by Vicki Garlock
Fauzia Minallah is an award-winning Pakistani artist who uses her formidable gifts to help the world’s children know peace. When asked about her hopes and dreams…
Seeking Peace through Art for Children in Pakistan
The Art of Prayer Meets the Prayer of Art
by Cynthia Lindner
This autumn, visitors to the Art Institute’s Bucksbaum Gallery for Photography on the ground floor of the museum’s Modern Wing are met by empty white walls: there’s not a single photograph hanging in this gallery dedicated to their display.
Art and Interfaith Conversation
by Andrew Smith
I learn best by listening to people’s ideas over a good cup of coffee. One such conversation sparked ideas that inspired a whole series of interfaith dialogues that have taken place over the past few years.
How We See Each Other
by Libby Byrne
The gift of art helps us to see more clearly what is really there in our human experience. With this in mind, is there a relationship between the way we see art and the way we imagine religious communities might be inclusive for people with disabilities?
Decolonizing Art
by Vy Vu
Audre Lorde once said: “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.” This is why we constantly have to learn the process of decolonizing our body and our tools.
The Art of Community, the Community of Art
by Rev. Andre van Zijl
Art is an interculturally unifying language for communicating human and spiritual experience beyond words. We all hunger for connection and community. We do well to dance, sing, write, paint, and sculpt our way…
An Artful Approach to Interfaith Chaplaincy
by Jenifer Miller
With my calligraphy pen I write the name of the tiny beloved baby boy, on the inside of a Comfort Angel, and hand it to his father, for safekeeping.
An Artist's Journey Beyond the Walls of Division
by Andre van Zijl
We enter a completely darkened room which is set up with a foot-wide border of white muslin covered by unlit candles alternating with round black river stones.
An Interfaith Crucible of Art & Architecture
by Ruth Broyde Sharone
The stunning museum, designed by Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki, is a landmark structure, revealing in exquisite detail the rich artistic culture of Islam and the diversity of Islamic civilization.
An Artful Approach to Interfaith Chaplaincy
by Jenifer Miller
With my calligraphy pen I write the name of the tiny beloved baby boy, on the inside of a Comfort Angel, and hand it to his father, for safekeeping.
An Artist's Journey Beyond the Walls of Division
by Andre van Zijl
We enter a completely darkened room which is set up with a foot-wide border of white muslin covered by unlit candles alternating with round black river stones.
Epiphany at the Altar of a Sand Mandala
by Billy Doidge Kilgore
Five Buddhist monks stand in a row, torsos wrapped in maroon robes and scalps adorned with golden headdresses. In their arms, they hold cymbals, drums, and horns.
Igniting the Sacred Power of the Arts for Social Change
Interview of Ahmane' Glover and Erik W. Martínez Resly by Eleanor Goldfield
Justice, at its roots, is painful. We are moving through an unjust world. And we have been moving through an unjust world for generations and generations. Now it’s just up, pulsing at the surface.
Serve2Unite Takes on Violence Fearlessly
“We defy hate and violence with peace and love. We bring people together. We celebrate the positive global human qualities that everyone shares, and no one can stop us.”
Masks and Sacred Powers
In August, 2014, the Graduate Theological Union was given 189 works of sacred art from all over the world by Lanier Graham and family and the Institute for Aesthetic Development. GTU will use these works for classroom teaching, research, and in exhibitions open to the public in order to maximize access to and utilization of these treasures collected by one family over three generations.
Seeking Peace through Art for Children
Fauzia Minallah is an award-winning Pakistani artist who uses her formidable gifts to help the world’s children know peace. When asked about her hopes and dreams, Fauzia offers a very long list: that girls will be valued as much as boys, that impoverished children have opportunities to read and to create art, that Pakistan will cherish its religious heritage and diversity, that visually-impaired kids will have safe places to play, and that all Pakistani children have access to clean air and water. It’s tempting to wonder how one woman, even one as creative and energetic as Fauzia, might accomplish all that in a single lifetime. She is the first to admit that her work is never finished, but a quick dip into the inspired waters of the Funkor Child Art Center shows how, in little more than a decade, thousands of children have been lifted up and served.
Creativity Melts Syrian-Lebanese Barriers
Beirut - Muhammad, who arrived from the Syrian city of Homs, lost his leg in the Syrian war. At the border, he was met by Lebanese who treated and cared for him until he could walk on his prosthetic leg. He then went to the market looking for a job, where he was hit with racism. He could not find any work and store owners kicked him out, cursing him and throwing accusations that he would rob them for sure. This discrimination and oppression made him hate all the Lebanese without exception, forgetting those who cared for him and who extended a helping hand.
Bronzes – Women as Agents of the Sacred
Every culture has found ways to express its sense of the sacred or transcendent in myth/story and representationally in graphic form. This series of sculptures emerged from my interest in the role of women as centers through which the sacred is expressed or through which the sacred interacts with human communities.
Art’s Role in the Interfaith Movement
As a college student studying art history and Jewish literature, I am particularly interested in how language and art create the stories that we tell about culture, community, and faith. Words and images cannot exist in a vacuum; almost anything we create is influenced by where we are, who we are surrounded by, and what ideas we hold.
Faith-Related Crafts as a Precursor to the Arts
Artistic expression is a form of prayer. It can be offered in the form of dancing, playing an instrument, singing, whirling, or chanting. In our case, since we work with kids, it often appears as crafts. Caregivers around the world use crafts to teach children about their faith traditions and create perfect resources for interfaith education. (At the end of this article you’ll find links to some of these sites.) Beyond that, these projects give kids the opportunity to discover the sacred, to offer a prayer without having to put it into words, and to co-create with the divine.