By Khalida Sarwari
On a recent Monday night in Saratoga, three flute players performed in the community room of the Saratoga Public Library. One played a Persian ney, another the Indian bansuri and the third played the western classical flute.
The program was arranged by Usha Srinivasan, president and co-founder, along with Priya Das, of Sangam Arts, a local nonprofit that attempts to connect cultures through the arts. The group’s pilot event on Monday sought to do just that, by bringing flutists of different backgrounds together to “demonstrate the common threads between cultures and celebrate diversity,” said Srinivasan.
“My hope is that we will continue to have these events that will help people see we have a lot in common,” she said. “All these instruments, they’re just things and they all need breath to be played.”
The program was presented as part of a new initiative by Sangam Arts called Mosaic.
For Srinivasan, whose background is in engineering, product management and consulting, this is a foray into a creative space, one in which she has found purpose in sharing not only her own heritage with the wider community, but encouraging others to do the same. She said she had this realization following a dance recital she participated in with her daughter about five years ago.
“That is when I realized just as I was profoundly proud of my heritage, there are so many others that make up our community here that are equally proud of their own culture, but we all consume it through our own silo,” Srinivasan said. “I started thinking there is a lot of diversity, (but) we don’t show interest in art forms in other communities, and we also miss the common ties that bind us.”
Srinivasan moved to Saratoga with her family last February. Her daughters are enrolled in Saratoga schools, and she has been busy meeting her neighbors and becoming entrenched in her new community. While she has found the city to be unique, she said she also noticed the “siloing” is in progress. It was out of that observation that Mosaic was born.
“It really got me thinking, what does this mean? How do you use art to bring about some creative change, some meaningful change? You have a lot of art that is tied with entertainment, but the purpose of art is to elevate us and help us discover our common humanity.”
Srinivasan’s wider vision for Mosaic is that it will become a platform for communities throughout the country to take part in multicultural collaborations. Through Mosaic, she is hoping to replace the assimilation model that once worked for previous generations with a new model that allows people to retain their unique cultural identity.
“For us, I feel we need a different model. There is no ‘American identity’ to assume,” she said. “We need to redefine what it means to be American. As long as we subscribe to the American values of freedom and equality and justice, all the superficial differences should be celebrated.”
On March 31, the Silicon Valley arm of Mosaic will hold a folk festival at the Mexican Heritage Plaza in San Jose, featuring Bulgarian, Hula and Mexican dances, among many others.
For more information about Sangam Arts and Mosaic, visit sangamarts.org.
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Saratoga resident launches initiative to celebrate diversity through art
