Swami Vivekananda onstage at the World’s Parliament of Religions, 1893.
In 1893, an unknown Hindu monk, Swami Vivekananda, travelled from Calcutta to Chicago to deliver a speech at the inaugural session of the World’s Parliament of Religions held at Chicago’s Columbian Exposition. The oration, delivered in what is today the Art Institute’s Fullerton Hall, earned him a two-minute standing ovation and provided a groundbreaking articulation of Hinduism for Western audiences.
Join curator Madhuvanti Ghose for a discussion of this speech and the immense relevance of Vivekananda’s words today.
The monk, Vivekananda, in Jaipur.
The newly built Art Institute of Chicago on Michigan Avenue in 1893.
The inaugural session of the World Parliament held in Chicago in 1893.
About the Speaker
Dr. Madhuvanti Ghose is the inaugural Alsdorf Associate Curator of Indian, Southeast Asian and Himalayan Art in the Arts of Asia department. Since joining the museum in 2007, she opened the Alsdorf Galleries in 2008 and has curated and organized numerous exhibitions and installations including Jitish Kallat’s site-specific Public Notice 3 (2010–2011), The Last Harvest: The Art of Rabindranath Tagore (2012), Nilima Sheikh: Each Night Put Kashmir in Your Dreams (2014), and India Modern: The Paintings of M.F. Husain (2017–2018), among many others.
Prior to joining the Art Institute, Ghose was lecturer in South Asian Art and Archaeology at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. She completed her doctoral dissertation from the University of London and was a research fellow at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford University. Her current research interests include the art of the Pushtimarg sect, the Indian cultural doyenne Pupul Jayakar, and the textiles of Bengal.
Please note that this is an in-person event that takes place at the museum.
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Closed captioning will be available for this program. For questions related to accessibility accommodations, please email [email protected].
This program is generously sponsored by
