Join us at the Bowers Museum for an illuminating program exploring the global significance of India’s textile traditions. This presentation examines how India’s painted and printed cottons evolved through centuries of artistic mastery, technological innovation, and sustained cultural exchange. Drawing on the themes of the Bowers Museum’s exhibition, Soka University of America’s Dr. Nalini Rao will trace how these textiles traveled across continents, shaped international trade, influenced artistic production from Cairo to London, and forged enduring cultural connections. Through a diplomatic and historical lens, the program highlights India’s role as a creative and commercial nexus, where global encounters inspired new techniques, colors, and designs. Attendees will gain deeper insight into how India’s textile artistry became a transformative force in world history and remains a vibrant, evolving tradition today.
6 PM | Exhibition Viewing & Performances
7 PM | Lecture
Ticketed Event: Bowers & WAC-OC Members $20 | General $45 | Includes admission to Global Threads: India’s Textile Revolution
About the Exhibit:Â
Made with novel cotton, vivid colors and exuberant design, the painted and printed cottons of India changed human history; they revolutionized art, fashion and science wherever they went around the globe. Featuring pieces from the world-renowned collection of the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), and several important international loans, this ROM-original exhibition explores how over thousands of years India’s artisans have created, perfected and innovated these printed and painted multicolored cotton fabrics to fashion the body, honor divinities, and beautify palaces and homes.
Exploring the fascinating stories behind the making and trade of these glorious pieces past and present, Global Threads: India’s Textile Revolution considers India’s textile innovations and their influences on fashion, trade and industry around the world in places as far as Cairo, Japan, Sumatra, London, and Ottawa.
They were the luxury fabric of their day, coveted by all, and one of the great inventions that drew foreigners to India’s shores hungry for more. Discover how through trade routes, encounters, and exchange, these cloths connected cultures, inspired imitation and, quite literally, changed the world. Experience how India’s designers and makers today are innovating for new times and audiences.
Global Threads: India’s Textile Revolution is produced and circulated by ROM (Royal Ontario Museum), Toronto, Canada.
