Ambassador Shri Binaya S Pradhan Consul General of India, NY
Date: Sun, June 22nd, 2025
Time: 5:00 PM
Venue: Memorial Art Gallery Ball Room 500 East Ave,Rochester NY
RSVP Link : bit.ly/dafandconsulateevent
An evening of Indian Culture & Celebration – Bringing India closer to Rochester, NY

Threads of Continuity: The Past, Present, and Future ofIndian Handlooms
2025-07-30 18:00 - 20:00 | Rush Rhees Library, 755 Library Rd, Rochester, NY 14627, Rochester, NY, 14627, United States
Speaker: Pavithra Muddaya Founder of Vimor Handloom Foundation, empowering weavers through conservation
Location: Rush Rhees Library, 755 Library Rd, Rochester, NY 14627
Date: Wednesday, July 30, 2025
Time: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
RSVP Link: https://bit.ly/PavitraMuddayaLecture

Miniature Splendor A Journey Through Indian Painting Traditions
2025-08-28 00:00 - 2025-10-12 23:30 | Tower Fine Arts Gallery 180 Holley Street Brockport NY, New York, United States
Explore the vibrant world of Indian miniature paintings—from royal portraits and devotional icons to musical Ragamalas and mythic tales. Drawn from the Dogra Art Foundation collection, these works celebrate the beauty and diversity of India’s visual heritage.
This exhibition is part of the New York Conference on Asian Studies October 3-4, 2025
Inauguration on 3rd October 2025 5:30 – 7:00 PM
Dogra Art Foundation in association with the New York Conference on Asian Studies
Miniature Splendor: A Journey Through Indian Painting Traditions
Tower Fine Arts Lobby and Gallery
Art Exhibition curated by Tate Shaw
Catalogue by Isabella Nardi, Italy (released at the inauguration)

Puja and Lamp Lighting
Senator Jeremy Cooney, New York State
Natalie Sarrazin, President, NYCAS
Tate Shaw, Director, Tower Fine Arts Gallery
Darielle Mason, Stella Kramrisch Curator of Indian and Himalayan Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art
Dr. Vikram Dogra, Founder and Managing Director, Dogra Art Foundation

Reception
Pakora, Samosa, Chai, etc.
Mridangam and Violin Music by Veena Ganesan and Shastri ji

The Importance of Being Empress
2026-03-14 13:30 - 15:00 | Memorial Art Gallery (MAG), University of Rochester, New York, United States
The Importance of Being Empress
Picturesque Servitude in the Court of Queen Victoria
Venue: Memorial Art Gallery
Date: Saturday, March 14
Time: 1:30–3:00 pm
Admission: Free and open to the public
Speaker: Dr. Siddhartha V. Shah, John Wieland 1958 Director of the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College
At her home on the Isle of Wight, Queen Victoria (1819–1901) fashioned a miniaturized and domesticated vision of India over which she reigned as Empress. Central to this imperial fantasy was a lavish Durbar Room—an ornate banquet hall—preceded by a corridor lined with nearly one hundred painted portraits of Indian men. Her household was further animated by at least twelve turbaned attendants, whose carefully staged visibility embodied the aesthetics of empire.
While Victorian society prized the invisibility of servants, Queen Victoria demanded quite the opposite. Her Indian attendants were meant to be seen, read, and arranged—symbols in a carefully orchestrated display of power.
Join Dr. Siddhartha V. Shah for a compelling lecture examining this picturesque servitude through Queen Victoria’s personal photo albums preserved in the Royal Collection. These images reveal a long-standing imperial practice: the use of imported labor to produce contrasting social and chromatic effects—light and dark, ornament and authority, domination and subordination.
This talk offers a critical and timely reflection on visual culture, empire, and the politics of representation.
About the Speaker
Dr. Siddhartha V. Shah joined Amherst College in 2022 as the John Wieland 1958 Director of the Mead Art Museum, where he leads a globally focused exhibition program engaging some of today’s most urgent cultural and social questions. Under his leadership, the Mead achieved accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums and became the region’s first certified sensory-inclusive art museum.
Previously, Dr. Shah served as Curator of South Asian Art and Director of Education and Civic Engagement at the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in Salem, Massachusetts. There, he installed the museum’s renowned South Asian Art Galleries, curated major exhibitions, developed programs supporting social and emotional wellbeing, expanded accessibility for visitors with invisible disabilities, and launched bilingual initiatives serving Spanish-speaking communities and English-language learners.
Before entering museum leadership, Dr. Shah spent sixteen years as an art consultant, gallery director, and independent specialist in contemporary Hindu and Buddhist art of the Kathmandu Valley. His scholarly and curatorial work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, Psychology Today, The Times of India, and India Today

Royal Portraits and Sacred Texts: Indian Paintings from the Collection of Vikram and Nalini Dogra
2027-02-19 - 2027-05-02 | Middlebury College Museum of Art 72 Porter Field Road Middlebury College Middlebury, VT 05753
EXHIBITION TITLE
Royal Portraits and Sacred Texts: Indian Paintings from the Collection of Vikram and Nalini Dogra
EXHIBITION DATES
Friday, February 19 – Sunday, May 2, 2027
LOCATION OF EXHIBITION
Middlebury College Museum of Art
72 Porter Field Road
Middlebury College
Middlebury, VT 05753
OPENING EVENT
The opening event is anticipated to take place on Thursday, February 18, 2027.

FOURTH ANNUAL LECTURE SERIES BRIDGING CONTINENTS: EXPLORING SOUTH ASIAN ART
2027-03-13 13:30 - 15:00 | Memorial Art Gallery (MAG), University of Rochester, New York, United States
PLEASE MARK YOUR CALENDAR
FOURTH ANNUAL LECTURE SERIES
BRIDGING CONTINENTS:
EXPLORING SOUTH ASIAN ART
SATURDAY, MARCH 13, 2027
1:30 – 3:00 PM
MEMORIAL ART GALLERY, 500 EAST AVE, ROCHESTER, NY
Speaker: Sonya Rhie Mace, George P. Bickford Curator of Indian and Southeast Asian Art, The Cleveland Museum of Art
