Disney-Britton

AOA NEWS AOA PICK OF WEEK is “26000 Pages” by Hadie Shafdie (Image above), an entry in this year’s Jameel Prize for Islamic Art. The Jameel Prize exhibition runs through Ramadan with the winner of this international fine arts competition being announced on September 12 at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. You can comment online on all the weeks top news below (“Sunday” only). AOA’s three questions of the week are: Ramadan begins tomorrow (August 1), so why should non-Muslims explore Islamic Art? ( Comment Here ) Why should non-Christians join AOA at the Creation Museum next Sunday? ( Comment Here ) What lessons have non-Hindu's learned from the roil about an animated Hindu film? ( Comment Here ) Below is the rest of week's biggest religious art news. The stories are grouped by the five largest faith traditions, with an additional category for other. The AOA team is commenting and we invite you to comment too.

ASIAN JEWISH LIFE By Erica Lyons Sharon Galsurkar at Magen David Synagogue INDIA - The story of the Jews in India goes back 2,000 years and is one of peaceful coexistence in a colorful world that embraced them yet one of isolation from global Jewry. When artist Siona Benjamin , an American, set out on her trip back to the India of her childhood in 2010, she arrived with an intense sense of purposefulness heavily laden with nostalgia. She was intent on rescuing the stories and narratives of these people, her people, the Jews of India. Benjamin was awarded the Fulbright Senior Scholar Fellowship 2010-11, which enabled her to embark on this four month intensive research study in India that allowed her to photograph, interview, and record the Bene Israel's stories lest they fall into oblivion. [ link ]

THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE By James Chute San Diego Museum of Art executive director Roxana Velasquez and collector Juan Antonio Perez Simon at the museum with Salvador Dali's "The Ascension Of Christ" — Eduardo Contreras CALIFORNIA---Juan Antonio Pérez Simón, the man whose name is on the title of the new exhibition at the San Diego Museum of Art — “From El Greco to Dali: Great Spanish Masters From the Pérez Simón Collection” — was sitting on a bench at the museum, facing Joaquin Sorolla’s “Oxen in the Sea, Study for ‘Afternoon Sun’ ” (1902). Sixty-four paintings from his extensive, encyclopedic collection, representing five centuries of Spanish art, are on display at the museum through Nov. 6. [ link ]

AOA NEWS LOUISINA - Serving Life documents an extraordinary hospice program where hardened criminals care for dying fellow inmates. Narrated and executive produced by Academy Award®-winner Forest Whitaker, the film takes viewers inside Louisiana's maximum security prison at Angola, where the average sentence is more than 90 years. This was the final project of AOA Advisory Council member, Lynn Harden before leaving NYC for a new assignment in Portland. It premieres on OWN tonight, Thursday, July 28 at 9/8c. [ link ]

AOA NEWS By Tahlib The board of directors for Alpha and Omega Project for Contemporary Religious Arts is proud to recognize Methodist minister, and Pastor Dr. Joseph Shreve of Chapel Hill United Methodist Church in West Virginia as a Believer For Artists . This past year, Pastor Shreve was a leading advocate for the painting of a new mural at Chapel Hill United Methodist Church  as a tool to help bring the stories of Jesus to life. Created by West Virginia artist Sheri Gaudet , the massive 80-foot-long by 8-foot-high mural took over two-months to create, and the each of the events told in the mural are chronicled on the church website .  Pastor, Dr. Joseph Shreve, said, “Sheri Gaudet’s mural of ‘The Life of Christ’ is both a tremendous tool for teaching about our Lord Jesus Christ and a wonderful focus for meditation and prayer for those who seek to follow Him. Chapel Hill United Methodist Church is truly blessed to be the recipient of this gift of art.” ...

AOA NEWS CZECH REPUBLIC - Sedlec's Church consists of fascinating sculptures and artwork from 40,000 dead. Fashion in 1870, some says that the Czech wood carver was mad.

NORTH COUNTY TIMES By Barbara Henry North County Times file photo CALIFORNIA - The central part of a much-loved surfing Madonna mosaic will make a brief public appearance in late August, roughly two months after the rogue public art project was removed from under a railroad bridge and put into storage. Mosaic artist Mark Patterson, a longtime Leucadia resident, said Monday he will display the panel containing the Madonna's face at the LeucadiART Walk event in August "because I know people miss her." He said he feels it's important to bring part of his 10-foot-by-10-foot artwork back for a public viewing because he's expecting it may take months for him to select a permanent home for the mural. "I don't think anything will happen before August or September," Patterson said as he discussed his options for the mosaic. [ link ]

THE ARTS DESK By Marina Vaizey Fashion Week (2010) by Soody Shafiri UNITED KINGDOM - Soody Shafiri’s Fashion Week (2010) (pictured above) digitally manipulates a large-scale photograph of a centuries-old Mughal miniature featuring a cheerfully ceremonial crowd of men and women in a palace courtyard, digitally inserting contemporary women in conventional, conservative Muslim dress on a catwalk in a palace courtyard, surrounded by the painted crowd of Mughal men and women(above). [It is] among the pieces in various media on exhibit from the 10 short-listed artists and designers for the 2011 Jameel Prize , which will be announced on 12 September (£25,000 for an artist or designer whose work is inspired by an Islamic aesthetic). Their personal faith (or lack of it) and family is irrelevant; what is crucial is their ability creatively to reinterpret for today any aspect of the arts of Islam, and in any material. The shortlist is chosen from hundreds of artists nominated worldwide by a...

BIG HOLLYWOOD By John Nolte Rick Gervais "Stand up for what you believe" HOLLYWOOD - Why Christian symbols? We’re awfully easy pickings. If you’re a rich Hollywood star, offending us takes about as much courage as bringing a case of beer to a frat party. He’s one of those obnoxious non-believers always pushing his non-belief on you. He’s like a Mooonie without the charm, flowers or airport. That’s why I call [Rick] Gervais an “evangelical atheist.” He’s one of those obnoxious non-believers always pushing his non-belief on you. He’s like a Mooonie without the charm, flowers or airport.[ link ]

AOA NEWS By Tahlib INDIANA - In sharp contrast to the liberal vitality of its neighbor to the east, Cincinnati, Ohio , the Indianapolis relationship between the performing arts and religion began with hostility and became a partnership. Prior to the 1950s, morality rules often crushed artistic expressions in dance and music. Today, however that once hostile relationship is now uniquely Indy-positive. For instance, St. Luke’s United Methodist Church now holds its contemporary Sunday morning worship service at the Beef & Boards dinner theater, and that the Phoenix Theatre, the city's other Equity company performs out of an abandoned church. Other churches and faith groups have also embraced the performing arts since the 1950s. They include Christ Church Cathedral, Christian Theological Seminary, Faith for a City, the Church Federation of Greater Indianapolis, Bethlehem Lutheran Church, St. Paul’s Episcopal, Indianapolis, Hebrew Congregation, Trinity Episcopal Church, North Uni...

KNOXVILLE NEWS SENTINEL By Melissa Priode Hope District owner Stephanie Cobb shows off one of her faith-based tattoos. TENNESSEE - The Hope District, a custom tattoo shop and body piercing studio in Halls, is using its art as the most permanent form of evangelism possible. Bibles in the shop's display case and religious art on the walls may have folks wondering if they are in the right place, since the tattoo industry has the stigma of being dark and macabre. But it's clear that scripture- and cross-adorned Andrew and Stephanie Cobb aren't traditional tattoo shop owners. "In the last couple of years, I've realized my calling to use this to minister to people and to glorify God. It's given to me by Him, it's not anything I have achieved or done on my own," Andrew said. "It's a means to reach people who may never set foot in a church." In 2009, they changed the name of their business to the Hope District because it summed up the missio...

THE DAILY BEAST By Salil Tripathi A scene from "Sita Sings the Blues" featuring Rama (far left) and his wife Sita (second from left). , Nina Paley NEW YORK - Something unremarkable was going to happen on the evening of July 21 at Richmond Hill, a suburb in the diverse New York borough of Queens, where an 82-minute animation film called Sita Sings the Blues was going to be screened at the Starlight Pavilion. Drawing on the Sanskrit epic, Ramayana, the film tells the parallel story of an American animator whose marriage breaks down in India, but who finds inspiration from the life of Sita, the queen at the center of Ramayana.
Protest letters arrived immediately. The part of Queens where the film was being shown has a substantial South Asian population, and many of the residents are Caribbean Americans of Indian origin.Hindus had stayed away from identity politics, but noticing that other faiths are able to attract attention by challenging text, interpretations, films, bo...

NEWNAN TIMES-HERALD By Winston Skinner GEORGIA - Jekyll Island has its share of tourist attractions – the miles of beaches, the Millionaire's Village, the remaining tabby walls of the colonial Horton House. Then there is the huge collection of images of Jesus. The room at Jekyll Presbyterian Community Church is not included in tourism brochures, but the paintings, carvings and prints tell a story of how Christ has been viewed by artists from many different eras and cultures. There are more than 100 different pieces in the Heads of Christ room at Jekyll Presbyterian. The room also includes a comfortable sofa and some books with art featuring images of Christ -- forming a fine place for contemplation and prayer. [ link ]

ZANESVILLE TIMES RECORDER By Bryan McKee "Head of Christ" OHIO - For the 44th time, a celebration will take place to remember the life of famed artist Howard Chandler Christy. Christy's high-fashion "Christy Girls" were known all over the world. Later in his life, Christy underwent a religious conversion and devoted the closing years of his life to painting Christian subjects. An inspiring painting by Christy, titled "The Christ," is owned by the United Methodist Church and hangs in the church's headquarters in Nashville, Tenn. [ link ]

SUNDAY HERALD SUN By Bryan Patterson AUSTRALIA - All great art -- not just great music -- has the ability to touch us on the deepest parts of ourselves.  Faith has always sought to interpret its understanding of existence through art. Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, said French author and Nobel Prize winner Andre Gide, and the less the artist does the better. Writing in the 12th century, theologian Meister Eckhart urged humanity to embrace and practise art as a way of unveiling ``the truth of our deep, creative selves''. He warned that the creative process could be as destructive as it was inspiring if it were practised only by those who did not have compassion. Writer Virginia Woolf said the whole world was a piece of art and we were all parts of that work. She also noted that religion had in the past century generally denied creativity its rightful place in the spiritual life and that art had, therefore, become a servant of the material world.There is so...

MAYANMAR TIMES By Zon Pann Pwint A monk holds a ‘kamawa’ made from human bone at Thatamayanthi Monastery in Mayangone township, Yangon. MAYANMAR - IT is a long-standing tradition in Myanmar for Buddhists to offer rectangular cards or plates inscribed with religious textas to monks in order to gain merit. The Venerable Sayadaw U Wilarthetga said that some kamawa had even been fashioned from human bones, according to the wishes of the deceased. “Some donors have made it be known that when they died, they wanted their bones to be ground into powder, moulded into kamawa plates and donated to a monastery. We have such a set in our monastery,” he said. [ link ]

THE NATIONAL By Jessica Holland The Kaaba in Mecca UNITED KINGDOM - Intense emotion, sacrifice and ancient ritual: last year more than 6,000 Emiratis joined the throng of three million making the gruelling pilgrimage to Mecca to perform rites such as circling the Kaaba, "stoning the devil" and standing vigil at Mount Arafat. Now the Haj pilgrimage is set to be the focus of the British Museum's next major exhibition, Hajj: Journey to the Heart of Islam , opening in January and following shows on Afghanistan and Iran. According to Neil MacGregor, the museum's director, the show will also fulfil one of the institution's original goals, which is to examine the relationship between faith and society as seen in past shows such as Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead and Buddhism across Asia. [ link ] Hajj: Journey to the Heart of Islam opens at the British Museum on January 26, 2012.

AOA NEWS ARTWORK OF THE WEEK, "He died for all races, tribes and tongues" by John Katerburg (image above) is one of the major stories of this week. You can "comment on it online" (“Sunday" only). People are talking about: The A&O Prize, an interfaith religious art prize exploring what happens after death? ( Sunday Comments ) Who determines great art? Patron-collectors, critics, dealers or great Artists? ( Sunday Comment ) Can a work of religious art actually win a major art prize in the USA? ( Sunday Comments ) Below is the rest of week's biggest religious art news. The stories are grouped by the five largest faith traditions, with an additional category for other. We invite you to comment on them too. The commenting online is an experiment, and we'll see just how it works.

ART DAILY NEW YORK - Cobi Moules creates a fantasy world in which only he exists. Throughout, there are many different narratives, coexisting to create an alternate world with a sense of excitement, self worth and play. Through the figure's multiplication and overwhelming presence within the landscape, it takes precedence over the landscape and integrates into it. The landscape, based off the Hudson River School style, is a stand in for the artist's own Christian upbringing, seeking to renegotiate his relationship, as a queer and transgender person, with his religious upbringing and of being seen as 'unnatural' through such Christian lens. The importance becomes the experiences of his multiple and overall presence in the landscape; engaging in different activities: playing, exploring his selves and nature, and thus becoming part of it. Cobi Moules,"Untitled (Coast of Mount Desert Island)", 2010 (above). Oil on canvas, 44 x 68 inches. Moules is part of an eight...

SUFFOLK FREE PRESS UNITED KINGDOM - A collection of paintings by some of the world’s finest artists drew a steady stream of visitors during its opening weekend. The Art and Soul exhibition at St Peter’s Church in Sudbury features a collection of more than 50 modern Christian art pieces dating back to the turn of the 20th century. The collection is widely regarded as one of the finest of its types outside the Vatican and is rarely seen in its entirety. Exhibition’s organiser Graeme Garden said people had been coming from far and wide to get a glimpse of the collection. “We have been very busy,” said Mr Garden, who lives in Sudbury and has been involved with the Methodist church his whole life. The exhibition is open every day from 10am till 6pm until August 21. [ link ]

THE LOCAL By Emy Gelb SWEDEN - As more and more Swedes roll up their sleeves and trouser legs to get tattoos, contributor Emy Gelb takes a look at what inspires Swedes to let their bodies become walking works of art. “I am a Christian, and I always have God with me so I am getting a tattoo that says ‘Never Alone’ on my foot. It will always remind me of my faith. I think tattoos are pretty, and this is something that I can stand for the rest of my life," explains Johanna, an 18-year-old visitor at East Street. "I’ve been thinking about it for a year and a half, but I’m ready. A little bit nervous too," she said as she prepared for her first tattoo. Media coverage and pop culture have helped to make tattoos a mainstream trend. [ link ]

SYDNEY STAR OBSERVER AUSTRALIA - 2011 Mardi Gras Art Prize winner Liam Benson was last week awarded the 2011 Hazelhurst Works on Paper Prize for his photographic self-portrait, "A Christian Country". The prize, valued at $20,000, was judged by artist Ben Quilty, winner of the 2011 Archibald Prize. The announcement was made as part of the Hazelhurst Art Award 2011 Art on Paper exhibition. A Christian Country is a digital photographic print featuring Benson clad in body paint representing the Australian flag and wearing a tiara bearing the words "A Christian Country". The work focuses on national as well as gender identity. [ link ]

MONTCLAIR TIMES By Elizabeth Oguss NEW JERSEY - In an empty synagogue in Pune, India, an old man prays alone, his still-strong voice rising to the rafters as he chants the Hebrew prayers. The moment is captured in still photos and on video by an American artist, Siona Benjamin . "His voice in the empty synagogue was a symbol," Benjamin said, recalling the moment in the basement studio of her Montclair home. "Once there were 30,000 Jews in India. Now there are around 4,000. When he sang alone, his voice echoed."Her aim is to explore the many faces of Indian Jews in order to "reconfirm" something she has always known: "There is no such thing as a Jewish race." As a Bene Israel Jew raised in a Hindu and Muslim society and educated in Christian and Zoroastrian schools, Benjamin knows firsthand what it is to feel "other." PHOTO: Benjamin with cantor in Mumbai. [ link ]

WALL STREET JOURNAL By Hiroyuki Kachi A huge statue of the Buddhist priest, Kukai, stands in Niigata in 2001.  JAPAN - In a blockbuster display of Buddhist art treasures, the Tokyo National Museum Wednesday opened an exhibit devoted to one of Japan’s best-known monks, credited with bringing “Esoteric Buddhism” to the country from China in early 9th century. And for enthusiasts, the setting is one not to be missed: “ Kukai’s World: the Arts of Esoteric Buddhism ” offers a collection of 99 items related to Kukai, some of them much more easily accessible in a museum than in their traditional temple locations far removed from the capital. PHOTO: Courtesy of Wall Street Journal. [ link ]

KUWAIT NEWS AGENCY HUNGARY - Kuwait opened on Friday its second Islamic Art Gallery in the Hungarian capital of Budapest. The four-day gallery, held at the Museum of Applied Arts in Budapest, is co-organized by Kuwait's Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs, Kuwait Center of Islamic Arts, the Kuwaiti embassy in Budapest as well as the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of National Resources. Choosing Budapest to host such event comes as a result of Kuwait's and Hungary's concerns to push forward their cooperative ties. Speaking to KUNA after the gallery opening, Assistant Undersecretary for Cultural Affairs at the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs Khulaif Mutheeb Al-Othainah and the General-Director of the Middle East and North Africa Department at the Hungarian Foregin Ministry lauded the high level of relations between the two countries. "This event is considered another opportunity to familiarize the entire world with the Arab and Islamic c...

VOICE OF AMERICA By Jean Di Marino VATICAN CITY - The Vatican - once the world’s premier art patron - is again reaching out to artists, organizing an exhibit of contemporary works. Sixty living artists, including two Americans, were invited to reflect on the theme of truth and charity. U.S. artist Max Cole, 75, was one of them. She found herself shaking hands with Pope Benedict while standing in front of the painting she submitted to the Vatican's exhibit. “I thank you very much for embracing the spirit of art and the artist,” she said to the pontiff. PHOTO: Max Cole's "Saltflat". [ link ]

WNYC RADIO By Marlon Bishop NEW YORK - Queens College is positioning itself to become a mecca for art and art history in the Arab World. The college recently announced it would take ownership of an online Islamic art museum, thanks to generous donations from big names in the Asian art world: the London-based shopping mall magnate Nasser Khalili and the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation . The caligraphy lion above is part of the new collection. [ link ]

FOX NEWS WASHINGTON, DC - A New York art collector has announced the donation of Tibetan art, including a shrine room, to the Smithsonian's Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. Alice Kandell announced the donation of her collection at a ceremony with the Dalai Lama at the Smithsonian on Saturday. She built the collection over 40 years. The shrine room contains hundreds of Tibetan Buddhist bronzes, paintings and objects created between the 12th and 19th centuries on the Tibetan Plateau and in China and Mongolia. There are also textiles and painted chests dating from the 19th and early 20th centuries. The shrine room is on view at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City. PHOTO: Smithsonian Affiliates .[ link ]

HINDUSTAN TIMES By Priyanka Jain BOLLYWOOD - Ketan Mehta’s ambitious project Rang Rasiya has been in the cans for almost a year and a half. However, after receiving accolades at the London Indian Film Festival, the biopic based on controversial painter Raja Ravi Varma, will be finally be released this September. Ketan says, “The film charts Raja Ravi Varma’s life, from his early days under the patronage of a king in Kerala to his time in British Bombay in the late 1800s, where he makes his fortune. Here, he gives birth to Indian modern art and helps inspire the freedom movement and Indian cinema with his depictions, which bring to life Hindu Gods and Goddesses.” [ link ]

AOA NEWS INDIANA - The Indiana Interchurch Center will name its first central Indiana high school student recipient of the Alpha & Omega Prize for Young Artists on November 12, 2011, but first they are spreading the word to congregations, schools and arts organizations to help identify the best in the region's multi-faith talent. The A&O Prize , a $750 scholarship for the winners of an interfaith arts competition is part of the 16th annual Spirit & Place Festival and run collaboratively by Indiana Interchurch Center, the Center for Interfaith Cooperation and Alpha & Omega Project for Contemporary Religious Arts. It gives high school students the opportunity to explore inter-religious themes through visual art.

The Philadelphia Inquirer By David O'Reilly PENNSYLVANIA - Luminous and translucent, commanding earth and sky, the risen Christ is too vast to be contained within the borders of artist Lothar Speer's mural. When he finished his headless Jesus in 1995, Speer believed his "ethereal vision" would reside "for a long, long time" in Bustleton's Calvary Evangelical Lutheran Church. After Calvary Lutheran dissolved in the fall due to dwindling membership, a Ukrainian Baptist congregation bought the church. Early this month, the leadership of First Ukrainian Evangelical Baptist Church informed him that it wanted the painting gone.[ link ]

BLOGCRITIC By Kevin Freitas CALIFORNIA - [A] must-see work is entitled Dewdropic by Lea Anderson. It's a stunning work, one of many that can be found on her website. Dewdropic is impressive for its size (a large oval) and uncanny ability to rest passively on the wall (it’s not the first piece your drawn to in the show) until you come closer. I’m not much for artist statements but Anderson’s, like her work, is succinct yet elusive enough to respect the viewer’s intelligence and imagination. “Through my creations, I convey the heightened sense of inspiration and wonder one feels when encountering the beauty and complexity of the natural world. (See detail below) [ link ]

JEWISH PRESS By Richard McBee NEW YORK - Siona Benjamin's exhibition Finding Home: The Art of Siona Benjamin is simply beautiful. Set in the spacious lobby gallery of the JCC Manhattan, it allows for a peaceful contemplation of this complex artist's meditations on biblical women, war, exoticism and contemporary society. The painted walls range from soft ochre to a pale turquoise, setting off Benjamin's palette to maximum effect, each work sensuously vibrating with the atmosphere of Benjamin's native Mumbai, India. (Above) " Finding Home #102 'Lilith' (Fereshteh)" 2008. The exhibit will run through July 30. [ link ]

THE GUARDIAN By Cherry Wilson UNITED KINGDOM - A 17th-century painting by Nicolas Poussin was vandalised at the National Gallery in London after a 57-year-old man reportedly sprayed it with red paint before being arrested by police (above). The Adoration of the Golden Calf , completed by the French classicist in 1634, along with a smaller painting on the adjacent wall in the Poussin Room, was attacked at around 5pm. The oil-on-canvas painting depicts the worshipping of a calf by the Israelites during the absence of Moses as he climbed Mount Sinai to receive the tablets of the Ten Commandments(See unaltered below).[ link ]

AOA NEWS PENNSYLVANIA - Philadelphia's White Stone Gallery was selected to assist in the multi-denominational exhibit, Art & Faith , for Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Madrid, Spain. Contemporary artists from around the world will be featured in this historic exhibit for World Youth Day. For the first time in Europe, contemporary artists from different countries are gathered together to exhibit art influenced by Christian faith. The exhibit is scheduled for August 9-26, 2011 at the Fundación Pons headquarters. White Stone Gallery , a leading gallery in contemporary Christian art is writing an introduction for the exhibit catalog as well as providing a selection of artwork for the show. Photo: Reaching by Ruth Naomi Floyd . [ link ]

AOA NEWS LOUISIANA - On Friday, August 5, the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) will premiere The Elegant Image: Hindu, Buddhist and Jain Bronzes from the Indian Subcontinent in the Siddharth K. Bhansali Collection . The exhibition includes over 100 bronze sculptures of Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain deities, presenting a rich diversity of figures of the three major religions of ancient India. Hinduism is the oldest and third largest religion in the world with about one billion adherents, and American museums have recently begun to embrace Hindu art with a new vitality as exemplified in exciting exhibitions in Cleveland, New York City, Nashville, etc; as well as a controversey in Idaho . "The Elegant Image" will run from Aug. 5 to Oct. 23. [ link ]

AOA NEWS SOUTH KOREA - Canadian artist, Christian, and father Mark Philip Venema has returned from his successful journey to Korea to install " Entrenched Thought ", an international bridge-building project, and he is anxious to share the photos with those who missed the experience. The mammoth outdoor project cost thousands of dollars to conduct but is still in need of financial support. To-date, the project has raised just under $1,000 and there is only one day left on his Indie GoGo online campaign . As one of his "Good Soul" supporters, AOA wants others to know there is still time to help. Every Good Soul out there (or better souls) can help.

ART DAILY LOUISIANA - A recently discovered and undocumented Old Master painting of "St. Joseph and the Infant Jesus" from the School of Bartolomé Esteban Murillo is coming to auction in New Orleans at Crescent City Auction Gallery on Saturday, July 23. The Baroque painting portrays St. Joseph as a young father and the baby Jesus as a toddler holding a branch of lilies. Its provenance, as denoted by a label to the stretcher, is Rev. Canon A. Silva-White (possibly of Spanish heritage), St. Peter's Vicarage, Sunderland England. It is thought to have been de-accessioned circa 1968 and then purchased by a private collector before passing to the collection of a Mandeville, Louisiana collector in 1985. "St. Joseph and the Infant Jesus" carries a conservative pre-sale estimate of $8,000 to $12,000. [ link ]

GRAND RAPIDS PRESS By Paul Kopenkoskey MICHIGAN - [John] Katerberg said his priorities as a Christian were honed when he returned from the Middle East in 1991. Brush and canvas is this artist’s pulpit, a platform meant to invoke a no-holds-barred relationship with Jesus. He is going to enter a painting in ArtPrize depicting Jesus with the word "sin" written over his body in different languages. "He died for all races, tribes and tongues," said Katerberg of Jesus. "It's for all the world." [ link ]

SALINA JOURNAL By Gary Demuth "The Head of Christ" (1940) By Warner Sallman INDIANA - In 1924, Warner E. Sallman saw a vision of Jesus Christ, and from it created, according to Newsweek, the most reproduced work in art history, "The Head of Christ" (1940). "Many images of Christ have been painted, but this one has stood the test of time," said the Rev. LeRoy Carlson, founder and president of the Warner E. Sallman Art Collection in Chicago. Sallman's Christ was printed on the cover of the July 9, 2007, issue of Newsweek magazine, which called Sallman's painting the most reproduced religious work of art in history, having been reproduced more than a billion times. The "Head of Christ," [is part of the fine art collection at] Anderson University , Anderson, Ind.. Carlson said. "He painted with devotion, he painted with strength, and for many people his Jesus has become their Jesus." [ link ]

HUFFINGTON POST By Daniel Grant SINCE THE 1980S, [a] fifth of the 105 members of the U.S. Council for Christian Colleges and Universities now have studio art degree programs -- double the number on offer in the 1990s. One of the reasons for this increase is the 70-percent growth in enrollment at Christian institutions since 1990, outstripping the 15- to 20-percent jump in other parts of the university sector. The surge in enrollment has left church-based institutions engaged in a delicate balancing act: training young artists -- with all that that traditionally entails in terms of the freedom to challenge any and all authority -- in an environment that puts religion above all else. When Bob and Sandra Bowden were scouting colleges for their daughter Jennifer in the 1980s, they found that the pickings were slim. The family eventually chose Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich.[ link ]

CHATTANOOGA TIMES FREE PRESS By Clint Cooper TENNESSEE - Can artists and churches learn from each other? That’s what the series “The Artist in the Church: Observations for Christian Artists and the Churches That Love Them” hopes to promote at the Salvation Army’s 614 Corps’ ReCreate Café today and the next two Saturdays. “Churches have had a love-hate relationship with art throughout the centuries,” said Tenika Dye, event coordinator for the ReCreate Café.[ link ]

THE ASIAN AGE By Priyanka Bhadani INDIA - Delhi has always been known for its architectural heritage but now it can boast of a wonder as well. The Akshardham Temple of Delhi has been included in the list of “Seven Wonders of the 21st Century” by Reader’s Digest. The 100-acre complex is on the fifth rank in a list that includes Buddha statue in Lushan County, China at the first position, Cave of Crystals, Mexico at second, Museum of Islamic Art, Qatar at third among others. [ link ]

THE AUSTRALIAN By Waldemar Januszczak UNITED KINGDOM - When the director of London's National Gallery, Nicholas Penny, took over from the overly commercial Charles Saumarez Smith - on whose watch the National had begun selling postcards of its greatest masterpieces redone in the style of Hello! magazine - he announced that he would seek to import fewer international blockbusters and instead would put greater effort into exploring the gallery's existing collections. All of which happened to me at Devotion by Design , a particularly hushed examination of the function and form of the Italian altarpiece before 1500. The show looks at how altarpieces were made, what they were for, where they went and how they looked originally compared with how they look now.[ link ]

THE TIMES OF INDIA INDIA - Even as the rector of the Basilica of Bom Jesus in Old Goa-famous for housing the relics of St Francis Xavier-has decided to enforce modesty in dress among tourists visiting the holy shrine, as also to ban photography within the basilica, a committee of the church in Goa is studying whether to extend the dress code for tourists visiting all other religious shrines in Goa.[ link ]

"Resurrection of Lazarus" (1896) by Henry Ossawa Tanner ALPHA OMEGA ARTS PENNSYLVANIA - A major exhibition of artwork by African-American artist Henry Ossawa Tanner will premiere at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), on view from January 27 through April 15, 2012. Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit will contain over 100 works, including 12 paintings that have never been shown in a Tanner retrospective and the only two known sculptures that Tanner completed. The exhibition also includes Tanner's famed Resurrection of Lazarus (above), from the collection of the Musée d'Orsay, a career-making canvas that earned Tanner his first international praise when it was exhibited in 1897 and which has never crossed the Atlantic. Organized by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where the artist studied from 1879 to 1885, [it] will tour to the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. www.pafa.org/tanner/ [ link ]

MUSLIM MATTERS Welcome to the another edition of MuslimMatters.org’s regular Islamic Art feature . If you want to see your work on MM, then either email us your images to art@muslimmatter.org or submit them to our Flickr group . " Prayer"(above), by bzbuddy. My followers can pray wherever they like when the time of prayer is due - Muhammad (sallalahu alayhi wa salam). Photo taken in Waterfront Park on Alaskan way, Seattle, WA.

THE TIMES OF INDIA By Shanta Serbjeet Singh INDIA - If there is a single window into the mysterious world of Indic art and aesthetics, it is our holistic and cosmocentric vision of the world. It explains the relationship of the parts to the whole, of the multiple to the one, and of the finite to the infinite. The Chitrasutra of the Vishnudharmottara Purana , arguably the world's oldest treatise on art, not only provides a detailed account of the various schools, techniques and ideals of Indian painting, but specifies the aim of painting as one of communicating an emotion and causing particular spiritual states of mind. It says: "Painting cleanses the mind and curbs anxiety, augments future good, causes the greatest delight, kills the evils of bad dreams and pleases the household deity." Further, it says, "Painting is the best of all arts and is conducive to dharma or right conduct and moksha or emancipation". [ link ]

THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE By Manya A. Brachear ILLINOIS - The Dalai Lama's message of compassion long has transcended Tibetan Buddhism and enchanted people of all faiths — and no faith. The anticipation of his arrival inspired a dozen religious communities to undertake an unusual artistic endeavor that [provided] the backdrop to the Dalai Lama's appearance Sunday on the campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago. Framing the Dalai Lama on stage [were] a dozen towering religious icons created by artists of other traditions. "It's an amazing show of support and unity that different people of different faiths actually came together," said Nina Norris, a member of St. Matthias Catholic Church in Chicago's Lincoln Square neighborhood. [ link ]

THE CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER By Steven Litt OHIO - Every art season has a sleeper — an exhibition that sounds minor but that turns out to be absolutely terrific. This summer’s example comes courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art. It’s a show of Kalighat paintings, a little-known genre of 19th-century Indian street art, which flourished for a half-century in Calcutta (now Kolkata), then the capital of the British Raj in the East Indian state of West Bengal. The paintings were produced originally by anonymous artists between the 1830s and 1880s and sold as souvenirs in bazaars around the Kalighat Temple, devoted to the goddess Kali, in south Kolkata. The Kalighat exhibition runs through September 18. [ link ]

AOA NEWS By Tahlib ART PICK OF THE WEEK (above) is from the Indianapolis Museum of Art. The traveling art exhibit, " Dynasty and Divinity " organized by NYC's Museum for African Art (opening in 2012) explores the role of religion in ancient Nigeria's system of royalty. You can "comment online" all week (This is a test). Elsewhere, people are also talking about: Who is getting hurt by the Hindu Art in Idaho? ( Comment Online ) What's so religious/or sacrilegious about "Religious Tattoos"? ( Comment Online ) Why are so many summer movies exploring spiritual themes this year? ( Comment Online ) Below is the rest of week's biggest religious art news. The stories are grouped by the five largest faith traditions, with an additional category for other. As Alpha Omega Arts continues to connect Artists, Faiths, and Communities, we invite you to comment on them too.

AOA NEWS By Tahlib CANADA - There is at least one website dedicated to Judeo-Christian body art (Tattoos): http://www.religioustattoos.net/ designed and maintained by Christian tattoo enthusiast Jason Gennaro ,from Toronto, Canada. It's hotly debated in some religious circles whether this is a biblically sanctioned expression or an abomination (like eating lobster, gays marrying and polyester blends). My mom has two (one says "God"). My son has several with religious messages(stopped counting). For those with questions, Gennaro's site gives you access to what the Bible says (and doesn't say) about tattoos [click: Leviticus 19:28 ].

COMIC ALLIANCE By Brian Warmouth TEXAS - Religious fervor among Star Wars fans is no rarity. Take the International Church of Jediism, for instance. Patrick King's Star Wars artwork exhibits a similar level of piety melding some traditional Christian symbolism with recognizable costumed characters from the Empire's ranks. King even goes as far as to make them saints. There probably aren't many galactic citizens under Imperial control who would vote to canonize Darth Vader, but in the print you'll find on King's website (and his Etsy page ) that's precisely what the man formerly known as Anakin Skywalker is depicted as. He's got a halo of light behind his head and a lightsaber in his hand. [ link ] Follow Patrick King on Twitter.com/patking13 .

INDIANAPOLIS STAR By Jay Harvey INDIANA - The largest and most inclusive display from the ancient spiritual home of Africa's Yoruba people ever to tour the West [is now on view] at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. "Dynasty and Divinity: Ife Art in Ancient Nigeria" has just three other stops on its U.S. tour -- Houston, Richmond, Va., and in a still-to-open New York City museum. That museum, the Museum of African Art, organized the display of 104 items with the Fundacion Botin of Santander, Spain, collaborating with the Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments. Descendants of the creator-god became the sacred rulers ("Ooni") of Ife,a monarchical line that continues to this day.[ link ]

By Tahlib Which new movie should I go see tonight? I've already seen Transformers and Larry Crowne (liked both). Here's my shortlist for tonight. Pick one, and tell me why? " Harry Potter " but oh the lines! and this will be around for months! " Life Above All " a powerful drama that takes place in South Africa. " Salvation Boulevard " a drama-comedy which Rotten Tomato's loves. " The Ledge " an atheist film but featuring two of my favorite actors, Patrick Wilson and Terrence Howard. " Tree of Life " which I missed when the rest of the AOA crew went in Oklahoma City last week, and which stars Sean Penn and Brad Pitt. " The Undefeated " documentary about Sarah Palin could be fun too. I'm likely missing something but please don't add Hang Over II or Brides Maids to the list. I ain't goin there!

NAZARENE COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK OKLAHOMA - MidAmerica Nazarene University (KS) extends an open invitation to see one of the world's largest private collections of rare biblical texts and artifacts with MNU Christian Ministry and Formation professors Randy Cloud and Jim Edlin July 22-23 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Passages, the worldwide traveling exhibition featuring a portion of Hobby Lobby president Steve Green's The Green Collection, has set the scholarly and religious worlds ablaze. The interactive exhibition premiered at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art in May. [ link ]

AOA NEWS By Tahlib OHIO - Meeting Kehinde Wiley is like meeting a spiritual force of nature, and the same is experienced each time I come face-to-face with one of his paintings. "I consider my work Opera on a static stage," said Wiley. His art, with underpinnings of hip-hop and rap music embedded into the equally forceful traditions of the Baroque has had an enormous impact on the contemporary art world. His work reinterprets Old Master paintings , formats, poses, and titles, and combines them with portraits of contemporary African-American men, and other men of color across the globe. In this work (above), " St. Francis of Paola " in the collection of the Toledo Museum of Art, he demonstrates this intersection of traditional art history and contemporary culture. As Wiley explains, his art is about bringing "different traditions … together and gelling [them] into forms we could have never imagined."

ISRAEL NATIONAL NEWS By David ben Yacov ISRAEL - The way religious women look, our first impression of them, is often the way we judge them, perhaps because of the important role modest dress for women plays in Jewish law. An Emunah College of Arts and Technology student decided to make a statement about that in her graduation project, which is part of the end-of-year exhibit at the Jerusalem college. [ link ]

DAILY NEWS By Melis Alphan QATAR - For people looking for stimulating art work, Qatar is the right place. With more and more new museums opening, some designed by famous architects, it is slowly becoming the cultural hub of the Gulf. The National Museum of Qatar, designed by Jean Nouvel, was one of the museums under construction. Another project that was contemplated is the new Orientalist Museum designed by Jacques Herzog. The architect of the Museum of Islamic Art that opened its doors in 2008 is I.M. Pei (above). Signature architects are building the museums but all the collections are and will be from Qataris. They are doing their own thing and not importing art.[ link ]