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community in the Washington D.C. area. Buddhist monks and lay people reviewed the exhibition for accuracy and appropriateness of display and content during the design phase. Programs in the adjacent Learning Center included hands-on tours, discussions led by Buddhist monks, stories from South and Southeast Asia, and a series of 20 films on Buddhist practice. Six workshops featuring a discussion with a local Buddhist monk attracted 300 teachers. Over 30 school groups were brought to view the exhibition. An Activity Guide provided an overview of key themes of the exhibition.

"India Along the Ganges: Photographs by Raghibir Singh" was accompanied by a Ganges Family Day -- a day of storytelling, dance and music -- which brought several thousand visitors to the Sackler Gallery.

Other exhibitions included: "Japanese 
Art: Recent Acquisitions," "Ancient Chinese Jades and Bronzes," and "Variations on a Script: Islamic Calligraphy from the Vever Collection."

The Freer Gallery of Art remains closed to visitors during extensive renovations to the building.

2. The Sackler Gallery, while aiming to introduce non-Asians to Asian art and culture, is committed to reaching out to the Washington D.C. area Asian communities. The wide variety of programs presented included a performance of Indian music on sitar and subahar by Ustad Imrat Khan, six films - "The Wheel" (Korean), "A Taxing Woman" (Japanese), "Boat People" (Chinese), "Jama Masjid Street Journal" and "India Cabaret" (Indian), and "The Mission" (Iranian), and a poetry reading with Jalal al-Din Rumi in celebration of the Persian New Year.

3. The Sackler Gallery has on-going relations with the People's Republic of China and with Japan in conservation research in the context of two international collaborative arrangements. A researcher from the Tokyo National Research Institute of Cultural Properties spent September with the Freer/Sackler and with the Smithsonian Conservation Analytical Laboratory to establish a joint database on lead-isotope ratios from Asian objects and ores. Negotiations on multi-project agreements with the University of Science and Technology, Beijing are underway. Also in progress are negotiations with Bunkacho (the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs) for a major collaborative exhibition on ancient Japan.

4. To further outreach efforts, staff met regularly with monks from the South and Southeast Asian viharas in the Washington D.C. area in planning programs and teacher workshops associated with "The Noble Path." With a grant from [[underlined]] The Washington Post [[/underlined]], bus transportation was provided to over 30 public school groups to tour "The Noble Path," including students of English as a second language. Hired as a substitute for an employee on extended leave, an Asian American/Pacific Islander woman was contracted to work on a specific program upon the employee's return.

5. An Asian American/Pacific Islander female Curator was hired and another was promoted. An Asian American/Pacific Islander male Curator was also promoted. In