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About Homespun

In 2009, the Asian Pacific American Program established HomeSpun: Smithsonian Indian American Heritage Project, which will chronicle the story of immigrants from India and their descendants in America. This is the first Smithsonian initiative focused on the Indian American experience. There are nearly 3 million Indian Americans living in the U.S. today, and HomeSpun is the Smithsonian's opportunity to convey their history, contributions, challenges, and signal their place within the nation.

• How did this community come to such prominence yet in other respects remains a community in formation?
• How does this story reveal America's unique history of immigration?
• How can learning about Indian Americans inform the experiences of other groups and the nation (and India) overall?

HomeSpun will consist of exhibits, public programs, a middle school curriculum, and a cutting-edge website. As such it will establish a permanent presence — through research, collections, and public programs — within the Smithsonian complex. Here, students and visitors to one of the nation's busiest museums can not only view displays about Indian America but also learn about the role Indian Americans have played in shaping American society. The development of teaching curricula, multimedia exhibitions, trained docents, and an endowment to sustain a permanent presence are all part of the larger vision of this project. HomeSpun also will be visible in key cities as the exhibition travels the country and public programs are held in various venues in cooperation with local communities.

This ambitious agenda will only be possible with the support of individuals like yourself. Please consider donating to and getting involved in HomeSpun. Click here to make your contribution or you can email the HomeSpun curator, Pawan Dhingra.

The Smithsonian Institution

With 19 museums and nine research centers, the Smithsonian Institution is the largest museum and research complex in the world. On an annual basis, 30 million visitors come to the Smithsonian, another 180 million visit on the web and it reaches an additional 6 million visitors a year through traveling exhibitions. Since 1846, Smithsonian has served as the "nation's attic" by preserving the artifacts that chronicle the history of this country and by serving as a pre-eminent educational institution in its pursuit of "the increase and diffusion of knowledge" as mandated by its founder James Smithson.

In 1997, Smithsonian established an advisory group for Asian Pacific American Studies to reflect the experiences and history of more than 15 million Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders living in the U.S. Under the auspices of the program created by this advisory group, Smithsonian has commissioned exhibitions, public programs, and collections, detailing the experiences of Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Filipino, and Vietnamese Americans. Now it is time to tell the Indian American story.

The Next Steps

Because HomeSpun is first and foremost a community-based initiative, prominent Indian American families and leaders are asked to help lay the groundwork for the project. The funds raised will be used to hire a curator for the project, develop the exhibition, travel it around the country, maintain a dedicated website for HomeSpun, conduct public programs in DC and around the country, and develop a curriculum guide to accompany the exhibition.

The initial goal is to raise $2 million dollars for the project so that the exhibition can open by 2012 and travel the country for three years.

To ensure a permanent presence at the Smithsonian, an additional endowment of at least $1 million is needed to generate interest needed to continue Smithsonian projects focusing on Indian Americans in perpetuity. This "permanent presence" can be a curatorial position to help ensure inclusion of Indian American content across the Smithsonian Institution, annual public programs, visual/oral histories, or some combination thereof. Given space limitations at the Smithsonian museums and the great demand by the public, there is no permanent space currently available for this type of exhibition.

The Ask

HomeSpun needs your financial support. It is time to tell the story of the Indian American experience and, in so doing, honor the generations of immigrants who persevered to make this land their own.

Generous donations from individuals, families, foundations, and corporate partners around the world are required to make HomeSpun a reality. Your early support will provide the seed money for this exhibition and, as such, all early donors will be prominently recognized within the exhibition and in accompanying materials. To raise seed funds, we are encouraging "angel" donors to make their pledges now. The first 100 donors of at least $2,500 or more will be part of the "Founder's Circle" of donors who will be recognized prominently on the HomeSpun website and on the exhibition's credit panel.

To make your contribution, or for more information, please email us.