Sursock Museum

Coordinates: 33°53′34.59″N 35°30′58.42″E / 33.8929417°N 35.5162278°E / 33.8929417; 35.5162278

Sursock Museum, which is officially known as Nicolas Ibrahim Sursock Museum, is a modern art and contemporary art museum in Beirut, Lebanon.

The wealthy and prominent Beirut aristocrat Nicolas Ibrahim Sursock built the private villa that now houses the museum in 1912. He decreed in his will that the villa be transformed into a museum and when he died in 1952 he bequeathed the villa to the city of Beirut. The museum opened its doors in 1961 directed by Ibrahim M. Beyhum with an exhibit of works of contemporary Lebanese artists, setting a precedent for cultural events in Beirut.

The Sursock Museum building exemplifies Lebanese architecture with its Italianate, specifically Venetian, and Ottoman architectural influences. It is located in the historic Rue Sursock street in the Achrafieh district of Beirut. The street is home to other mansions that were built in the 19th century by Beirut's most prominent families such as the Sursocks and the Bustroses.

Sursock family

The Sursock family (also Sursuq) is a Greek Orthodox Christian family from Lebanon. Having originated in Constantinople during the Byzantine Empire, the family has been recorded as living in Beirut since 1714. The family, through lucrative business ventures, savvy political maneuvering, and strategic marriages, embarked on what Leila Fawaz has called “the most spectacular social climb in the nineteenth century,” and, by their peak, had built a close network of relations to the families of Egyptian, French, Irish, Russian, Italian and German aristocracies and a manufacturing, alongside a distribution empire spanning the Mediterranean.

The Sursocks are one of Beirut's aristocratic Christian families, along with the Bustros, Ferneini, Araman, Boutros, Trad, and Tueni families and were readily admitted into Ottoman, Egyptian and European high societies. The Sursocks were part of an international bourgeoisie that constantly moved between the cities of Alexandria, Beirut, Cairo, Istanbul, Paris and Rome and are effectively one of the "Seven Families" which define Beirut's aristocratic nobility. The Sursocks ultimately became an integral part of an international set that circulated amid Europe's major capitals. Their wealth and sophistication are also reflected in their stunning residences, equal in elegance to any Italian palazzo.

Beirut

Coordinates: 33°53′13″N 35°30′47″E / 33.88694°N 35.51306°E / 33.88694; 35.51306

Beirut (Arabic: بيروت‎ Bayrūt; Biblical Hebrew: בְּאֵרוֹת Be'erot; Hebrew: ביירות Beirut; Latin: Berytus; French: Beyrouth; Turkish: Beyrut; Armenian: Պէյրութ Beyrut) is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. No recent population census has been done but in 2007 estimates ranged from slightly more than 1 million to slightly less than 2 million as part of Greater Beirut. Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coast, Beirut is the country's largest and main seaport.

The first mention of this metropolis is found in the ancient Egyptian Tell el Amarna letters dating from the 15th century BC. The city has been inhabited continuously since then. The Beirut River runs south to north on the eastern edge of the city.

Beirut is Lebanon's seat of government and plays a central role in the Lebanese economy, with many banks and corporations based in its Central District, Hamra Street, Rue Verdun and Ashrafieh. Following the destructive Lebanese Civil War, Beirut's cultural landscape underwent major reconstruction. Identified and graded for accountancy, advertising, banking/finance and law, Beirut is ranked as a Beta World City by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network.

Let's Talk

Let's Talk is an Indian English language film, released on 13 December 2002. It is produced by Shift Focus and directed by Ram Madhvani. It is the first ever Indian feature film that was shot in the digital format. It was then reverse printed in 35mm film (reverse telecine) to be released in cinemas.

Plot

Radhika (Maia Katrak) has been married for over ten years to Nikhil (Boman Irani) and is having an affair for the past six months with an interior designer, Krish. Radhika is now pregnant with Krish’s child and pours out her plight to a friend, Rita (Anahita Oberoi). She mentions a particular incident where she suffered a miscarriage of their second child that had started the rift. Radhika says that she did not want to have this baby, while Nikhil did, and adds that both of them have not quite gotten over the miscarriage. Radhika wants to come clean with Nikhil, while Rita advises her to sort things out in her mind first as to what she wants before she tells Nikhil. Radhika then plays out various scenes in her mind where she has told Nikhil of her affair and visualizes different ways in which Nikhil could react.

Museum

A museum (/mjuˈziːəm/; myoo-zee-um) is an institution that cares for (conserves) a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities throughout the world and more local ones exist in smaller cities, towns and even the countryside. Museums have varying aims, ranging from serving researchers and specialists to serving the general public. The goal of serving researchers is increasingly shifting to serving the general public.

Some of the most attended museums include the Louvre in Paris, the National Museum of China in Beijing, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., the British Museum in London, the National Gallery in London and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. There are many types of museums, including art museums, natural history museums, science museums, war museums and children's museums.