The Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art Picks IK to Create a New Digital Portal Titled: Teaching Asian Religions

In 2020, Interactive Knowledge designed and produced an extensive online resource, Teaching China with the Smithsonian, for the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art. This educational component was integrated into the museum’s main website and has been very popular with K-12 teachers and students. We’ve been hired to create a new online educational resource titled: Teaching Asian Religions. This digital portal will be object-centered, featuring approximately thirty highlights from the museum’s collections of Buddhist, Islamic, and Hindu art. It will also feature: 

• Timelines, maps, and translated texts
• Videos and video tools 
• Lesson plans and activity modules based on objects from the collection
• Perspectives of contemporary practitioners 
• How-to guides (e.g., how to pronounce Arabic / Chinese / Hindi / Japanese terms) 

An important goal of this project is teaching inclusion, respect, and understanding of important concepts related to asian religions and cultures. The project will be released in two phases. The first phase will be completed in the spring of 2023 and the second phase will be released in the summer of 2024.