Smithsonian Asks for Help Funding Yoga Exhibit

The Smithsonian wants to highlight the history of yoga with a special exhibit opening this fall, and it wants ordinary citizens to help fund the unique exhibit.

The many forms of yoga have influenced many cultures for thousands of years. In America, it's moved from edgy to mainstream with millions of practitioners for both mental and physical health.

The Smithsonian's Sackler Gallery is preparing a first-ever exhibition on the visual history of yoga. Exhibit Curator Debra Diamond told News4 whole societies have risen and fallen with the power and mystical aspects of it.

The Sackler's "Together We Are One" exhibit this fall will first depend on a unique online fundraising campaign that begins May 29. It's the first specific exhibit to appeal to a broad community of people to raise $125,000.

“I thought yoga was a natural because community has been part of it for centuries,” Diamond said.

Supporters can learn more, donate and download campaign materials beginning later this month at asia.si.edu/yoga or by emailing yoga@si.edu.