Utah's flagship museum exhibiting Lord Krishna

Running till Nov  20 in the Museum's Emma Eccles Jones Education Gallery, this Krishna exhibition “explores the Hindu god Krishna through sacred and secular artworks, dating from the 11th century to the 20th, from the Museum's Asian art collection. Krishna promised followers that through bhakti (devotion) to him, one could gain moksha (salvation).”

Applauding UMFA for organizing Hinduism focused exhibition, Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) , said that art had a long and rich tradition in Hinduism and ancient Sanskrit literature talked about religious paintings of deities on wood or cloth.

Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, also commended UMFA for Hindu artifacts in its permanent collections; which included images of Hindu deities Shiva, Vishnu, Durga, Ganesha, Lakshmi, Hanuman, Saraswati, etc.

Rajan Zed urged major art museums of the world, including Musee du Louvre and Musee d'Orsay of Paris, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Los Angeles Getty Center, Uffizi Gallery of Florence (Italy), Art Institute of Chicago, Tate Modern of London, Prado Museum of Madrid, National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, etc., to frequently organize Hindu art focused exhibitions, thus sharing the rich Hindu art heritage with the rest of the world.

The Utah Museum of Fine Arts, a university and state art museum whose history goes back to early 1900s, claims to be “Utah's primary cultural resource for global visual arts” and having “a comprehensive collection of over 5,000 years of art from around the world”. Per its mission statement, it “inspires critical dialogue”. Located on the University of Utah campus in Salt Lake City, it claims to preserve over 19,000 original art objects. Gretchen Dietrich and George Lindsey are Executive Director and Deputy Director respectively.

Salt Lake City also houses the world headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.