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Thematic layout of the exhibition

Featuring more than 500 artifacts, India – The Living Arts showcases the rich diversity of India's many artistic traditions by placing these artifacts in a series of four environments. Each environment evokes a different aspect of culture and daily life in India, and provides a setting for the display of various types of craft and artistry. Periodically, music, dance, drama and other animation enhance each of the environments, enveloping visitors in a culture with ancient roots that continue to influence and inform its modern reality.

The Village

The centrepiece of this environment is the Tree Shrine, which features the arts of devotional offering. Evoking the natural world, folk culture, daily village life and pilgrimage, the Village setting showcases a wide range of artifacts, including various types of puppets, masks, paintings, dolls, wood carvings, lamps and more. The Village setting is animated on a periodic basis with craft demonstrations and live performances such as puppetry and storytelling.

Textiles are another important part of Indian life, functioning as an identification of community and marital status. Techniques from tie-dye to elaborate embroidery in silver and gold are practiced throughout South Asia, and the Village setting features examples of many fine textiles techniques – including weaving, embroidery, quilting, dyeing, painting and more.

The Home

From the Village environment, visitors proceed to the exhibition's Home setting, which features a generic Indian home with verandah, courtyard and artifacts – including a cradle, lamps, tools, clothing, beadwork, textiles, saris, a woven bed and toys.

This environment is also used for demonstrations of domestic arts like floor designs and beadwork by members of the local Indo-Canadian community.

The Court

A grand entrance leads visitors into the exhibition's Court environment. This is the exhibition's most stately and serene setting, evoking the amusements and celebrations of India's nobility throughout the centuries. A fountain lies at the heart of this environment, which also features a marble window and artifacts such as exquisite miniatures, stone sculptures, bronzes, jewellery, musical instruments and magnificent shields and daggers. The Court also includes a gathering place and a performance stage, which features dance, music, tea-tasting, sacred arts, lectures and other animation.

The City

The City setting presents the exhibition's most modern content and is designed to evoke the vibrant and edgy reality of India's large urban environments. An art gallery in this section features contemporary works by South Asian Canadian artists, and a nearby boutique offers a wide range of Indian arts and crafts.