diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 53d27c5912..f87303460a 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -29,6 +29,9 @@ classifiers = [
     "Topic :: Software Development :: Libraries :: Python Modules",
 ]
 requires-python = ">= 3.8"
+dependencies = [
+    "numpy>=1.19",
+]
 
 [project.urls]
 Homepage = "https://openimageio.org/"
diff --git a/src/python/__init__.py b/src/python/__init__.py
index 6754b95cde..7bccef748f 100644
--- a/src/python/__init__.py
+++ b/src/python/__init__.py
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@
 production.
 """[1:-1]
 
+__version__ = VERSION_STRING # type: ignore # noqa: F405
 
 def _call_program(name, args):
     bin_dir = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'bin')