Image: Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art, Staten Island
The Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art in Staten Island will celebrate the birthday of His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama with a hybrid film screening on July 11, pairing 'Heart of Tibet' with video clips from the Dalai Lama’s visit to the museum. The program is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. at the museum’s hilltop campus at 338 Lighthouse Avenue, with attendance available both in person and online.
The event listing describes the screening as part of the museum’s birthday observance for the Dalai Lama, whose presence is woven into the institution’s own history. The museum’s site notes that it is designed to evoke a Tibetan Buddhist mountain monastery, and specifically the Potala at Lhasa, the historic seat of the Dalai Lamas. Its collection is presented as one of the most important of its kind in the West, with several thousand works from Tibet, Mongolia and northern China dating from the 15th century.
According to the museum’s event page, 'Heart of Tibet: An Intimate Portrait of the 14th Dalai Lama' will be shown alongside archival clips from the Dalai Lama’s visit to the museum. The film component adds a documentary dimension to the screening, while the museum footage brings the program back to the institution’s own setting and archive. The hybrid format also extends access beyond Staten Island through an online option.
The museum’s listing says the screening is included with museum admission for in-person visitors. Online admission is listed at $10. The museum’s general admission elsewhere on its site is noted at $10, with reduced rates for students and seniors and free entry for members, as well as SNAP and WIC program participants.
'Heart of Tibet' is identified on the museum page as having been filmed during the Dalai Lama’s 1989 trip to Los Angeles, the same year he received the Nobel Peace Prize. The description says the hour-long documentary follows him as he leads the Kalachakra, or 'Wheel of Time,' initiation before thousands, including the creation of an intricate sand mandala. The museum frames the film as both a portrait of the Dalai Lama and a record of a particular moment in his public life.
The Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art, which describes itself as a living museum bringing Tibetan and Himalayan cultural heritage to Staten Island and beyond, keeps a regular program schedule that includes meditation, tai chi, walking tours and other events. Its July calendar places the Dalai Lama screening among a series of weekend and weekday programs, but the birthday screening stands out as one of the month’s explicitly commemorative events. The museum lists the program as a single-date hybrid event on July 11, 2026.
