Call and Response Exhibition

Research & Curatorial Assistant to Dr. Ellen Gough
Emory University, Atlanta, GA | Oct. 2024 – May 2025

Call and Response is an experimental exhibition that reimagines the relationship between museums and their communities by featuring five culturally significant objects, each one a “call” across time, paired with a “response” from contemporary artists, scholars, or community members. Drawing from the African American tradition of participatory music, the exhibition invites viewers into an ongoing, layered conversation between past and present.

As part of this project, I collaborated with Dr. Ellen Gough to research and interpret the Jain Pilgrimage Painting (Tirtha pata), a vibrant 19th-century Indian scroll map of the sacred site of Shatrunjaya, one of Jainism’s most important pilgrimage destinations. My contributions included:

• Translating key Gujarati inscriptions on the painting to decode its iconography and devotional references.

• Contextualizing the painting within Jain religious practice, particularly the role of pilgrimage in spiritual liberation.

• Helping curate its presentation within the exhibit to highlight how sacred maps serve both as spiritual tools and cultural records.

• Creating accessible interpretive content to educate and engage a wider audience on the intersection of art, faith, and geography.

This experience allowed me to blend art historical research with community-focused curation, ensuring that the sacred and symbolic nuances of this Jain artwork were thoughtfully represented and resonated meaningfully within the exhibit’s broader narrative.