Parampara: Lines of Transmission in the Traditional Arts Exhibit

As you go through the exhibit, notice the lines of transmission reflecting the distinct modes of learning for each artist. Some learned their art in extreme privacy or masked in mundane chores.  Others learned simply by watching or listening or imitating. Some experienced delayed participation and were “granted” inclusion in the tradition only after a certain period of time or practice. Others learned from their peers. Most were born into a cultural tradition, but some were drawn to and became immersed in the arts of another culture. 

All the featured artists are co-curators of this exhibit and worked with City Lore Education staff to create a space dedicated to their craft and learning. This practice draws inspiration from the South Indian tradition of Saraswati Puja, when artists offer the books, instruments, and tools of their trade to the goddess of art and learning, as a way to honor their art and their teachers and to share it with their community. Artists’ personal statements are embedded in the face of a vessel, a metaphor for “the receiver” of the art. 

As you journey between displays, we invite you to explore each artist’s tools, stories, and tributes to their teachers and to reflect on your own experiences of learning outside of institutional settings. What values are embedded in these transmission methods? What can we–as artists, as educators, as community and family members–learn from these modes of learning?  We invite viewers to consider the implications and applications of how these traditional learning methods for teaching the arts might be applied in institutional education settings, such as schools, as well as in our families and communities.