Source: The New York Times
On August 10, 2001, The New York Times reported the exhibit in the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery entitled "Worshiping the Ancestors: Chinese Commemorative Portraits." The nearly 40 paintings in the exhibit are "18th- and 19th-century depictions of the court elite of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911)...China's [ancient] ancestor cult, is based on the ideal of the infinitely perpetuated nuclear family...As a medium of direct contact between the living and the dead, the ancestor portrait was periodically installed on a family altar or in a dynastic temple, where it functioned as a ritual instrument." Included in this show was an exhibit done by local high school students. They documented the current religious practices in their families and the local Chinese American community.