Dedication of Natarajar statue was held on Saturday May 14th 2022 at Kannappan Art Museums, Pearland. Viji Raja mceed the program. Sam Kannappan welcomed the distinguished gathering.
Thomas Reid, Mayor Emeritus of Pearland and Chairman of the Museum mentioned that he suggested the name Kannappan Art Museum and the museum will enhance the arts and culture in the city. Stacy Adams, Brazoria County Commissioner, mentioned that friendship with Kannappan started with resolving parking problems near Sri Meenakshi Temple. Ed Thompson, Texas State Representative said Kannappan is the pioneer in helping with settlement in Texas of people from India just like German settlement. Write up on Lord Natarajar by Viji Thiru was distributed. Malathi Sundar spoke of the Significance of Natarajar.
Mayor Reid honored the donors of Natarajar statue, Sundar Chinnaraj & Rema Sundar, with a certificate and salvia. Kevin Cole, Mayor of Pearland, mentioned that he had a few meetings with museum organizers. Joseph Koza, Pearland City Councilman, said when he was in Pearland high school, the building of Sri Meenakshi Temple was the talk of the town.
Shamyuktha Somalinga Senthilkumar played Violin and rendered Sambha siva and vishamakara kanan. Vijayan Kandasamy presented a video showing models of Thanjavur temple, Hampi Stone chariot, Mamallapuram artwork and US capitol dome to be placed in the museum.
Vote of Thanks was proposed by Perumal Annamalai. Sockalingam Narayanan announced pledges and donations collected for the museum. Meenakshi Kannappan, Malarvizhi Narayanan, Dhani Kannan,Sridevi Perumal made pledges. Gopal Anantha, Sasi Nair and Ganesh Rajamani donated funds.
Facility arrangements were done by P. Thangaraj, Vimal Kalyana Sundaram,Solayappa Muthuraman and Ravi Vasu. Audience included Sridevi Menon, Srividya Sridhar, Mala Gopal, Leela K Murthy, Sesh Bala, David Palaniappan, Som Nair, Vasuki Ramakrishnan, Saro Alagappan, Murugan Selvan, Senthil Devaraj, Shanthi Radhakrishnan and Kannathal. Delicious food was catered by Kasthuri Ponnuraj.
Dr. Chitra Kumar and Ponni Sivaraman invited the audience for the exhibition to be held at Sri Meenakshi temple, Saturday May 21st 10 am to noon.
News Reporter : Sheela Ramanan
