Finalist Notification for Blake Prize for Religious Art

BLAKE PRIZE
By Stefanie Lewis

AUSTRALIA---Finalist notification for the 62nd Blake Prize has been sent to artists today. If you have entered this year's prize and did not receive notification, please email the Society at info(at)blakeprize.com.au. The complete list of finalists will be announced and displayed on the Blake Society website on 10 October, 2013. [link]

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Indiana's Marriage Squabble May Draw Big Bucks

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Ernest Disney-Britton

INDIANA---Who is the big winner in Indiana's 2014 voter referendum on the Freedom to Marry? One group: Broadcasters. While supporters, such as Westboro Baptist Church says it will protest children and a society imperiled by moral decline, opponents such as the Evangelicals at LifeJourney Church say it's an assault of family unity and big corporations, such as Lilly, Inc. say it will hurt business. Whatever your take on it, the imagery will be fierce and the revenues strong on television and radio stations. According to the Indianapolis Business Journal, "Six issue-ads campaigns---from immigration reform to gun control---in the first half of this year reaped WTHR-TV(NBC) over $373,000." IBJ added, that according to Rick Sutton, who is part of a coalition of groups called Freedom Indiana, groups in Minnesota spent $15-$18 mission on messaging. Is that money well spent? It's certainly great money if you are a broadcaster.

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Todd Fox Brings "Portrait of the Passion" to Life at Kansas Wesleyan Art Gallery

KANSAS WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY
By Megan Berry

KANSAS---Born in Phillipsburg, Kansas, Todd Dayton Fox will be displaying his works in the Kansas Wesleyan Gallery starting Tuesday, August 20. “I am very excited to be a part of this exhibit and work with Todd,” said Megan Berry, Gallery Director. “I think this kind of work will be a perfect show at Kansas Wesleyan.” Recently, Fox brought “Portrait of the Passion” collection to Kansas where he has began to introduce his work to fellow Kansans. Last March, Fox was a featured artist at the Shafer Memorial Art Gallery at Barton Community College in Great Bend. Some of Fox’s greatest art influences include his father Austin Fox, David Gilmour, Salvador Dali, and Gary Larson. Work will be displayed in the lobby until Sunday, September 29. [link]

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New Muslim TV Superhero: “Burka Avenger”

RELIGION NEWS SERVICE
By Richard S. Ehrlich

Geo Tez introduces the Burka Avenger. Photo courtesy Geo TV

PAKISTAN---Pakistan’s new animated television series, “Burka Avenger,” features a female Muslim teacher disguised in a tight black outfit with a cape and ninja-style head cover who throws heavy books and sharp pens at men who oppose education for girls. The fictional show coincides with the real life of Malala Yousafzai, the teenage Pakistani student who was shot in the head in an unsuccessful bid to kill her because she spoke out in support of girls’ education. The Burka Avenger has been mostly victorious against her Taliban-like enemies during the first two shows, which began on July 28. [link]

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Police Arrest Artist, Sieze Artwork Over Alleged Religious Slur

MAYLAY MAIL

SINGAPORE---Police detained prominent artist Anurendera Jegadeva and seized his entire installation from an ongoing exhibition organised by the National Visual Arts Gallery (NVAG) today following allegations of insult against Islam. The painting by the artist popularly known as J. Anu was included in the “ABC For The Middle-Age Middle Classes" installation and featured a mirrored inscription of the Arabic word "basmala" that is part of the Islamic phrase commonly translated as "In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful". This was said to have been targeted in a number of pro-Umno blogs today. "I understand he might be charged with Section 298 of Penal Code ... The question therefore is whether he did really insult Islam with the piece he put up," Anurendera's lawyer, Nizam Bashir, told The Malay Mail Online. Section 298 deals with crimes of "uttering words, et cetera, with deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings of any person". [link]

Police officers reportedly arrived around 1pm today at the “M50 Selamat Hari Malaysia” exhibition honouring the upcoming 50th Malaysia Day in creative retail mall Publika, Solaris Dutamas here. There, they proceeded to detain Anurendera and confiscate his installation from the ongoing show. Anurendera is currently being questioned at the district police headquarters in Sentul here, according to Nizam.  The piece in question features the phrase "I is for IDIOT" in white typeface on top of the images of a chimpanzee riding a bicycle, a jet fighter pilot in front of the words "Mission Accomplished", and a red-and-white-striped flag with a Jolly Roger skull-and-crossbones — commonly associated with pirates — on it. J.Anu's contentious painting.It is understood that Anurendera's painting is meant to criticise the so-called  war against terror in Iraq launched by then US president George W. Bush in 2002. The rest of his installation were different paintings for each letter of the English alphabet with the same theme; these include pieces such as "J is for Jesus", "K is for Krishna", "L is for Land" and "M is for Mother".

His creations have featured in the National Art Gallery as well as in art museums here and in Singapore. Paintings by the artist in his 40s have sold for as much as RM30, 000 and are included in several private collections of art enthusiasts.

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‘Mary Poppins’, the West's Hindu Mother Goddess

FLAVORWIRE
By Michelle Dean

HOLLYWOOD---This is a week chock-full of anniversaries, so here’s another: 49 years ago, the film version of "Mary Poppins" premiered to much fanfare at L.A.’s Grauman theatre. Much-anticipated at the time, it garnered rapturous critical reception, but in recent years people have complained it was an overly sugary version of the original P.L. Travers book. Travers once said she probably (albeit unconsciously) modeled Mary Poppins on a figure from Hindu mythology. Not long ago, a young person, whom I don’t know very well, sent a message to a mutual friend that said: “I’m an addict of Mary Poppins, and I want you to ask P. L. Travers if Mary Poppins is not really the Mother Goddess.” So, I sent back a message: “Well, I’ve only recently come to see that. She is either the Mother Goddess or one of her creatures — that is, if we’re going to look for mythological or fairy-tale origins of Mary Poppins.” [link]

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R. Crumb's Famous Hallucinatory Encounter With "God"

EXPLORER
Edited by Maria Popova

Legendary artist Robert Crumb, who brought comics to album covers, illustrates Philip K. Dick’s famous "Exegesis" encounter with the mystical. Also see Crumb’s illustrations for Bukowski and Sartre. [link]

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Art Review: Hyman Bloom’s Rabbi Paintings at White Box Gallery

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Ken Johnson

The third in a series of rabbis with Torahs by Hyman Bloom,
in oil and black crayon from the 1980s-1990s, at White Box.

NEW YORK---The contemporary art world is a forgetful place. Many continue to make interesting art and enjoy lives of quiet fulfillment. Hyman Bloom (1913-2009) was one of those, and an exhibition of paintings of rabbis that he made late in life, at White Box gallery in Lower Manhattan, offers surprisingly much to ponder. Traditional Jewish themes preoccupied Bloom from first to last. But viewed in a certain way, Bloom’s paintings are not as irrelevant to contemporary art discourse as they may seem. What’s at issue in this story, and what makes it relevant to today’s art world, is the overvaluation of the material object, to the detriment of art’s spiritual mission. Observers have seen Bloom’s rabbi as a self-portrait, but it would be more accurate to view that figure as the artist’s alter ego, his spiritual frère. [link]

“Hyman Bloom Paintings 1940-2005” continues through Sept. 23 at White Box, 329 Broome Street, Lower Manhattan; (212) 714-2347, whiteboxny.org.

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Jewish Writers Remembrances of Articles of Jewish Faith

THE NEW YORK TIMES | OP-ED
By Dara Horn

NEW YORK---Writers and believers live their lives haunted by the same question: What happens to our days once they disappear? The objective fact is that each day that passes is lost forever, as forbidden to us as the dead. But prayer and fiction offer a different answer. Those lost days still live among us, written in each person’s hand, turned into stories. The idea that largely nontraditional or even secular Jewish writers today would draw on a religion they barely observe may seem far-fetched. But the Jewish practices most rooted in collective memory, which are coincidentally those most accessible to the least observant (family-oriented holidays and text study in various forms), are less about believing in a supernatural reality than about appreciating the metaphor of the past’s presence. For those with vivid imaginations, that metaphor easily comes alive. [link]

• In January, The New Yorker’s Shouts & Murmurs blog serialized a lighthearted novella called “Sell Out,” by Simon Rich.
• Steve Stern’s marvelous novel “The Frozen Rabbi” (2010), about a Jewish teenager in Memphis who discovers a 19th-century Hasidic rabbi in his family’s basement freezer. 
• “The Last Jew” (2007), by the Israeli novelist Yoram Kaniuk — about a Jewish man who, through a surreal combination of trauma and magic
• Joshua Cohen’s novel “Witz” (2010) — which features an apocalyptic scenario where the main character, born as a fully grown and bearded man, becomes the world’s last Jew. 
• Paul Elie wrote a much discussed essay about the relative absence of Christian belief as a theme among today’s mainstream literary novelists. (Whither the Flannery O’Connors of yesteryear? Marilynne Robinson can’t do this all by herself!) But there doesn’t seem to be any corresponding dry spell among contemporary Jewish fiction writers. 
• In his book “Zakhor” (1982), the historian Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi analyzed the roots of Jewish collective memory and its odd staying power (“zakhor” is an order to remember). 
• In his essay “The Art of Fiction,” Henry James provided many a future writing instructor with a handy opening-day quote: “Try to be one of the people on whom nothing is lost!” 
• The British novelist Naomi Alderman put it bluntly in a recent interview with Tablet magazine, when she traced the anxiety that often accompanies Passover preparations back to a time when the holiday coincided with Easter-inspired persecutions. “Each Passover is more like other Passovers than it is like the day that came before it or the day that comes after it,” she said while discussing her novel “The Liars’ Gospel,” a book about Jesus, the world’s most famous death-defying Jew. 

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New Neighbor’s Agenda: White Power Takeover

THE NEW YORK TIMES 
By John Elgin

NORTH DAKOTA---The Southern Poverty Law Center and The Bismarck Tribune revealed that the man, Paul Craig Cobb, 61, has been buying up property in this town of 24 people in an effort to transform it into a colony for white supremacists. In the past two years, Mr. Cobb, a longtime proselytizer for white supremacy who is wanted in Canada on charges of promoting hatred, has bought a dozen plots of land in Leith (pronounced Leeth) and has sold or transferred ownership of some of them to a couple of like-minded white nationalists. He is using Craigslist and white power message boards to entice others in the movement to take refuge in Leith, about two hours southwest of Bismarck. [link]

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Battling Superstition, Indian Paid With His Life

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Ellen Barry

Narendra Dabholkar’s supporters at a memorial in Pune.

INDIA---For nearly three decades, an earnest man named Narendra Dabholkar traveled from village to village in India, waging a personal war against the spirit world. If a holy man had electrified the public with his miracles, Dr. Dabholkar, a former physician, would duplicate the miracles and explain, step by step, how they were performed. That mission ended Tuesday, when two men ran up behind Dr. Dabholkar, 67, as he crossed a bridge, shot him at point-blank range, then jumped onto a motorbike and disappeared into the traffic coursing through this city. Dr. Dabholkar’s killing is the latest episode in a millenniums-old wrestling match between traditionalists and reformers in India. [link]

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San Antonio Altar Exhibit Promotes Religious Conversation

SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS NEWS
By Abe Levy

Gary O. Smith (left), Rudi Harst and Harst's wife, Zet Baer (not pictured), are behind an exhibit of hand-made altars to raise funds for its religious community, Celebration Circle.

TEXAS---Underlying this Sunday's debut of a month-long exhibit of 55 altars is a belief that artistic expression plays a key role in religious dialogue and understanding. Each artist began with the same material: raw, pine boxes, resulting in works ranging from deeply spiritual to the whimsical and satirical. Among them are depictions of the Virgin Mary, Buddha, a Hindu god and the goddess Venus. Coordinated by the 22-year-old interfaith congregation Celebration Circle, the show serves as a platform for conversation, said Rudi Harst, the group's spiritual director. “The exhibit, “One People, Many Paths: The Sacred Art of Altars,” is in its 10th year. [link]

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First Amendment: By Removing Display, Kansas School Surrenders to Ignorance

PANTAGRAPH
By Charles C. Haynes

KANSAS---Back to school means back to culture wars for Minneha Core Knowledge Elementary School in Wichita, Kan. Bulletin boards can and should feature temporary displays about what students are studying in the classroom about religions. On the very first day of school, someone snapped a photo of a bulletin board display in the hallway featuring the Five Pillars of Islam and then posted it on Facebook. Islamophobia is a cottage industry on the Internet. School officials were immediately inundated with complaints from gullible and misinformed people who apparently believe the canard that public schools indoctrinate kids in Islam — and persecute Christians. I wish I could report that Minneha administrators faced down the Facebook smears and courageously defended their bulletin board display. But sadly, the school surrendered to ignorance and fear and removed the Five Pillars of Islam display — ostensibly to “alleviate the distraction.” [link]

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A&O Movie Pick: "The Grandmaster" - Triumph of Style and Kinetics

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Manohla Dargis

HOLLYWOOD---“The Grandmaster,” a hypnotically beautiful dream from the Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-wai, opens with curls of smoke, eddies of water and men soaring and flying across the frame as effortlessly as silk ribbons. The men are warriors, street fighters with furious fists and winged feet, who have massed together on a dark, rainy night to take on Ip Man (Tony Leung), a still figure in a long coat and an elegant white hat. However much history informs this movie, “The Grandmaster” is, at its most persuasive, about the triumph of style. [link]

“The Grandmaster” is rated PG-13 (2hr 10min‎ - ‎Rated PG-13‎ - ‎Action‎). Mostly nonbloody martial arts violence. A&O Night: Saturday, August 31 at 7pm, AMC Showplace Indianapolis 17 - 4325 South Meridian Street, Indianapolis

Box Office Top 5: 

1. Lee Daniels' The Butler
2. We're the Millers
3. The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones
4. The World's End
5. Disney's Planes

More Box Office Data...

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Artful Impact Award Recognizes Symphonic Partnership in Indianapolis

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By TAHLIB

INDIANA---Perhaps an Artful Impact winner, like the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, an 83-year-old organization that weathered high-profile labor strife in 2012 and raised $5.4 million to stay afloat can be an example for others moving ahead. At its 28th annual Start with Art fundraiser, the Arts Council of Indianapolis presented one of its five annual ARTI Awards (Artful Impact) jointly to the  musicians & board members of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, a moment that caused at least one musician to well up with tears. The honor topped a year when the symphony overcame a major financial crisis which united the musicians and the board in resolving their crisis. In contrast across the country management and muscians are pitted against the other: the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra cut its budget shortfall in half this year, to help stem the flow of red ink; and the Minnesota Orchestra’s scheduled Carnegie Hall engagements are hanging in the balance, as the musicians have been locked out for 11 months. 

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IRS to Treat All Legal Marriages "Equally" for Tax Purposes

THE WASHINGTON POST
By Josh Hicks

WASHINGTON, DC---The Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service announced on Thursday that they would treat legal same-sex marriages the same as heterosexual marriages for federal tax purposes. Same-sex couples married before the DOMA ruling will have the option of filing amended returns for one or more prior tax years, according to the announcement. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said in a statement that the move “assures legally married same-sex couples that they can move freely throughout the country knowing that their federal filing status will not change.” Other federal agencies this year have announced similar decisions relating to the Supreme Court ruling, allowing federal benefits for same-sex spouses of federal workers and military personnel. But those policies affect only a subset of the gay population, whereas Thursday’s announcement impacts virtually every same-sex couple in the United States. [link]

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In Israel, Orthodox Men Demand Beard-Friendly Gas Masks

RELIGION NEWS SERVICE 
By Michele Chabin

ISRAEL---In recent days, as Orthodox Jews and other bearded men have gone to distribution centers to retrieve their protective hood-like gas masks, they learned the government has only a limited supply, earmarked solely for the elderly and people with breathing problems. Demand for protective hoods – as well as standard-issue gas masks — has soared since the U.S. administration confirmed that Syrian civilians were killed last week by chemical weapons. The Orthodox Shas party is demanding that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu order the mass production of the Bardas, a hooded device that was available to bearded men during the Gulf War, when Iraq attacked Israel with conventional weapons. Unlike traditional gas masks, which cannot form a seal over a beard, the hoods cover the entire head. [link]

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Another Way for Jews to Atone this Yom Kippur: the eScapegoat

RELIGION NEWS SERVICE
By Lauren Markoe

CALIFORNIA---The weeks leading up to the Jewish High Holy Days are supposed to be marked by self-questioning: What failings must I atone for, and to whom must I apologize? A group of artists, writers and animators are hoping a cartoon goat may help. They call it the eScapegoat, and it’s supposed to approximate the original scapegoat, described in Leviticus as an important player in the atonement ritual of the ancient Israelites, who symbolically placed their sins upon the animal and sent it into the wilderness. Since its Aug. 8 debut, more than 7,900 people have submitted their sins to the interactive eScapegoat, the work of the non-profit San-Francisco-based G-dcast, which produces whimsical animated short films and mobile apps on the Hebrew Bible and Jewish holidays. [link]

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From Ancient Sacred Space to Contemporary Decay in Hindu Exhibition, "Diver-Cities II"

LATITUDE 28

"End of Season" (2012) by Baiju Parthan

INDIA---Ten contemporary artists explore India's future in "Diver-Cities II" at the Latitude 28 art gallery in New Delhi, India. Art today, in India and elsewhere has becomes an exciting statement of the cultural diversity mapping diverse geographies. Homogeneity, which emerges as a by-product of globalization, leads to the growing importance of nudging the cultural producer to look for the celebration of difference. The ten artists: Arun Kumar HG, Avantika Bawa, Baiju Parthan (see above), Chittrovanu Manzumdar, Gigi Scaria, Manjunath Kamath, Roshan Chhabria, Prajakta Palav, Sarnath Banerjee, and Sudipta Das explore a range of themes from the ancient sacred space of Benares to the poverty and decay of Calcutta. The exhibition opened this week, and runs through September 25. [link]

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Israeli Museum’s Herod Show is King of Exhibitions

THE JEWISH DAILY FORWARD
By Tal Kra-Oz

Professor Ehud Netzer and Roi Porat in the Royal room of the theater at Herodium.

ISRAEL---“Herod the Great: The King’s Final Journey” just might be Israel’s hottest ticket; it has attracted more than 230,000 visitors since its opening this past February (it is scheduled to close in January 2014). It is definitely Israel’s largest archaeological exhibit ever. Rome and Jerusalem, the birthplaces of modern Western civilization, share an infamously bloody history. The destruction of the Second Temple by the Roman general Titus in 70 C.E. effectively excised Jerusalem from the world’s annals for almost 2,000 years, while securing its place in prayer books. [link]

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$560K NEA Grant Restored to Kansas

THE TOPEKA CAPITAL-JOURNAL
By Andy Marso

KANSAS---A group of state arts advocates says the National Endowment for the Arts has agreed to restore $560,000 in arts grants to Kansas after pulling its funding when Gov. Sam Brownback de-funded the state arts commission two years ago. After intense lobbying from pro-public arts groups, Brownback formed the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission, a division of the Department of Commerce intended to provide a vehicle for state arts funding with a more pointed focus on job creation. That commission has begun distributing state money and the group Kansas Citizens for the Arts told members in an email Wednesday that the NEA has agreed to start funneling funds to Kansas again. [link]

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“Touching is Believing” -- The Religious Imagination of Steve Jobs

RELIGION NEWS SERVICE
By Jonathon Merritt

PUBLISHING---Ashton Kutcher’s two-dimensional portrayal of the Steve Jobs may not have spawned a box office hit, but masses of Americans continue to be fascinated with the late Apple executive. But while many aspects of Jobs’ life have been probed in books and films, few portrayals have centered on Jobs’ faith. Until now. Brett T. Robinson, visiting professor of marketing at the University of Notre Dame, has just published a new book that details how Jobs intermingled the technological and the transcendent. "In Appletopia: Media Technology and the Religious Imagination of Steve Jobs", Robinson argues that religion–from Zen Buddhism to Catholicism to mystical futurism–defined Jobs’ design methodology and approach to business. Steve Jobs saw the personal computer as a “spiritual liberator” rather than a dehumanizing machine. [link]

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Catholic Plan to Remove Memorial Stones at Crystal Cathedral, Angers Heartbroken Donors

THE HUFFINGTON POST

CALIFORNIA---A plan to remove memorial stones from the landmark Crystal Cathedral in Southern California is drawing opposition from donors who paid thousands of dollars to honor loved ones. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange County announced plans last week to remove nearly 1,800 "Walk of Faith" stones surrounding the Garden Grove cathedral. Cathedral founder Robert Schuller sold the diamond-shaped granite memorials for up to $3,000 each, promising they'd remain for centuries. But the Catholic Church, which bought the bankrupt church last year, says it will remove the stones for renovation purposes. Purchasers can retrieve them and also view them in digital form on a website. The Orange County Register reports ( ) some donors are heartbroken, including 88-year-old Judy De Clercq. The Anaheim woman says she'll beg officials not to remove her memorial to her late son. [link]

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Artists Re-Imagine Love Between Christ and the Hindu Deity Krishna

JESUS IN LOVE BLOG
By Kittredge Cherry

"Jesus and Lord Rama" by Alex Donis

What if Christ met Krishna? They are two of the greatest teachers of love that the world has ever known. Would they speak of love, even make love? This delightful possibility is considered here today in honor of Krishna’s birthday or Janmashtami (Aug. 28, 2013). Many have noticed the similarities between Christ and the Hindu deity Krishna, but now the two god-men are portrayed as gay lovers in the work of artistic visionaries like artist Alex Donis. Krishna’s birthday is celebrated on Aug. 28 this year. [link]

“Krishna and Christ,” artist unknown

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Encyclopedia of Hinduism Unveiled in US

MONEY CONTROL

CALIFORNIA---Hundreds of scholars, dignitaries, students, Hindu leaders and the public converged on the University of Southern California campus to witness the release of much anticipated and definitive 11-volume guide conceived, compiled and produced by the India Heritage Research Foundation. The event is the launch of the international edition of the Encyclopedia of Hinduism. The comprehensive encyclopedia has 11-volume work and it covers Hindu spiritual beliefs, practices and philosophy, and is the culmination of a 25-year academic effort.  The work also deals with Indian history, languages, art, music, dance, architecture, medicine, and women's issues. It contains more than 1,000 illustrations and photographs. [link]

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Hindus Are Third Largest Immigrant Group in USA

THE TIMES OF INDIA 

WASHINGTON, DC---Indians have emerged as the third-largest immigrant group in the US behind Mexicans and the Chinese with their number touching nearly 1.9 million in 2011, according to a US think tank. The share of Indian immigrants among all foreign born in the US has grown to almost 5 percent of the country's 40.4 million immigrants in 2011, noted an article published in the Migration Policy Institute's online journal, the Migration Information Source. Indian population has grown to over 150 times its size since 1960, when the slightly more than 12,000 Indian immigrants represented less than 0.5 percent of the total immigrant population of 9.7 million immigrants. [link]

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500 Years of Italian Paintings Travel to the America's Beginning With Oklahoma City

ARTDAILY

"Virgin and Child" (1480–85) by Giovanni Bellini,

OKLAHOMA---This fall visitors have an unprecedented opportunity to view some of the greatest works in the history of Italian art as the Oklahoma City Museum of Art presents Of Heaven and Earth: 500 Years of Italian Painting from Glasgow Museums. This remarkable exhibition opened its North American tour in Oklahoma City on August 24, closing November 17. The paintings dramatically illustrate the great achievements in Italian art from the late Middle Ages through the Renaissance and the nineteenth century. [link]

Exhibition itinerary: 

• Oklahoma City Museum of Art (August 24–November 17, 2013); 
• Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada (December 13, 2013–March 9, 2014); 
• Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY (April 17–July 13, 2014); 
• Milwaukee Art Museum (October 1, 2014–January 4, 2015); and 
• Santa Barbara Museum of Art (February 6, 2015–May 3, 2015).

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'Asian American Disney Princesses': What If Belle Wore A Hijab?

THE HUFFINGTON POST
By Mallika Rao

Portrayal of Belle from Disney's "Beauty & the Beast"

CALIFORNIA---Should little girls be encouraged to idolize princesses? Probably not. But for her series Asian American Disney Princesses, Kim Navoa considered an alternate reality where our best-known princesses look different. Navoa, a Filipino American, staged a shoot that reimagines the heroines of her childhood. Along with a fellow photography student at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Navoa recast the animation giant's classic ingenues, from Belle to Tinkerbell. The models are friends and friends-of-friends of Navoa's, who chose the characters they wanted to portray. All identify as Asian-American. [link]

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Sound Installation by Janet Cardiff to be Presented this Fall at The Cloisters in NYC

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Tahlib

The Forty Part Motet | Rideau Chapel National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

NEW YORK---As part of the year-long celebration of its 75th anniversary, The Cloisters museum and gardens—The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s branch museum dedicated to the art and architecture of medieval Europe—will present The Forty Part Motet (2001), a sound installation by Janet Cardiff (Canadian, born 1957). Janet Cardiff: The Forty Part Motet, which represents the first time a work of contemporary art has been shown at The Cloisters. Regarded as the artist’s masterwork, and consisting of 40 high-fidelity speakers positioned on stands in a large oval configuration within the Fuentidueña Chapel will play continuously an 11-minute reworking of the 40-part motet Spem in alium numquam habui (1556?/1573?) by Tudor composer Thomas Tallis (ca. 1505–1585). Spem in alium, translates as In No Other Is My Hope and is performed by the Salisbury Cathedral Choir.

The Cloisters/Metropolitan Museum of Art: "Janet Cardiff: The Forty Part Motet" (Sept. 10 – Dec. 8, 2013). Located in Fuentidueña Chapel, at The Cloisters. 99 Margaret Corbin Drive, Fort Tryon Park, New York City, 212-923-3700 or metmuseum.org

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Promoter Takes Offense To Heavy Metal Bands “Anti-Religious” Artwork

MUSIC FEED
by Greg Moskovitch

AUSTRALIA---Industrial metal band Darkc3ll have cancelled their performance at Melbourne’s The Rock Dungeon on 15th November. The band was slated to perform as part of their upcoming national tour until the promoter of the venue took a peek at their upcoming album’s cover art. A press release sent out to all of the venues the band was slated to play, contained a picture of the cover art for the band’s upcoming debut album, Dark Verses. The cover art in question features an upside-down white cross (see below), with which The Rock Dungeon’s promoter took issue, as it stands in contrast with his “religious beliefs.” [link]

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Obama to Speak at 50th Anniversary of King's March on Washington

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
By Elizabeth Williamson

Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., addresses marchers on Aug. 28, 1963.
Photographer Bob Adelman took the picture of him saying "Free at last, free at last"

WASHINGTON, DC---A march and rally marking the 50th anniversary of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s March on Washington starts at 9 a.m. Wednesday on Capitol Hill, beginning a day of events recalling the historic 1963 civil-rights demonstration. The march along a 1.6-mile route downtown will pass several buildings with significance for the civil-rights era, including the Justice Department, U.S. Courthouse, Department of Labor and Washington Monument. The procession, to be led by a restored 1960s-era bus like that used by civil-rights activists the Freedom Riders, is expected to draw upward of 100,000 participants. Mr. Obama will cap two hours of official speeches between 1 and 3 p.m. [link]

CNN: President Obama speaks at today's March on Washington anniversary [Video]

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Chinese Crack Down on Muslims, Ramadan, and Religious Schools

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Andrew Jacobs

CHINA---The blood has long since been hosed away, but weeks after Chinese security forces opened fire on a crowd of Muslim protesters, killing scores of young men, there is a palpable fear on the streets of this dusty farming township in Xinjiang, the restive borderland region in China’s far west. But tighter religious restrictions have incited much of the violence since 2009, analysts say. Civil servants may not fast during the holy month of Ramadan; college students must attend weekly political education classes; and armed police officers frequently raid unauthorized religious schools. The central government has become increasingly alarmed by its inability to stanch the unrest. [link]

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Pitching Causes to Secular Supporters

THE CHRONICLE OF PHILANTHROPY
By Debra E. Blum

PHILANTHROPY---Todd Stiefel, a resident of Raleigh, N.C., who made millions when his family sold its health-card products company in 2009, is an atheist. He advocates for his free-thinking philosophy through his own foundation. Donors without religious ties are a fast-growing part of the population. [link]

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‘God is the Best Artist’ Takes off on Social Media

THE WASHINGTON POST
By Menachem Wecker

The notion of God as an artist is hardly new. In the Middle Ages, the concept of a divine artist, or architect, was often invoked. The biblical artists Bezalel and Oholiab are described as being “full of the spirit of God.” In Catholic art, angels often guide St. Luke’s hand when he draws the Virgin. But when Twitter and Pinterest users take to their smartphones to snap pictures of sunrises and sunsets and attribute those “masterpieces” to God, they are exhibiting a new sort of adoration. Even Carrie Underwood is getting in the act. “The good Lord sure is a great artist!” the country singer tweeted with an Instagram photo of a snowcapped mountain. The post generated more than 50,000 Instagram likes, more than 1,000 Twitter likes, and more than 600 retweets. [link]

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NYC's Museum for African Art Pivots Toward New Business Model: Policy vs. Art

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
By Jennifer Maloney

Interior of the Museum for African Art in Manhattan

NEW YORK---The Museum for African Art is expanding its mission, aiming now to create a policy center akin to Asia Society as it attempts to raise the money needed to finish the long-delayed construction of its home. The institution's plan to reinvent itself as the New Africa Center—with a museum, policy institute and members' club for business executives, cultural leaders and policy makers interested in Africa—comes after the departure of the museum's longtime president, Elsie McCabe Thompson, in October. The organization's board and chief financial officer, Phil Conte, are now quietly raising funds for a new, $60 million capital campaign to complete its home at the northeast corner of Central Park. The museum's opening has been delayed repeatedly since it broke ground in 2007. [link]

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MacArthur Foundation Increases 'Genius Grants' Stipend

CHRONICLE FOR PHILANTHROPY
By Maria Di Mento

Aminah Robinson is a 2004 recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship

PHILANTHROPY---The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is increasing from $500,000 to $625,000 the stipend it awards to individuals through its ­MacArthur Fellows Program, popularly known as the “genius grants,” the grant maker announced today. The increase will apply to these year's fellows, who will be announced on September 25. The foundation will continue to award the stipends, given to creative individuals from a variety of fields, with no strings attached; recipients will still receive the money over a five-year period. [link]

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Egypt Military Enlists Religion to Quell Ranks

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By David D. Kirkpatrick and Mayy El Sheikh

EGYPT---The Egyptian military has enlisted Muslim scholars in a propaganda campaign to persuade soldiers and policemen that they have a religious duty to obey orders to use deadly force against supporters of the ousted president, Mohamed Morsi. The effort is a signal that the generals are worried about insubordination in the ranks, after security forces have killed hundreds of their fellow Egyptians who were protesting against the military’s removal of the elected president — violence by the armed forces against civilians that is without precedent in the country’s modern history. The recourse to religion to justify the killing is also a new measure of the depth of the military’s determination to break down the main pillar of Mr. Morsi’s support, the Islamists of the Muslim Brotherhood. [link]

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Former Church is St. John's Art Gallery Highlighting Indiana's Industrial Heritage

NORTHWEST INDIANA TIMES
By Joseph Pete

Owner Samantha Dalkilic-Miestowski is shown at the Steeple Gallery in St. John. The gallery features many steel sculptures and industrial-themed works.

INDIANA---Steel made in Northwest Indiana frames cars, fills supermarkets with cans and forms countless refrigerator doors. The metal also produces inspiration for local artists, including many whose works are on display at the Steeple Gallery in St. John. There is more on display in the gallery of course, including hand-blown Italian glass, still-lifes and religious art. But steel and industry are major motifs. Metal sculptures both large and small fill the 4,000-square-foot former Central Assembly of God church. [link]

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China's Latest Rooftop Building: A Buddhist Temple

THE STRAIT TIMES

A temple that brings worshippers closer to the heavens by being on top of a 21-storey apartment block.

CHINA (AFP)---The latest rooftop architectural wonder highlighted in China is a temple that brings worshippers closer to the heavens by being on top of a 21-storey apartment block. Surrounded by foliage, the temple has glazed golden tiles and traditional upturned eaves with carvings of dragons and phoenixes, but defies convention by standing on top of the tower in Shenzhen, the Yangcheng Evening News reported. The publicity surrounding the structure comes after a rooftop rock villa in Beijing sparked an outcry over the abuse of privilege and contempt for public safety by the country's rich, and authorities ruled houses on top of a shopping mall in Hunan could not be sold. [link]

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Attaining Sustainable Security through Civic Space for Religious Actors

SMALL WARS JOURNAL
By Knox Thames

This article argues that United States and other governments that value security and human rights must augment their strategic planning and their counterinsurgency and stability operations with a greater sensitivity to the role of religion and religious freedom standards. Religion, security, and politics are increasingly intertwined in many of the small wars raging around the world, especially in what confronts the United States in Afghanistan. These conflicts often orbit around the question of legitimacy. At the state level, who has the right to govern and bear the predominance of force? At the societal level, who can interpret religious tenants and set social mores? Repeatedly, these questions come to a head in the form of church/state or mosque/state relations and often the most extreme voices dominate the conversation through volume or violence. If these debates remain undecided or resolved in ways violative of fundamental freedoms, sustainable security will be elusive, rights will be repressed, and conflict will continue. [link]

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Dean of Divinity School Named President of Underground Railroad Museum

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Ernest Disney-Britton

In 2010, Howard University unveiled two Ethiopian paintings by contemporary artist Meseretu Wondie

OHIO---Last week, Clarence G. "C.G." Newsome, Ph.D., was named as the new president of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati. Newsome, a member of the Duke University Board of Trustees, is former president of Shaw University and former Dean of the Howard University School of Divinity. Newsome has a strong record of bringing local, national and international relevance to the organizations he leads. As Dean of the Howard University School of Divinity, he oversaw the creation of a gallery of religious art, acquiring more than $2.7 million in church artifacts and icons, with support from the Smithsonian Institution.

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Couple Married 65 Years Die on Same Day

USA TODAY

OHIO (AP)---Relatives of an Ohio couple who died at a nursing home 11 hours apart on the same day said their love story's ending reflects their devotion over 65 years of marriage. Harold and Ruth Knapke died in their shared room on Aug. 11, days before their 66th anniversary, The Dayton Daily News reported. Their daughters said they believe their father willed himself to stay by his wife's side despite failing health until they could take the next step in their journey together. He went first — his children saw it as his "final act of love" — and she followed. [link]

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Japanese Art and the Warrior Monk: Benkei, Buddhism and Power of the Shinto Faith

MODERN TOKYO TIMES
By Lee Jay Walker

This ukiyo-e imags come from the toshidama (Toshidama Gallery)

JAPAN---Benkei is a natural hero therefore many stories within Japanese folklore are related to his prowess and binding loyalty. Benkei naturally fitted in well with the lifestyle of the Yamabushi (mountain warrior monks) because he often visited Buddhist monasteries. The allure of Benkei is that he also obtained great knowledge from the many Buddhist monasteries that he visited therefore he fused many powerful realities together. Buddhism was a very powerful theme within the lifestyle of Benkei but the old ways of Shintoism also impacted on him greatly. After all, the indigenous Shinto faith altered many dynamics related to Buddhism once this philosophical way of life reached the shores of Japan. Indeed, the Yamabushi fused many areas of faith and traditions together with the upshot being new powerful concepts and a natural balance within the fabric of society. [link]

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Spain's Synergy of Christian & Muslim Art

PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
By Giovanna Dell'Orto

Andalusia's synergy of Christian, Muslim art

SPAIN---For the third time in a week, I'm visiting the Alhambra, one of the most popular sites in the world's fourth most-visited country, and finally I have it all to myself. Nowhere in Europe is the complex coexistence between Islam and Christianity more etched in historical landscapes and current customs than here, in Spain's Andalusia. For nearly 800 years, caliphs ruled Andalusia. In 1492, the Catholic king and queen, Ferdinand and Isabella, put an end to the last Islamic stronghold in Europe. But what's unique about Andalusia is the trail of Islamic conquerors who arrived in the eighth century, and the Catholic monarchs who imposed their reconquista (reconquering) centuries later - vanquishing not just Islam but also eventually the Jews who had flourished under the Muslims' tolerant rule. [link]

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The Many Faces of Peace and Calm by Nepal's Sandhya Regmi

E-KANTIPUR
By Bivek Thapa

A collage of Buddha images

NEPAL---Sandhya Regmi’s exhibition of paintings, "Faces of Buddha," was inaugurated at the Nepal Art Council Babarmahal on August 17 . The exhibit at the Art Council features works that have been built on two themes: the reincarnation of Buddha, and the faces of Buddha. The exhibit is a colossal one in terms of the sheer number of paintings that are being displayed. Of the 38 canvases portraying various moods and facades of the Buddha, six are plays on the reincarnation of Buddha. In these ‘reincarnation paintings’ Regmi finds the good in all humanity. Regmi’s paintings also illustrate the strong bonds that exist between the Hindu and Buddhist religions. The exhibition ended August 25. [link]

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A Show of Strength by Middle Eastern Women Photographers

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By KERRI MACDONALD

"Untitled" (1993) by Shadi Ghadirian

MASSACHUSETTS---“She Who Tells a Story” opens at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston this week. Four of the artists included are Iranian; three — [Newsha] Tavakolian, Gohar Dashti and Shadi Ghadirian — live and work in Iran today. The exhibit also highlights work by Jananne Al-Ani, Boushra Almutawakel, Rana El Nemr, Lalla Essaydi, Tanya Habjouqa, Rula Halawani, Nermine Hammam, Rania Matar and Shirin Neshat, the fourth Iranian artist, who lives in New York. The phrase “She Who Tells a Story” comes from the word rawiya (which is also the name of a collective of female photographers working in the Middle East). But the exhibit doesn’t tell one story; it tells many. [link] 

Museum of Fine Arts in Boston: “She Who Tells a Story: Women Photographers from Iran and the Arab World” (Opening Tuesday through Jan. 12). Avenue of the Arts, 465 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA. 617-267-9300 or mfa.org

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Raleigh Priest's Estate Sale Gives Friends Tangible Memories

THE NEWS OBSERVOR
By Chuck Liddy

NORTH CAROLINA---Bargain hunters wander around the home of recently deceased Reverend Monsignor John F. O'Connor, of St. Luke's Evangelistic Catholic Church in Raleigh, N.C. Friday August 23, 2013. The Monsignor's estate was auctioned off according to the dealer 95% of the contents were gone by Friday afternoon. In his 40-year career as a priest, Monsignor Tim O’Connor amassed a vast collection of religious art and artifacts, most as gifts from friends and admirers. O’Connor, a pastor and friend to countless in Raleigh, died June 9 at 66, and the collection built over his lifetime had no chance of fitting in the family’s homes, said Kevin O’Connor, one of O’Connor’s three younger brothers. [link]

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My First Fringe Festival: Indianapolis to Edinburgh

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Ernest Disney-Britton

It was organic, seemingly chaotic, and kind of like speed-dating. It was my first time, and I kept asking "What is a Fringe Festival?" This past Sunday, the theatre festival, formally known as the International Fringe Festival in NYC and the Indianapolis Theatre Fringe Festival in Indy both closed but their two different paths are the answer to my question. Their roots date back to 1947, when eight theatre groups showed up uninvited at the Edinburgh International Festival, and decided to stage their shows anyway. It has since become a world-wide August sensation, but remains centered on summer-time in Edinburgh.

IndyFringe is the uncurated version inspired by Edinburgh, with 8 different venues, 64 performing groups, and 384 uncurated performances. I also learned that long-lines signal popularity, and that you must pay cash for tickets (60% sold 30-min before show).  FringeNYC, rejects free-for-all spirit of most fringe festivals, and winnows a field of about 850 applications down to 185 shows. The NYC path featured superbly reviewed Waiting for Godot and an Indy favorite was High Impact Infidelity Diet starring Paul Hansen. The helpful guidance of playwright Lou Harry got me there; but it was Christina Augello, artistic director of Exit Theater in San Francisco which produces the San Francisco Fringe Festival, that helped me understand what it is by contrasting it with what it is not: “The fringe is a noncurated festival by origin, and so anything else that curates or has a jury is not a fringe.”

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Prayer Plaza in Jerusalem for Both Sexes Ignites Uproar

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Jodi Rudoren

ISRAEL---Trying to calm months of intense wrangling over the Western Wall, Israeli officials on Sunday unveiled a new plaza where men and women can pray together. But the move was immediately denounced as discriminatory by the main group that has protested the rules at the holy site. After 25 years in which legislation and legal rulings barred women from wearing prayer shawls and phylacteries at the site, the activist group won a court victory this spring allowing members to pray as they wish. Over the past several months, thousands of ultra-Orthodox young people have crammed the site to prevent the women from using it, creating a new set of problems. Anat Hoffman, the leader of Women of the Wall, called Mr. Bennett’s new plaza a “monstrosity” that “looks like a sunbathing deck” or a “rock-star stage.” [link]

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RELIGIOUS ART | NEWS OF WEEK

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By TAHLIB

Yesterday, a friend criticized me for not carrying my mobile phone. Why? Nothing urgent, it's just that mobile phones are his "sacred cows." A "sacred cow" is something too highly regarded to be open to question or criticism. The term is an allusion to Hinduism's reverence for cows, thus resulting in their vegetarianism. Many view mobile/cell phones as sacred cows, and I respect their obsession, but I don't want it shoved onto me. I have my own: visiting sacred spaces & collecting religious art, that I think too highly of to be criticized. I won't push mine. Don't push yours. Respecting sacred cows without embracing them is why Gayatri Gamuz's "The Cow" (above) is my NEWS OF WEEK.

In other religious art news from across the USA, and around the world:

• Buddhist Art of Week: Art Review: ‘Buddhist Art of the Silk Road’. [More News]
• Christian Art of Week: Teacher Pressured to Censor Student Artwork. [More News]
• Islamic Art of Week: PBS Explores the Life of Prophet Muhammad. [More News]
• Judaic Art of Week: Jews and Jesus: Putting Judaism Back in the Picture. [More News]
• Founder's Birthday: Ernest Disney-Britton Celebrates Birthday by Looking Forward [Link]

It's more than Art. It's Religion. We are believers and skeptics too, united in the search for human understanding through art of the religious imagination. We believe in the artists and craftsman who dare to explore religious themes through their creativity. When you believe, you join other believers. Some of us join the A&O Project as dues-paying members; others support the A&O Prize - Youth Scholarships as donors; and still other digital members subscribe to this "free" weekly newsletter (or listen: soundcloud; or watch on YouTube). If you believe in more than "art for art's sake", then join us.

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Sacred Art Takes Paris! Buddhist Textile Artist Enters Contemporary Art Competition

DIGITAL JOURNAL

Green Tara, 2008, Silk satin & brocade, gold & pearl, 53" x 35" (134 x 88 cm) inc. frame

CALIFORNIA---Leslie Rinchen-Wongmo, California Buddhist textile artist of Threads of Awakening has entered her silk appliqué thangkas in the worldwide contemporary art competition Art Takes Paris! Organized by See.Me, the contest offers artists the possibility of international publicity, an exhibit in Paris, and $20,000 in cash awards. If Rinchen-Wongmo wins an award, her winnings will further the development of Stitching Buddhas, an online teaching program through which she documents and shares the Tibetan appliqué tradition with creative Buddhist fabric lovers around the world. See.me (originally founded as 'Artists Wanted' in 2007) is a web-based arts organization located in New York City. [link]

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Out is the New in: The Rise of Self-Taught Artists

THE ATLANTIC
By Sarah Boxer

"Kateri Tekakwitha: First Catholic Native American Saint" (2012) by Tony Melendez

Outsider artists—visionary, schizophrenic, primitive, psychotic, obsessive, compulsive, untutored, vernacular, self-taught, naive, brut, rough, raw, call them what you will—are insiders now. At this moment, the universe of outsider art is huge. And it’s being enthusiastically embraced—one might say swallowed whole—by the contemporary-art world. Art fairs, biographies, retrospectives, and collections are springing up in the name of outsider art. With outsiders so clearly on the inside, you have to wonder whether the concept of outsider art has lost all sense. But if that’s so, then why do some artists still carry the label? After all, outsider does have a nice little paradox embedded in it: for an artist to be considered an outsider, he or she must first be brought inside the professional art world by an insider. There’s something about the outsider artist that still eludes insiders, still makes the outsider an ideal, a model, a stigma, a fate to be feared. Or envied. [link]

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Artists Search For Self-Expression And Identity In Contemporary Tibet

THE HUFFINGTON POST

Benchung, Ascetic, Ascetic, 2012. Acrylic on canvas,
The Shelley and Donald Rubin Private Collection

NEW YORK---In the Western world, art and self-expression are often thought of as going hand-in-hand, but in Tibet the two concepts are worlds apart. An exhibition of Tibetan contemporary art, entitled "Anonymous," explores the exchange between art and the self, a dialogue which is always in motion. "Anonymous" features over 50 different ways of expressing the self through artwork, through the means of painting, sculpture, installation and video art. The show runs until December 15 at The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at the State University of New York in New Paltz. [link]

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