Smithsonian institution to house Sikh heritage gal

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Smithsonian institution to house Sikh heritage gallery

Washington, May 5 (IANS) :

One of the world's most visited museum complexes, the US Smithsonian Institution will soon have a Sikh heritage gallery featuring Sikh manuscripts, art and history.

Sikhs spread across the US have raised over $1 million for the gallery, which is slated to open here on July 24.

Fundraisers were held in Los Angeles, Detroit, Cleveland, San Francisco, and New York. Americans across the country enabled the project to exceed its fundraising goal of $750,000 with just over $1M in pledges and donations, according to a press release Tuesday.

Sikh scholars, historians and other luminaries from the US, Britain, Canada, India and Pakistan are expected to attend the opening ceremony.

The Sikh royal family of Patiala, major music, visual art, and dance luminaries as well as supporting government embassies and representatives are among the invitees.

Several artists, including Nitin Sawhney, Bobby Friction, Lal Singh Bhatti, Amrit and Rabindra Kaur, Arpana Kaur, J. Garcia, would make the cultural presentation to mark the occasion.

The Sikh Heritage Foundation (SHF) in West Virginia was set up in 2000 with the goal of preserving ancient manuscripts in India and Pakistan and to create a small exhibition window within the National Museum of Natural History by 2005.

As momentum increased for Sikh visibility, over the next four years, a variety of groups joined the SHF, including corporate sponsors SONY and Acteva.

Through a generous offer from SHF, select pieces from the Kapany collection created an opportunity to expand the Sikh proj

ect from a small window to an entire gallery.

"Sikh heritage is world heritage," says SHF member Gurdip Singh Malik. "Our community has matured in the US to understand that when it comes to our culture, the future is in the past and heritage is to be shared in global institutions."