TAGORE FOUNDATION INTERNATIONAL
MISSION STATEMENT
The Tagore Foundation International, Inc. fulfills a mission set out by Sundaram Tagore, acclaimed art historian, gallerist and award-winning documentary filmmaker. It is dedicated to education and the promotion of social, spiritual and aesthetic dialogues between Asia and the West. The foundation is headquartered in New York City and was established in 2006 to promote the art and culture of under-represented communities. Through Sundaram Tagore’s strategic endeavors, the foundation has mounted a number of internationally recognized fine-art exhibitions of intellectual rigour, garnering recognition throughout the art world.
The ideals of Tagore Foundation International are deeply enmeshed with the ideals of Rabindranath Tagore, Sundaram Tagore’s great-granduncle, whose poetry, fiction, music and art have touched the lives of people all over the world. Tagore’s ideals of humanity’s greater good are embodied in the following: “I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service is joy.”
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) worked tirelessly throughout his life encouraging his fellow man to break free from “narrow domestic walls” through social justice and a universalism that merged the best ideals of East and West. His well-known dialogues with other great thinkers of his era, including Albert Einstein, Pablo Neruda and W.B. Yeats, centered on universalism and the fundamental dignity of human existence.
ABOUT TAGORE FOUNDATION INTERNATIONAL
Rabindranath Tagore’s university, Vishva-Bharati in Shantiniketan, India, was a fertile breeding ground for India’s major artistic movements during the 20th century, as well as an intellectual center for the ideas that informed the Indian independence movement. Mahatma Gandhi, upon arriving to India from South Africa, went first to Shantiniketan to engage Rabindranath Tagore on issues concerning India’s future independence.
The Tagore Foundation International promotes a pedagogical approach to aesthetics, and the preservation and conservation of indigenous arts and architecture. It also endeavors to provide a serious platform for dialogue on global arts and culture.
Sundaram Tagore continues to uphold the traditions of his family through Tagore Foundation International and his contemporary art galleries around the globe.