South Asian Dance Mural Dedicated at SPS Interfaith Space

The artwork, created by Maya Lokhandwala ’25, celebrates religious diversity, cultural heritage, and community connection at St. Paul’s School.

BY KRISTIN DUISBERG

On May 27, the South Asian Society, Chaplaincy, and Office of Building Beloved Community Initiatives formally dedicated a work in the St. Paul’s School Interfaith Space that honors the culture and heritage of the School’s students of South Asian descent. The work, a tape mural that depicts an Indian classical dancer performing in the Odissi style, was created by Maya Lokhandwala ’25. Framed by the doorway of the Interfaith Space in the hallway leading to the administrative offices, the piece is an expression of both fine and performing arts — and a metaphor for student self-discovery, as the dancer holds a small mirror in one of her outstretched hands.

Lokhandwala worked closely with Math Teacher Pankti Dalal, who serves as adviser to the South Asian Society, to select the subject and composition of the piece. “Maya and I spent time together thinking about the details of the artwork— the dancer’s pose, her dress, her headpiece,” Dalal explained during the ceremony. Of the dedication event, Dalal adds, “It is deeply meaningful to have the value of art by students of color lifted up in this way — particularly an artist as exceptional as Maya.”

Half a dozen students from the Southeast Asian Society joined Dalal, Dean of Chapel the Rev. Charles Wynder Jr., Director of the Office of Building Beloved Community Initiatives Bethany Dickerson Wynder and Science Teacher Shreyas Rane for the dedication. Dickerson Wynder described the event as an important opportunity to affirm and celebrate the School’s many diverse student identity groups.

“A symbol of the SPS commitment to welcoming religious diversity, the SPS Interfaith Space provides a safe place for students with different lived experiences to regularly come together for fellowship, builds resilient communities, and helps transform religious difference from a source of division into an opportunity for collective growth,” Dickerson Wynder says. “We are humbled and honored to display this piece of student art depicting a powerful image important to two of the SPS Student Mosaic Groups, the Hindu Society and South Asian Society. It’s an image with which students may connect, about which many others of different lived experiences can learn, and upon which they may reflect in the months and years ahead.”