The Asian Pacific American Program at the Smithsonian Institution in 2009 launched
The Asian Pacific American Program at the Smithsonian Institution in 2009 launched “HomeSpun: the Indian American Heritage Project,” which intends to chronicle the story of immigrants from India and their descendants in America. This is the first Smithsonian initiative focused on the Indian American experience.
The goal of the project, conceived in 2007 (I-W, Oct. 19, 2007), is to raise $2 million so an exhibition can open by 2012 and travel to the country’s major cities for three years.
To ensure a permanent presence at the Smithsonian, an additional endowment of at least $1 million is being sought to continue in perpetuity Smithsonian projects focusing on Indian Americans. An Indian American-organized fundraiser in February 2009 raised about $92,500.
The name HomeSpun was chosen as a tribute to Mahatma Gandhi’s message to Indians to spin their own cloth and wear clothes made in India, instead of using textiles from Britain.
Pawan Dhingra, whose area of expertise is the U.S. immigrant experience, was hired to curate the project in March of this year.
“I am excited to join the Asian Pacific American Program at the Smithsonian Institution and to serve as curator for the HomeSpun Project,” Dhingra said at that time.
He was most recently associate professor of sociology and comparative American studies at Oberlin College in Ohio.
Dhingra’s 2007 book, “Managing Multicultural Lives: Asian American Professionals and the Challenge of Multiple Identities,” won honorable mention in 2007 for the best social sciences work by the Association for Asian American Studies.
His latest book, “Life Behind the Lobby: Indian American Motel Owners, Inequality, and the American Dream,” is being readied for publication.
HomeSpun will include exhibits, public programs, a middle school curriculum and a Web site about the role Indian Americans have played in shaping U.S. society.
If the additional $1 million is raised, the permanent presence at the Smithsonian will include collections and public programs.
Because HomeSpun is a community-based initiative, Indian American families and leaders are being sought to help lay the groundwork for the project.
The first 100 donors of at least $2,500 will be part of a “Founder’s Circle” of donors recognized prominently on the HomeSpun Web site and on the exhibition’s credit panel.
Sameen Piracha was also recently hired as development specialist in the Smithsonian’s Asian Pacific American Program. She most recently coordinated the Embassy Concert Series for Global Classrooms program for the United Nations Association in Washington, D.C.