Sikh Art: From The Kapany Collection

Paul Michael Taylor, Ph.D., a research anthropologist at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History, is Director of its Asian Cultural History Program, and serves as Curator of Asian, European, and Middle Eastern Ethnology. He is an author or editor of fourteen books and numerous scholarly articles on the ethnography, ethnobiology, languages, and art of Asia. He has also curated numerous museum exhibitions and served as the Director of Ethnographic Film Development for Essential TV (Overseas) Ltd. to develop documentary anthropological films. The recipient of numerous international grants and awards, he has served on the Board of Directors of the Association for Asian Studies, and as Senior Consultant on Social and Cultural Safeguard Policies for the World Bank Inspection Panel. Sonia Dhami is Executive Director of the Sikh Foundation, which she joined in 2008. Since then she has organized and assisted in Sikh art exhibits, conferences, community events, and publication of the annual Sikh fine arts calendar. She previously edited the richly illustrated book Games We Play: A Journey Down Memory Lane with Childhood Games from the Punjab. Before arriving in California in 2005, she ran her own design firm in India, which executed projects for Sikh institutions in that country, the U.K., Canada, and the U.S. One of her initiatives, “Landscaping at Anandpur Sahib Welcome Gates”, was showcased in Washington, D.C., at the Smithsonian Institution’s Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month in 2001. A graduate of St. Bedes College-Shimla, she earned her Master’s in Business Administration from Punjab Agricultural University- Ludhiana.