Experience some of the popular arts of the subcontinent at Mela, India!, a festival of family activities. Artisans will be available to paint henna designs on festgoers’ hands and to help create masks and puppets of characters from the great Hindu epics. Nilimma Devi and the Sutradhar Institute of Dance and Related Arts will perform traditional Indian dance, and members of Lotus Music and Dance Studios will tell stories with dance and hand gestures. Also, traditional sweets will be served. The celebration marks the recent opening of “The Narrative Thread: Women’s Embroidery from Rural India,” which continues through May 9. From noon to 4 p.m. at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1250 New York Ave. NW. Free. (202) 783-7370. (Mark Jenkins)