Staten Island Institute of Arts and Science

The Staten Island Museum will collaborate with the Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art and Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Gardens to develop an exhibit entitled "Infinite Compassion: Avalokiteshvara in Asian Art" to explore aspects of compassion in Buddhist art. The partners will pool their resources and use an interdisciplinary approach to produce the exhibit design, educational programs, lectures, tours, audio-visual materials, web resources, and a printed catalog. The partnership will also enable broader engagement of the local community in planning, promotion, and evaluation. The Staten Island Museum serves an ethnically and racially diverse community with high household poverty rates and low-to-middle income residents, and a large immigrant population. The exhibit collaborators seek to promote greater tolerance and understanding, encourage pride among Staten Islanders, and help make Snug Harbor a destination. The alliance will provide a model of collaboration for other small- to mid-sized cultural institutions.