About Us
Mission
Mandala Arts is a MacArthur Award-winning organization founded by Executive Artistic Director Pranita Nayar. From classical to contemporary, Mandala offers evocative dance, theatre, and musical arts of South Asia.
Mandala connects our audiences and students with the vibrancy of the performing arts traditions of South Asia. We offer powerful engagement with specialised artists and educators who represent diverse ethno-geographic , linguistic, cultural and gender identities.
Mandala’s Ensemble, teaching artists, and outreach and collaborating partners build bridges between traditional arts, community, and contemporary life through folk and classical traditions, as well as current and hybrid innovations. Through innovative art making and education, we promote positive social awareness. For all global citizens, the splendor of South Asia flourishes with Mandala Arts.
Pranita Nayar is an Indian classical dancer, choreographer, curator, producer, and company director. A graduate of the Centre for Indian Classical Dances in New Delhi, she trained under Padma Vibhushan Sonal Mansingh and later continued her studies with Jamuna Krishnan. After relocating to the United States in 1985, she earned a Master’s in Dance Ethnography from the University of Illinois.
Nayar has been widely recognized in both India and the United States for her artistic achievements and cultural leadership. She has received honors from the Consulate of India for sustaining and promoting India’s cultural heritage in the U.S., and from Maharaja Gaj Singh of Marwar as the “Dance Jewel of Rajasthan.”
She has performed at major venues including the Smithsonian Institution, Lincoln Center, the Art Institute of Chicago, and leading cultural institutions in India. She was also invited to perform at the 2002 Winter Olympics and taught and choreographed Shakira for the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards.
A highly respected educator, Nayar is an eleven-time recipient of the Illinois Arts Council’s Master Teacher Award and has taught at institutions including Harvard University, Northwestern University, the University of Illinois, and Chicago Public Schools.
Through performance, choreography, and curation, Nayar continues to expand Bharata Natyam’s expressive possibilities while connecting Indian artistic traditions with contemporary and transnational audiences.
Hiteshree Das leads the organization’s creative and strategic direction across public programs, partnerships, and institutional growth. Her work bridges urban planning, civic innovation, and the arts, using interdisciplinary approaches to advance community engagement and cultural visibility in Chicago. At Mandala, she oversees large-scale public art initiatives, including the Red Line Jazz Project with the Chicago Transit Authority, and co-develops Corporate Arts Workshops in collaboration with Mohan Sawhney. She also directs marketing, fundraising, and cross-sector partnerships, while guiding program development, grant strategy, and team leadership.
A design researcher by training, Das focuses on strengthening community resilience through mixed-methods research and storytelling. She previously served as an Associate at the South Asia Institute, where she co-curated Hum Sab Ek, an international exhibition on the pandemic’s impact on informal workers in India, and has contributed to research on climate and housing in Paris. She holds a Master’s in Design Studies from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor’s from the Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology.
Associate Executive Director
Ashmi Mridul
Ashmi Mridul is an artist and researcher who is passionate about making art more accessible by bringing it into the public realm. As a graduate of MIT’s Art, Culture, and Technology program, she has explored collective memory, dialogue, and storytelling through her work as mediums for education and learning. She conducted ethnography through sensory materials like soaps and scents and created art interventions to revive the traditional storytelling practices of Rajasthan (India).
Mridul worked on an oral history project with the Mehrangarh Fort & Museum (Jodhpur), documenting unheard stories of Marwari women. As a grantee at the Gender Bender Festival in Bangalore, she co-founded the Kahi-Suni archive to document women’s marriage migration in India. She earned her undergraduate degree in interaction design arts from the University of the Arts London, where she received a scholarship for Route Artlantique, an art and design exchange program in Senegal.
To learn more, please visit her website: ashmimridul.com.
Board of Directors
Dr Alok Mehta, President
Rajesh Kumar, Treasurer
Raji Arora, Secretary
Pranita Nayar, Artistic Director
Advisory Council
Shalini Sharma
Senior Managing Director, Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co
Akash Shah
Chief Growth Officer and Head of Growth Ventures at BNY
Suketu Gandhi, Secretary
Global Co-Head Strategic Operations Practice, Kearney
Rohit Tandon
Chief Executive Officer, Elevondata
Team
Pranita Nayar, Artistic Director
Hiteshree Das, Associate Executive Director
Jill Chukerman, Public Relations Consultant
Marvin Veloso, Media and Communications Manager
Paul Aoki Elliot, Film and Photography
Annika Pauline, Marketing Intern
Nathan Kallen, Webmaster & G Suite Administrator
Susan Yarad, Development Consultant
