Celebrating 25 Years of the Sainsbury Institute: From Nara to Norwich

2024 marks the 25^th anniversary of the founding of the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures. To celebrate, we will be hosting an exhibition in the Atrium of The Forum 20-25 May 2024 exploring two of our major current projects.

Nara to Norwich: Arts and Beliefs at the Ends of the Silk Roads, 500-1000 AD explores the Silk Roads beyond their current limits of the Chinese and post-Roman worlds. As well as an exhibition, we are working in collaboration with the medieval Buddhist temple of Hasedera in Japan to bring to the UK a replica of their 16m scroll image of Kannon Bosatsu, the bodhisattva of compassion and mercy, to display in full in The Forum. This will be accompanied by performances by monks from the temple, as well as a series of talks and lectures exploring the Silk Roads.

The Later Prehistoric Norfolk Project has undertaken two excavations in Norfolk. Working in collaboration with Cambridge Archaeological Unit and The Restoration Trust, an organisation that uses heritage projects to help people living with mental health challenges, this display will explore the significant finds of the excavations and how archaeology and heritage might be used to improve wellbeing.