The year is off to a great start at the Freer and Sackler Galleries!

We just reopened the American galleries at the Freer—the first time that they have been reinstalled in eight years. While the Freer and Sackler are best known as museums of Asian art, the Freer also houses an important collection of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American art. Two installations, Freer & Whistler: Points of Contact and Surface Beauty: American Art and Freer's Aesthetic Vision, illuminate the history behind American art at the Freer Gallery and Charles Lang Freer's vision of the connections between Asian art and American art of the Aesthetic Movement.

Patterned Feathers, Piercing Eyes: Edo Masters from the Price Collection remains on view at the Sackler through April 13, finishing its stay during the National Cherry Blossom Festival. Our celebration surrounding the Cherry Blossoms includes such varied programming as a performance of traditional Japanese puppetry and sung-narrative (joruri) by Living National Treasure Tsuruga Wakasanojo XI and our 6th annual Anime marathon. This day-long festival of four Japanese Anime films is presented in partnership with the National Cherry Blossom Festival, the Japan Information and Cultural Center, and Otakorp, Inc. and will include both a costume show courtesy of the DC Anime Club and surprise special guests.

While the Sackler has had to say farewell to Wine, Worship & Sacrifice: The Golden Graves of Ancient Vani, the exhibition moves to NYU's new Institute for the Study of the Ancient World. ISAW, as it is known, proved a wonderful partner in preparing for this show, and we are proud that this will be their inaugural exhibition. If you are in New York any time before June 1, do take the opportunity to visit the exhibition and to see ISAW's splendid new premises on 84th Street, just around the corner from the Met.

I recently returned from a tour of India with a group of dedicated patrons of the museum. Debra Diamond, our curator of Indian art, put together an extraordinary program that ranged from a chilly night in tented encampment at Nagaur in Rajasthan to the tropical warmth of Tamil Nadu. This trip has us excited about Inspired by India, which is a year-long celebration of India that officially begins on April 30 with our annual Gala. His Highness, the Maharaja of Jodhpur, will join us for this event as the guest of honor. The Gala also serves as the opening of Muraqqa: Imperial Mughal Albums from the Chester Beatty Library, a stunning exhibition featuring some of the greatest Mughal paintings from the Chester Beatty Library combined with masterworks from the Freer Gallery's famed Gulshan album.

The second major focus of Inspired by India is a stunning exhibition of almost entirely unknown paintings from the collections of the Mehrangar Museum Trust in Jodhpur. Garden & Cosmos: The Royal Paintings of Jodhpur will be a revelation, as many of the pieces break the norms of Rajput painting in format, style, and theme. In short, they're terrific!

Also part of our India celebration is a rich array of programming, including a concert of Indian classical music in March by Grammy Award winning soloist Vishwa Mohan Bhatta. May sees a meeting of two father-son musical duos from India, Partha and Purbayan Chatterjee, sitars, and Anindo and Anubrata Chatterjee, tablas. October 16, 17, and 18 is our "India! Festival of Lights" which includes a Langa-Manganiyar musical performance (not to be missed if you have never heard them), workshops with the musicians, storytelling, lantern-making, and gallery talks.

While we are excited about our year of India, we also continue programming and exhibitions focusing on other areas in Asia. On June 1, Australian archaeologist Don Hein describes his research on a major ceramic production center in Thailand. His lecture celebrates the debut of the museums' first online catalogue of the Hauge Collection of Ceramics in Mainland Southeast Asia. Taking Shape: Ceramics in Southeast Asia features some of these art objects in the gallery connecting the Sackler with the Freer.

In anticipation of the Olympics in Beijing, this summer we will feature one of China's more infamous landscapes: Yellow Mountain. Students of ImaginAsia will write poems as they explore the magical effect of clouds in Chinese landscape painting and the photography of Wang Wusheng in Yellow Mountain: China's Ever-Changing Landscape. Moving into the classroom, participants will illustrate one of their poems by drawing landscapes using charcoal and then erasing sections to create clouds. Yellow Mountain also occasions the launch of Moving Perspectives, a new series featuring contemporary video art. Moving Perspectives: Yang Fudong presents Parts I and V of Fudong's Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest (2003-07) looped in the Meyer on May 31, June 24, and August 23.

We hope to see you in the Galleries or online again soon!

Julian Raby
Director