On Sunday, Sept. 20, Naper Settlement held performances from cultures around the world and a collective tapestry-making project that wove together Naperville-area diversity.
Mandala South Asian Performing Arts hosted the event as part of its “Creative Placemaking” initiative at the museum on Sunday evening.
Collaboration of Asian music
The evening featured “Nature and Narratives,” which brought together instruments from pan-Asian countries through an immersive storytelling performance.
The Chicago-based artists who performed were:
- Chethan Anant: Indian Classical musician, multi-instrumentalist, bansurist, and vocalist
- I Gusti Kertayudha Ngurah (Pak Ngurah): master Balinese dancer, choreographer, and percussionist, who specializes in the gamelan
- Chamni Sripraram: South Asian percussionist who has performed in the U.S. and Thailand
- Tzu-Tsen Wu: Taiwanese multi-instrumentalist inspired by Western jazz and classical music
- Abhijit Kastha: Indian classical tabla player and a soloist and accompanist since the early 2000s
“Watching artists from Thailand, India, Indonesia, Taiwan and the Philippines share the stage for the first time in the U.S., in a community setting rather than a traditional theater, reminded me why Creative Placemaking matters,” said Hiteshree Das, associate executive director for Mandala Arts. “Art doesn’t have to wait for people to come find it. It can meet people exactly where they are.”
Tapestry project weaves Naperville stories
The event also included a collective tapestry-making project by Chicago artist Marvin Veloso.
For “Tapestries Toward the Future,” Veloso invited Naperville-area residents to donate textiles, gently used garments and fashion accessories from June through August.
Veloso used the materials to make a collage-like tapestry that considers “how everyday objects become a means to embody and express emotions, cultural memory, and relationality,” Mandala said in a press release. Using donated materials is meant to show the diversity of cultural backgrounds in the Naperville area.
The tapestry will be displayed at North Central College from October 16 to April 2027. Then it will be exhibited at Naperville Library from May to July next year.
Naperville resident Saily Joshi said about the event, “Just as individual pieces of fabric became a tapestry and musicians from four countries created harmony together, we too can weave our different stories, experiences, and voices into something stronger and more beautiful when we make space for one another.”
Photo courtesy: Hiteshree Das
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