Event – Detail

Join us for a talk exploring how temple forms codified in 11th-century India are reimagined through enduring craft lineages to shape major temple projects in India and across the global diaspora. Grounded in place, ritual practice, and artisanal knowledge, these forms have become powerful emblems of Indian cultural identity in the 21st century.

Part of The Athenæum's new monthly international design series presented in partnership with the Consular Corps Association of Philadelphia.

Light refreshments to follow.

Dr. Darielle Mason is an art historian and museum curator with over 30 years of experience, particularly in the field of South Asian art. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, where she has long taught as an adjunct professor. Among her many publications is Kantha: The Embroidered Quilts of Bengal, which won her the prestigious Alfred H. Barr Jr. Award from the College Art Association. She was the first Stella Kramrisch Curator of Indian and Himalayan Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Head of the Department of South Asian Art for nearly three decades and is now Senior Curator of Asian Art, Emerita. She led the transformation of Philadelphia's South Asian galleries in 2016 and organized numerous exhibitions on topics ranging from textiles and temple sculpture, to 'miniature' painting and contemporary art. As consulting curator for the art of South and Southeast Asia and the Middle East, she helped create Boundless: Stories of Asian Art, the complete reconceptualization of the Seattle Asian Art Museum which opened in 2020. While Assistant Curator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, she also co-curated the Asia Society Museum's groundbreaking 1993 exhibition Gods, Guardians, and Lovers: Temple Sculpture from North India, A.D. 700-1200. Darielle is passionate about bringing the multiple contexts of art to all audiences while opening doors to the rich and varied cultures of the Indian subcontinent and beyond.

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