INSPIRE ME! Artist, Harry Bertoia

ALPHA OMEGA ARTSSculptor Harry BertoiaBy Ernest Disney-BrittonWith an infectious smile, Robert “Bo”, a 42-year-old former Roman Catholic, took my arm and led me on a tour of his church sanctuary's art collection at Saint John's Unitarian Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. “Let me show you [Harry] Bertoia’s 'Tree of Life'” he said. “It’s worth more than the entire church and at the winter equinox, it lights up,” and as he searched through the tiny copper...

Read More

'God is a Myth!' Raelian Movement Launches Atheistic Campaign

PRESS RELEASEFebruary 28, 2011NEVADA -- The International Raelian Movement (www.rael.org) has just launched the next phase of its atheistic campaign by purchasing very high profile billboard space on the busy I-15 southbound freeway in Las Vegas. Each month for the next six months, hundreds of thousands of people will see the huge "GOD IS A MYTH" message while commuting or visiting the city. Raelians are conducting their annual Happiness Academy (seminar) in Las Vegas from March 27 to April 2 at the Alexis Park Hotel. Raelian seminars are known...

Read More

Portland-based Cuba AyUUda fosters Cuban-U.S. relations.

UUWORLD NEWSFebruary 28, 2011OREGON -- Cuba AyUUda groups—the name implies “mutual service to one another,” in Spanish—have helped with AIDS clinics, painted nursing homes, shared the work of construction and gardening, and made art and music with Cubans. They have also taken tons of medical and other supplies to Cuba over the years. A key project is one that the group took over from the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee—providing cloth and other materials to a Cuban women’s group that makes baby clothes in an effort to encourage young...

Read More

Andy Warhol, Good for Jews?

ARIZONA REPUBLICFebruary 26, 2011ARIZONA -- A one-man show, "Andy Warhol: Good for the Jews?" is being performed at the Herberger Theater Center this month as part of Actors Theatre's season is a commission of the Contemporary Jewish Museum, which was exhibiting Warhol's series of 10 portraits of 20th-century Jews, from Einstein and Freud to George Gershwin and the Marx Brothers. While researching about Warhol, the playwright found out how deeply religious he was. "His parents were from central Europe and went to Byzantine Catholic...

Read More

Church Model Exhibition

THE MALTA INDEPENDENT ONLINEFebruary 28, 2011MALTA -- This year marks the 25th anniversary from the foundation of the Ghaqda Dilettanti Mudelli ta’ Knejjes and it will be once again organising its annual exhibition at St Francis Hall, Melita Street, Valletta during the first two weeks of Lent. Over a hundred members are presenting their exhibits, which vary from church models to statues and other items associated with religious folklore. The exhibition is a showcase of traditional popular art not necessarily artistic in the professional sense of...

Read More

Finding God and Health In The Experience of Storytelling

HUFFINGTON POSTFebruary 28, 2011MASSACHUSETTS -- I've been eavesdropping on an unscientific experiment with storytelling and holy listening lately. As a self-appointed spy for hope amid the mainline denominations' well-reported decline, I've been looking at congregations who are stirring up a greater capacity for people to be authentically present to one another. This experiment -- part of The Fund for Theological Education's Calling Congregations initiative -- seeks to establish listening congregations as places that might foster a deeper connection...

Read More

Essay: Will the Creation Museum Discriminate?

RELIGIOUS DISPATCHESFebruary 13, 2011KENTUCKY -- Cary Summers, the spokesperson for Ark Encounter, the partnership being led by the Creation Museum said at a press conference that they were “wrestling” with the issue of the statement of faith AiG employees and volunteers are required to sign. But when asked by RD what exactly they were wrestling with, if they were committed to non-discrimination, Ethridge received no clarification from Ark Encounter, though she speculated that “[Summers] would say that that was not the best word choice that...

Read More

Mediterranean Vistas of Sacred Places at Fred Jones Museum

THE OKLAHOMANFebruary 27, 2011Temple Interior, Egypt, n.d. by Joseph Lindon Smith (U.S., 1863-1950)Watercolor, 22 1/2 x 12 in.OKLAHOMA -- Nineteenth-century American art inspired by the landscapes and cultures found in countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea is the focus of a new exhibition at the University of Oklahoma's Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art. “In the late 19th century, American artists showed increasing interest in points abroad, including...

Read More

Thornton Dial Notes ll

VETERAN'S DAY, 1993A number os Dials works explore the ethical conundrums of youth violence, in the wake of the killings, this tribute to the countrys soldiers stages ina fark, gloomy cemetary. filled with memorial wreaths, funerary roses, ghostly image of the American flag, the White House, and the glowing specters of sacrifcied soulrs, the piece is a memorial to the heroic deed. "Last Trip Home (Diana's Funeral) 1998Charcola, pencil, and pastel on paperIn this image of Diana in her casket (cross over her head)Dial, the story become a modern-day...

Read More

Thornton Dial Notes

Repression, refuse, RedemptionTHE DOGWOOD TREE, 2003Beneath the central figure of the black Messiah in this crucifixon image is a piece of real dogwood, that according to "fable?", was use to construct Christ's cross. -REDEMPTION: MUSINGS ON THE SPIRITUAL-(1) Surving the Frost, 2007(2) Construction of the Victoru, 1997(3) The Beginning of Life in the Yellow Jungle, 2003 ("coding for the coming together of the races)(4) First Butterflies 2002 (a prayer for the worlds recovery after 9/11)CLOUDS MOVING IN THE SKY, WE WAKE UP IN DARKESS AND LOOK FOR...

Read More

Sermon: Edward Wheeler @JMCC

"Making it in on Broken Pieces"By Pres., Dr. Edward WheelerPresident, CTS---"Giving honor to God who is worthy of all praise. It is indeed a blessing to be here with you this morning.""I always like to identify family members, so that when you want to talk about me, you won't do it around her." (Re: daughter Dawn)Scripture: Acts 27:44 "broken pieces" - Paul finds himself in the middle of a storm, not of his making. Some storms come because you did somthing, but sometimes storm come because "storms come" but you just keep in living. Paul had something...

Read More

A&O Meetup in Toledo: Fernando Botero, on March 19, 2011

ALPHA OMEGA ARTSBy Ernest Disney-BrittonOHIO - On Saturday, March 19, Alpha Omega Arts will lead a group to experience The Baroque World of Fernando Botero at the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio. A modern day religious art master, the touring exhibition includes approximately 100 objects including many with religious themes. Ohio is the show's final stop and the only Midwest venue. "All of the objects in...

Read More

There's "Hard Truth" in Indiana

THIS AFTERNOON, following worship services, the AOA team is headed to the Indianapolis Museum of Art to experience the opening weekend of a major retrospective on Alabama artist and spiritual master of found-objects, Thorton Dial (b. 1928). Dial is the spotlighted artist for this year's winter/spring exhibition and it's a show that everyone should see. He is a hero to AOA friend, and fellow found-object artist...

Read More

Spirituality at Tonight's Academy Awards

Presentation of the Movieguide results for 2010WHICH MOVIES will be the big winners tonight at Hollywood's biggest awards ceremony, The Oscars? Whichever films do win, they will certainly reflect a different kind of Hollywood than the one I grew up with, and some credit is due to a group that's been working behind for the scenes, The Christian Film and Television Commission, for decades. They also publish their own comparison...

Read More

Creation Museum's Latest Headlines

THE ALPHA OMEGA ARTSBy Ernest Disney-BrittonAfter making headlines a month ago for joining (or leading) a new partnership to build a replica of Noah's Ark in northern Kentucky, the Creation Museum made headlines again this week but not the kind of headlines a museum needs. While they negotiate state support for their ambitious $150 million project, The Ark Encounter, they are also now facing accusations of discrimination.From USA Today to the Louisville Courier-Journal there have been dozens of news stories about...

Read More

PROJECT: FOUNDATION

BY ERNEST BRITTONThe Alpha & Omega Project for Contemporary Religious Arts reached agreement on its first exhibition partnership this week. The exhibition will feature the Alpha Prize for Young Artists initiated by Miami, FL supporter David Sweet.The exhibit/prize will be held this coming November in partnership with Indianapolis area churches and will include $750 in prizes. AOA Travels also finalized details for its March 19 group tour to the Toledo Museum of Art's Fernando Botero exhibition. RSVP's are being taken on Facebook or...

Read More

SABBATH ART | NEWS IN REVIEW

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By TAHLIBArt of the Week: "Christ in the Garden of Olives" by Paul GauguinBelow is a listing of major religious arts news for the past week, Sunday, February 20 thru Saturday, February 26, 2011, from the USA and around the world. If we missed anything, please let us know at sabbathart@alphaomegaarts.com.Mississippi's Plans for Civil Rights Museum draws hope, suspicion - The Commercial AppealPresident Obama Seeks $125M for new...

Read More

An Interior of Spiritual and Artistic Subtlety, Rothko at 40

WALLSTREET JOURNALFebruary 25, 2011 The chapel, designed by Mark Rothko, in which 14 of his works hang.TEXAS -- In a small park, bordered by modest gray cottages owned by the de Menil Foundation, stands the initially unprepossessing Rothko Chapel, a 20th-century melding of art and religion that represents the joint vision of an artist, his patrons and other collaborators. Think of it as the American equivalent of Matisse's Chapel of the...

Read More

Churches making movies

RELIGION & NEWSWEEKLYFebruary 25, 2011CALIFORNIA -- Sunday morning at Friends Church in Yorba Linda, California. Richard Nixon’s family helped found this Quaker congregation 99 years ago, and the former president attended here as well. Today, it’s a megachurch with a nondenominational evangelical style. During worship services, pastor of creative ministries Brent Martz makes sure everything goes as it’s supposed to, and in the control room, church media director Jon Van Dyke calls the camera shots. Those may be their day jobs, but the...

Read More

Manuscripts discovered of the Bon religion, one of the oldest religions in the world

SIFY NEWSFebruary 25, 2011TIBET -- In a cave near Mt. Everrest, has been discovered a cave containing murals that though now fading and crumbling down are still exquisite, two immense libraries containing almost 10,000 ancient manuscripts in old Tibetan script, some of which are beautifully illuminated, and the remains of 27 people, the oldest of whom dates back to 100 years before the birth of Christ. The manuscripts, which are being translated, are mostly about the Bon religion, one of the oldest religions in the world that grew in...

Read More

Art Review: Gauguin, The Self-Invented Artist

THE NEW YORK TIMESFebruary 24, 2011"Christ in the Garden" (1889)By Paul GauguinWASHINGTON DC -- The latest exhibition on the Post-Impressionist master, Paul Gauguin opens Sunday and will be on view through June 5 at the National Gallery of Art. It is entitled, “Gauguin: Maker of Myth,” and comes to Washington from the Tate Modern in London. By 1887, Gauguin the stockbroker and Sunday painter was gone, and replaced by an artist with a new identity...

Read More

Student Art Inspired by Bible

WILLIAMS LAKE TRIBUNEFebruary 24, 2011 Olivia Harrison, 14, with her painting on display at the Station House Gallery this month with many other works by youth. CANADA -- This week is the last week to catch the February art show at the Station House Gallery which features art by 26 young artists in both the main and upper galleries. Olivia Harrison, 14, a Grade 9 student at Maranatha Christian School, is featured in the main gallery. Olivia...

Read More

Cultural Prescriptions in Finland

NATIONAL POSTFebruary 24, 2011Nuns Chapel - Turku CastleFINLAND -- Inside a 12th-century castle, in the Nun’s Chapel, wooden religious sculptures flickered before the brick walls, lit only by candlelight. Dark, cold and eerie, there is no doubt spirits live in the Turku Castle, the largest medieval castle in Finland. For all of 2011, the city of Turku will be one big exhibit, with art events ranging from wrestling matches in concert halls to church...

Read More

A Religious Treasure Trove at Princeton University

BERKELY PATCHFebruary 23, 2011NEW JERSEY -- Last Thursday evening, my husband and I attended "Exploring the Spiritual Dimension: A Night of Forms, Food, and Faith" at the university art museum. It was part of the fifth annual Coming Together Interfaith Conference, which brought student leaders together from across the country to improve interfaith dialogue. The event was organized by Paul Raushenbush, who is both associate dean of Religious Life at Princeton, and editor of The Huffington Post Religion channel, for whom I write. (Qasim Rashid, of...

Read More

New work by Chagoya won't be displayed in Colorado Museum

THE ASSSOCIATED PRESSFebruary 24, 2011COLORADO — A pastor at a Loveland church has withdrawn an offer to the city museum to display a portrait of Jesus by the same artist whose work was destroyed by an intruder at the museum last fall. The Rev. Jonathan Wiggins of Resurrection Fellowship says he's withdrawing the offer as a precaution. California artist Enrique Chagoya tells the Loveland Reporter-Herald that he agrees. In October, Kathleen Folden of Kalispell, Mont., destroyed a lithograph by Chagoya that was on display at the Loveland Museum/Gallery....

Read More

400 years of the King James Bible

THE TIMES (THE SUNDAY TIMES)February 9, 2011LONDON -- The King James Bible is a book that attracts superlatives. To David Norton it is “the most important book in English religion and culture”, to Gordon Campbell “the most celebrated book in the English-speaking world” and “the most enduring embodiment of Scripture in the English language”. To Robert Carroll and Stephen Prickett it is simply the Bible translation that defines Bible translations: “All other versions still exist, as it were, in its shadow. It has shaped, formed and moulded the language...

Read More

A Skater whose artwork is Bible Inspired

THE DAILY GAMECOCKFebruary 23, 2011 "The Exorcist" by Jason SmithSOUTH CAROLINA -- The Columbia Museum of Art debuted its new "Skate and Create" exhibit in the David Wallace Robinson Jr. Community Gallery Tuesday night. On display now through April 24, the exhibit features several collections from various artists including the works of Jason Smith, a skateboarder long before he ever picked up a paintbrush. Smith paints what is real; the...

Read More

'Bali: Art, Ritual, Performance,' Asian Art Museum

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLEFebruary 23, 2011 lion baron or animal deityCALIFORNIA -- Bali, Art, Ritual, Performance opens Friday at the Asian Art Museum (February 25) is  richly textured and religious art exhibition. There are over 130 objects, including sculpture, paintings, and ritual objects, masks and costumes, photographs and much more. Dr. Jay Xu, director of the museum says the exhibition, "teaches visitors about Balinese history,...

Read More

Review: 'Of Gods and Men' Is Martyrdom Masterpiece

ABC NEWS | ENTERTAINMENTFebruary 23, 2011FRANCE -- Monastic life is anything but tedious in Xavier Beauvois' masterful drama "Of Gods and Men," based on the real-life tragedy of seven French monks abducted and beheaded during Algeria's civil war in 1996. The film is largely built of ordinary tasks and everyday moments: monks tending their crops, treating Muslim villagers at the monastery clinic, caring for their beehives and taking the honey they produce to market, sharing simple meals, and, of course, chanting in devotion during Mass.[li...

Read More

Theology professor communicates through art in New Mexico

TRIB LOCALFebruary 21, 2011NEW MEXICO -- Lewis University at Albuquerque and the Archdiocese of Sante Fe recently presented two workshops about connecting theology and art in New Mexico. “God with Us: A Theology of New Mexican Folk Art” was presented on Jan. 14 by Dr. Dominic Colonna, chair of theology at Lewis University. The professor analyzed representations of the Trinity to illustrate how popular art helps communities to find meaning in the past and the present and to plan for the future. The second, “Utilizing Traditional religious Folk Art...

Read More

History’s Bestseller in Type at Houghton

THE HARVARD CRIMSONFebruary 23, 2011MASSACHUSETTS--“The Bible in Type, from Gutenberg to Rogers: An Exhibition Commemorating the Four-Hundredth Anniversary of the King James Bible” celebrates beautifully-crafted examples of history’s best-selling—and arguably most influential—book, the Bible. The exhibit celebrates the 400th anniversary of the printing of the King James Bible, which was translated in 1611 and remains the most popular English version. It displays works including Harvard’s Gutenberg Bible, the first Bible produced on a printing press,...

Read More

Berlin couple sells rare antiquities from around the world

DAILY TIMESFebruary 23, 2011GERMANY--Coconut Bay Trading Co., a new shop in downtown Berlin, offers a seemingly endless array of antiques, jewelry, paintings, artifacts and curiosities from around the world. That inventory is made up of treasures Miles, a retired school teacher, has collected from all over the world. There are hand-painted Russian icons, Buddha figurines, ornate Indian jewelry as well as travel-sized religious shrines from various countries. Odder merchandise includes a hand-painted duck egg from Bali, a wooden harp from Indonesia,...

Read More

Haiti’s Scars, and Its Soul, Find Healing on Walls

THE NEW YORK TIMESFebruary 22, 2011The Smithsonian’s Stephanie Hornbeck at the Episcopal Trinity Cathedral in Port-au-Prince. HAITI--The three remaining murals of the Episcopal Trinity Cathedral in Haiti are being restored in a painstaking 18-month project that began in the fall. The original 14 murals had been internationally treasured. Painted in the early 1950s during an artistic renaissance here, they depicted biblical scenes from...

Read More

Lecture: We are all Warhol's Children

SETON HALL UNIVERSITYFebruary 22, 2011NEW JERSEY--Andy Warhol is the world’s most famous American of Carpatho-Rusyn ancestry. The icons of the Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic Church were his first exposure to art. His unexpected death in 1987 was followed by the fall of communism in Eastern Europe and the rise of the Rusyn movement for identity, which embraced the flamboyant pop-artist, filmmaker and jet setter as their iconic figurehead. Professor Elaine Rusinko of the University of Maryland will lecture on this impact on Thursday, March 24 in Fahy...

Read More

Messenger Art Collection Acquired by New Owner

MMD NewswireFebruary 22, 2011NEVADA -- Mr. Albert Babbitt, a Las Vegas businessman, today announced his acquisition, in July 2010, of the Messenger Art Collection which has been described as one of the most comprehensive and eclectic collections in the US. Sixty percent of the work is religious/biblical in content and the remaining forty percent is divided into sub-categories of European and American historic paintings, wildlife, Americana, pinups, Shakespeare etchings, historic posters, photographs and more. [li...

Read More