Open now, Longing: Painting from the Pahari Kingdoms of the Northwest Himalayas is an exhibition that features more than 40 works on paper organized around the emotional expression of “longing.” The exhibition encourages visitors to experience the visual, literary, political, and religious histories of the Pahari kingdoms through a multisensory approach. Select paintings are paired with scent stations, touch opportunities, and musical soundscapes to heighten the work’s bhava (emotion or mood) and to encourage multiple ways to physically, intellectually, and emotionally connect with the works on display. 

Longing’s exhibition design encourages close looking, and numerous interpretative strategies integrated into the design further connect with the overarching theme. To encourage written response and reflection, an in-gallery writing activity offers prompts including “I long for…” and “I feel powerful when…” These poetic and prose-based responses are displayed in the gallery cultivating visitor participation around longing. Three paintings are also paired with scent stations and two are paired with raised reproductions of the artworks that you are allowed to touch. Incorporating scent and touch into our experience of art may unlock memories and encourage an empathetic response. Cultivating experience based around empathetic connections encourages visitors to actively participate in their museum experience, to interact with art in multiple ways, and to forge new connections with the works on display. 

Another evocative interpretative strategy is a “longing soundscape” that maps sound onto the exhibition experience. Developed with Dr. Stefan Fiol, Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, nine paintings are paired with a soundscape developed to bridge the region’s visual, literary, religious, political, and musical histories. It provides another means to articulate longing and to enhance our exhibition experience.

 The exhibition is open until June 7, 2026—visit soon to experience Longing for yourself!