A plaque bearing Swami Vivekananda’s image will be unveiled on Saturday at the Art Institute of Chicago where the monk had delivered his famous speeches at the 1893 World Parliament of Religions.

Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee will unveil the sandstone plaque.

The day will also witness the signing of two agreements on the occasion of the 150th birth anniversary of Vivekananda.

One of the agreements will be for creating the Indian Ministry of Culture Vivekananda Chair at the University of Chicago. The ministry is making a grant of $1.5 million to set up the chair. “To persuade the University of Chicago, which boasts over 70 Nobel laureates, to institute the chair is a big achievement,” Union culture secretary Jawhar Sircar said.

The university will make a shortlist of two or three candidates for the chair and send their names to the Indian government, along with dossiers on their achievements. New Delhi will send back the names with its observations.

The other agreement will be for the Vivekananda Memorial Programme for Museum Excellence at the Art Institute of Chicago. The Centre will provide $500,000 to the institute to conduct the four-year programme for museum professionals from India.

The programme will cover a wide range of topics, including modern museum operation, conservation and planning of exhibitions.

“A lot of negotiations were necessary because the art institute felt a memorial would invite a lot of non-academic people into their premises. But they finally agreed,” said Sircar.