Focus on the contributions of the Indian American diaspora.
AB Wire
The successful exhibition ‘Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation’, which was inaugurated at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC, will travel to Minnesota in 2016.
The exhibition, which will be held from April 30 – July 10, 2016, will focus on the Indian American community, delving into the diaspora’s rich contributions in several spheres, including political, professional and cultural, to American and Minnesotan life and history.
A hybrid exhibit, featuring 24 panels created by the Smithsonian’s Asian Pacific American Center will be augmented with artifacts, oral histories, and personal reflections developed by the Minnesota Historical Society in collaboration with members of Minnesota’s Indian American community.
One out of every 100 Americans, from Silicon Valley to Smalltown, USA, traces his or her roots to India. In Minnesota, Indian immigrants and their families number just under 40,000. Breakthroughs in business, the arts, medicine, science, and technology, and the flavorful food, flamboyant fashion and yoga of India have become a central part of the culture, according to the Asian American Press.
In 1992 the Minnesota Historical Society launched its first oral history project on recent immigration in cooperation with the India Association of Minnesota (IAM). The narrators in that project, chosen with an eye to diversity of birthplace in India and religion, provided remarkable perspective on their lives and on the many facets of adjustment to American life and culture, and to settlement in Minnesota.
The success of that project, and the rich historical information it provided, launched a joint effort of the Society and the IAM to ensure ongoing documentation of Minnesota’s important and growing Indian community. The Society and IAM completed their fifth oral history project in 2006.
‘Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation’ was created by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center and the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service.