Vivekananda Memorial Programme for Museum Excellence

Union Finance Minister would also unveil on 28^th January,2012  an enhanced (engraved bas relief) Vivekananda Memorial Plaque, with Swami Vivekananda’s embossed image on it.  It will be installed in the Art Institute of Chicago’s Museum to commemorate Swamiji’s historic Chicago Address before the World Parliament of Religions on 11^th September 1893 .

                                An agreement will also be signed during the aforesaid visit of the Union  Finance Minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee for Vivekananda Memorial Programme for Museum Excellence.  Under this programme, Art Institute of Chicago will work with Government of India to impart a broad range of knowledge on modern operations of Museums like conservation, planning of exhibitions etc. for a four year period.  Government of India will provide an amount of US$500,000 for conduct of this programme by the Art Institute of Chicago.

                                                Under the Commemoration of the 150^th Birth Anniversary of Guru Rabindranath Tagore, apart from several other activities, for the first time ever, several exhibitions of Tagore’s paintings are being organised in USA, France, Germany, UK, Singapore, Japan and South Korea by the National Gallery of Modern Art under Ministry of Culture in association with Visva Bharati University.  The exhibition which would be inaugurated by the Finance Minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee in Chicago on 28^th January, 2012 at the Art Institute of Chicago, is part of this series of exhibitions. It will put on display 61 of Tagore’s paintings.