Disney-Britton

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By TAHLIB Detail in "Arhat" (2012) from Murakami's Buddhism series Islamic art dominated the art news during the past several years, but the year 2013 was different. In contrast to 2012 and 2011, we've just exited a year where both galleries and museums alike were on fire with a desire to spotlight the colorful diversity of the world's religious imaginations in bold new ways. There was a rich mix of ambitious new art works in galleries, and museums experimented with innovative new forms of storytelling. Is an art movement that looks inward, the new path to help see our neighbors worldwide? For now, the answer seems to be yes. Below, are my highlights for 2013.

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By Ernest @DisneyBritton "Good Morning Lord" by Ernest E. Varner On the 7th Day of Christmas , I reflect on the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. The holy spirit is often referred to as female , and symbolized as bird, wind, fire, and clouds which is why it reminds me of my mother jumping from a plane for her 75h birthday--soaring like a bird in the wind and clouds. The Unity Church's co-founder Charles Fillmore considered the Holy Spirit a distinctly feminine aspect of God, considering it to be "the love of Jehovah" and "love is always feminine". In Hebrew the word for Spirit (רוה) (ruach) is feminine, (as is the word "shekhinah", which is used in the Hebrew Bible to indicate the presence of God, سكينة Sakinah in Arabic language, a word mentioned six times in the Quran). The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude (or courage), knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11:2-3).

SAN DIEGO JEWISH WORLD By Donald Harrison Skot Golden-Needham and his kindergarten teacher Lori Bunshaft show off aron kodesh models inside the real one at Temple Emanu-El CALIFORNIA---Skot Golden-Needham shyly approached the aron kodesh on Sunday, Dec. 8, with his kindergarten teacher Lori Bunshaft. Then, turning around, he displayed the model aron kodesh that he made and Mora Lori showed another one fashioned by one of his classmates. Bunshaft said her idea was to teach the kindergarteners about one very special place in their synagogue — the Holy Ark where the Torahs are kept — and also to teach them about recycling and repurposing into art the materials that might otherwise end up in our nation’s landfills. Judaism, environmentalism and art, all wrapped into one — just as they should be. [ link ]

THE DIPLOMAT By Luke Hunt CAMBODIA---For centuries, British colonialists would quip that they were doing the world a favor by relieving conquered territories of their historical artifacts. Such historical accusations were behind the return of a Cambodian statue taken from near the ruins of the 12th century temples at Angkor Wat. The statue of an ancient Hindu warrior had come up for auction at Sotheby’s and this had prompted the U.S. authorities to act. But celebrations have been tinged by a group of Cambodian security guards. As the Hindu warrior was being packed for the trip home, Cambodia’s only relics of Buddha were stolen from the former royal capital at Odong where some hair, teeth and bones of the Buddha were kept, supposedly under tight security. [ link ]

CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER By Steven Litt OHIO---The impression is unforgettable, mysterious and powerful. As you enter the “glass box” gallery at the southern tip of the Cleveland Museum of Art’s new West Wing , your eye latches onto an 11th-century Chola Dynasty bronze sculpture from India, entitled “Nataraja, Shiva as the King of Dance.” The work, set against a 16-foot-high wall of glass, represents the Hindu deity of destruction and procreation as he whirls in a dancelike pose within a ring of fire representing the sun. Even if you know nothing of Hinduism, it’s easy to sense the spiritual energy of this remarkable sculpture. It’s a major highlight of a trio of galleries in the museum’s new West Wing devoted to Indian and Southeast Asian art. [ link ]

BRAINPICKINGS By Maria Popova From data visualization to infographics, we’re big on the power of smart graphic design to covey big concepts that are otherwise hard to grasp in their raw numberness. Which is why we love designer Toby Ng‘s poster series The World of 100 — an experimental graphical representation of statistical information about the world, based on the allegorical scenario of reducing the world to a village of 100 people. [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By TAHLIB "The Virgin Offering the Christ Child to Saint Francis” During this Christmas season, I've really been drawn to the image of the Madonna & Child . I don't know why but the mother & baby fascinated me this year than ever before. "You can generally depend on Italian Renaissance art for tasteful, traditional Christmas imagery, and ' Francesco Vanni: Art in Late Renaissance Siena ' at Yale University Art Gallery delivers plenty of Madonnas, angels and adorable infants, wrote Martha Schwendener in The New York Times . "But it also offers a view of European art at a moment of upheaval and of an artist working in the centers of religious power and responding to these changes." I am not heading over to Connecticut, but I am going to make an effort to make Mondays my "Madonna & Child" day in the weeks ahead. I'll see how far it gets...and then stop. In the meantime, the show at Yale ends on January 5....

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Zachary Woolfe NEW YORK--- The early-music scene in New York is decades old, yet is still growing. At the center of the city’s early-music activities is Trinity Wall Street and its intelligent, inspiring director of music and the arts, Julian Wachner, who on Saturday evening led “Noël et la Vierge Marie: a Franco-Flemish Christmas Celebration,” part of the church’s Twelfth Night Festival , which began on Thursday and continues through Jan. 6. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Anet Maslin PUBLISHING---Okey Ndibe’s razor-sharp “ Foreign Gods, Inc. ” steps into the story of a Nigerian-born New Yorker called Ike, just as everything in his life has begun to go horribly wrong. The only thing he has of value is something of age-old mystical significance that is not exactly in his possession. And, intellect notwithstanding, he gets the bright idea of acquiring and selling it from a trendy article in New York magazine. But the gist of the piece is that a dealer named Mark Gruels traffics in deities from faraway places, which mean nothing but money to either him or his customers. [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By Ernest @DisneyBritton Merry Christmas from New Kasey (Looks so merry) Today, I am grateful for my four-month old puppy, Kasey Disney-Britton. It is the 6th day of Christmas , and time to reflect on the six days of creation as described in the first chapter of the Bible when God made heaven and earth and every living thing (verses 26-27). "On day 6, God created animals, and then humans, both male and female." His nickname is "New Kasey" because the "Old Kasey" completed his circle of life in March 2013 at the age of fifteen years old. I also call him " My birthday present " because he is.

DALLAS NEWS By Michael Granberry TEXAS---Maxwell Anderson roared into the Dallas Museum of Art in January 2012, ushering in a new era of hope and change. A year later, the new director shuttered the DMA policy of paid general admission and instituted what he called the Friends and Partners program. And the free membership program Anderson instituted? “As of today, more than 42,000 people have signed up,” he says. Deputy Director Rob Stein followed Anderson to Dallas from the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Stein said the DMA sought to “flip membership on its head” with Friends and Partners “and really think about what it meant to encourage and drive participation with the museum.” As successful as Friends has been, Stein’s also thrilled with Partners , which seeks to recruit “partners in philanthropy.” As levels of donation grow, so do the partners’ perks. Since the program was implemented, the DMA has signed up 15,000 Partners. [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By TAHLIB I spent Christmas with my five nieces who are all mothers, and it reminded me that mothers are the storytellers of our lives. On this 5th day of Christmas , many Christians reflect on the first Five Books of the Old Testament, the "Pentateuch", which tell the story of man's creation, fall, and God's promise; a promise that came true in the New Testament via a Middle Eastern mother: "Mary" the mother of Jesus Christ. However, the mother's story grows less visible with all the baby boy celebrations of this month. That is why Boushra Almutawakel's "Mother-daughter-doll" series (above) in “She Who Tells a Story: Women Photographers From Iran and the Arab World,” is my NEWS OF WEEK .

THE NEW YORK TIMES By David W. Dunlap Eight-pointed stars in gold, yellow and red have been revealed during the renovation of the 165-year-old Episcopal church. NEW YORK---At Christmas, thoughts at many churches turn to a certain star. At Grace Church in Brooklyn Heights, thoughts are of a thousand stars or more. That’s how many long-hidden stars have been uncovered in the ceiling of the building, a 165-year-old Episcopal church at Hicks Street and Grace Court, under a $5 million renovation that includes a new copper roof, new insulation, new lighting, new wiring and a much-needed cleaning of many of the 3,200 organ pipes. What had looked until a few months ago like a dull ceiling of plain wood planks turned out to be a dazzling celestial extravaganza of eight-pointed stars in gold, yellow and red — so lacy they might be taken for snowflakes — set in an expansive vault of royal blue. [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By Ernest  @DisneyBritton Makoto Fujimura via www.makotofujimura.com On this 4th Day of Christmas, I reflect on the calling of four religious artists: Makoto Fujimura , Yona Verwer , Andrew Kosorok , and Quincy Owens . Many believe that the Four (4) Calling Birds in the song: " 12 Days of Christmas " refer to the Four Gospels and/or the Four Evangelists. While the label "evangelical" turns off many Americans, including myself, Fujimura explained evangelism by focusing on its root word "evangel" which means “to herald the Good News." This year,  Fujimura traveled the world advocating  culture care;  Verwer brought new insight into the Jewish  day of rest ;  Kosorok extended his outreach to his Islamic brothers/sisters; and Quincy Owens, took the risk of exploring Hindi culture in India. All four artists shared "Good News" like calling birds.

THE GUARDIAN By Maev Kennedy The director of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Wim Pijbes, is being invited to join the judges of the Art Fund museum prize , giving the judging panel for the £100,000 prize – the biggest of its kind in the world – an international dimension for the first time. His fellow judges will be the artist Michael Craig-Martin, Sally Bacon of the Clore Duffield foundation, and Anna Somers Cocks, chief executive of the Art Newspaper – who said she believed UK museums had "greater creativity, greater sensitivity to the needs of the public, and greater pleasure in the story that objects can tell". The 2014 shortlist will be announced in April. [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By Ernest @DisneyBritton "Father-Son: One" (2013) by Quincy Owens If Michelangelo's "Pietà" represents one end of the spectrum of faith-based design, Quincy Owen's " Father-Son: One" must be the other. Owen's recent experiment was creating a series of meticulously smoothed mini-monoliths of wood, and we chose one as our joint Frankincense gift for the Spirit . The wood is from the pew of an abandoned church, and is  fifteen  inches tall symbolizing acts created by the energy of Divine grace . Our two other gifts: “ Gold ” (for the mind) were a "Histomap of Faith through the Ages" and a William's Sonoma cocoa maker; along with Myrrh (for the body) --- an outfit from Saks Fifth Ave and a winter coat from North Face. It is however, the gift of “ Frankincense ” that most reflects the reason that we celebrate these  12 Days of Christmas .

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Vicky Goldberg "Bullet Revisited #3" (2012) by Lalla Assia Essaydi MASSACHUSETTS---Middle Eastern women, supposedly powerless and oppressed behind walls and veils, are in fact a force in both society and the arts. They played a major role in the Arab Spring and continue to do so in the flourishing regional art scene — specifically in photography — which is alive and very well indeed. Some Middle Eastern photographers have taken their cameras to the barricades, physical ones and those less obvious, like the barriers erected by stereotypes, which they remain determined to defy. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, takes note in “She Who Tells a Story: Women Photographers From Iran and the Arab World,” an ambitious and revealing exhibition of work by 12 women, some internationally known. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Carol Vogel Adolf Ziegler’s “The Four Elements,” a 1937 triptych that was on Hitler’s mantel. NEW YORK---The Neue Galerie’s big spring show, “Degenerate Art: The Attack on Modern Art in Nazi Germany, 1937,” has been nearly three years in the making. Some disappeared in the late 1930s, around the time the Nazis raided German museums and public collections, confiscating works they called degenerate because Hitler deemed them un-German or Jewish in nature. A room will be devoted to sanctioned art of the period, like Adolf Ziegler’s triptych “The Four Elements” (1937), which was over Hitler’s mantel. It depicts four young, nude, blond women. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Joshua David Stein NEW YORK--When Kanye West brought his Yeezus tour to New York last month, he needed somewhere to sell his merchandise. Instead of a concert booth, he opened a pop-up shop at 355 Bowery and sold $35 snapback hats and $20 tote bags. Lost in the hype was how the store came together. Instead of a traditional real estate agent, Mr. West’s team turned to Storefront , an online start-up that connects store owners and landlords with retail spaces they wish to rent out for short terms with artists, brands and boutiques in need of temporary quarters. “It’s like Airbnb , eBay and Uber rolled into one,” said David Bell, a professor of marketing at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. “Storefront matches excess capacity with the demand for capacity in an efficient and scalable way.” [ link ]

THE GAY UK By Antony Simpson UNITED KINGDOM---Christmas is a Christian festival, but a lot of its traditions originate from the older pagan festival of Yule. Yule of the Winter Solstice is on 21st December; it is the shortest day and longest night in year. From this point on days will begin to get longer. Pagans come together to celebrate the return of the sun or re-birth of the sun God. [ link ]

THE GUARDIAN By Jonathon Jones "Adoration of the Magi" by Albrecht Dürer UNITED KINGDOM---Adoration of the Magi is one of the great themes of European religious art – and obviously one of the most Christmassy. But it is more in line with the materialism of a modern Christmas than traditionalists might like to think. It is very much an artistic celebration of presents and wealth. One rich family is largely responsible for making the adoration of the Magi such a mercenary artistic subject. The Medici became the wealthiest family in Europe in the late middle ages and their money made them the political bosses of their city, Florence. The Medici identified with the Magi. It was a way to assert that rich men can be holy – and that money is not sinful. [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By Ernest  @DisneyBritton Holydays, like holidays can be as meaningful or meaningless as the participants desire and meaning resonates with me, especially at Christmas. On this 2nd Day of Christmas , my reflection is on gifts we purchased from Indianapolis artist, Ash Robinson . She is one of only the 2014 Robert E. Beckmann Emerging Artist Fellows, and is interested in "art-for-good" that empowers women and African American neighborhoods. "These neighborhoods feel that they have been abandoned or "REJECTED" and "DISCARDED" by society," said Ash about the inspiration for these works. I purchased the two pieces for my two Moms: Birth-Mom and Step-Mom, two strong women who have spent their lives improving the lives of those who feel rejected or discarded.

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By TAHLIB NEW YORK---On Saturday, January 17, the Museum of Biblical Art is bringing together four prominent scholars to interrogate the intersection of two dramatic shifts in nineteenth-century culture--collecting and creating biblical art. The gathering is organized in conjunction with Sacred Visions: Nineteenth-Century Biblical Art from the Dahesh Museum Collection , currently on view at MOBIA. To register, please call (212) 759-0606 or email info@daheshmuseum.org, and include "Symposium" in the subject line.

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By Ernest @DisneyBritton One moment in  2013 's  12 Days of Christmas  will not be forgotten: the moment I saw a shiny new FIAT  in our garage. Christmas morning began as planned, with the exchange of 3-gifts of gold, white, and red ; but then Greg said he had one more thing in the car that was too big to carry alone.  I was puzzled, and a little annoyed he wasn't following the 3-gift plan, but when I opened the garage door---wow! There it was, with a giant-sized Christmas bow a top---just like a TV commercial. I laughed so hard that my stomach cramped. Yes, it's really a family gift (for us together, for Kasey, and for our two moms), but the surprise was 100% mine, making it my Partridge in a Pear Tree. [ Previous Year ]

TABLET MAGAZINE By Marcy Tracy Whether they have fully thought it through or not, Jews who eat Chinese food on Christmas are proclaiming that, for them, Jewishness is what philosophers call a second-order value. In contrast to valuing Judaism on the first order—enjoying the rituals themselves, sincerely adhering to the tenets themselves—they value the fact of their Jewishness. They go out of their way to do it. The final part of this story is the one you already know: Most Chinese people are not Christian. Therefore, on Christmas, Chinese restaurants are open. [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By Ernest Disney-Britton "The Matriarch" by Niccolo Cosme The song " Oh Holy Night " captured my spirit for Christmas Eve 2013 --- the most peaceful Advent finale that I've known since childhood. Our day was filled with lots of puppy-play; the Disney film " Frozen "; a quiet dinner of eggs & bacon made at home; and a frigid walk to Midnight Mass  lay ahead to Christ Cathedral. A typically chaotic family brunch was held a day earlier; all the gifts wrapped  well in advance; and Kasey's new presence in our lives (photo below) delayed the drive home to Cincinnati until Christmas morning. A few ago before, my Twitter-friend, Mark @art_news wrote : "Hoping all is well with you and wishing you a Merry Messiah Mass. Peace." It was an unusual but also prophetic greeting; and one that I wish for Mark and everyone else too. Have a peaceful Messiah Mass.

THE HUFFINGTON POST MASSACHUSETTS---Visitors to Boston's Museum of Fine Arts on Saturday, Dec. 14, got a beautiful Christmas surprise when they were unexpectedly treated to a gorgeous rendition of " O Holy Night ." Students from Berklee College of Music along with other musicians from Boston, held a pop-up concert featuring soloist Mark Joseph as well as a full choir and string section. The bustling museum came to a standstill as the music took over. You can download this song here , and the proceeds from the sale will go to Stand^2Cancer . [ link ]

THE HUFFINGTON POST What Jesus says about homosexuality is... (well?) he doesn't mention it. [ link ]

NYTIMES | ARTBEAT By Randy Kennedy Devotional painting (female figure), 1900s OHIO---The Cleveland Museum of Art on Friday announced that it had acquired of one of the most important collections still in private hands of Deccan and Mughal painting from India’s major Islamic courts of the 16th century through the late 18th century. The collection, amassed over 50 years by Ralph Benkaim, a Los Angeles entertainment lawyer who died in 2001, and his wife, Catherine Glynn Benkaim, a curator and scholar of Indian art, will transform the museum’s Indian and Southeast Asian galleries, reopening Dec. 31 as part of a $350 million expansion of the museum, into one of the world’s major centers for Indian Islamic painting. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Alice Rawsthorn A Kenzo Tange chair (1957), a 1958 piece by Ruth Asawa and a spouted sake bowl, c. 1850. by an unknown craftsman. UNITED KINGDOM---When Mokujiki Shonin , a Japanese monk from an ascetic Buddhist sect..., turned 83 in 1800, he vowed to devote his remaining years to carving religious sculptures to deposit at sacred sites throughout the country. In the mid-1920s, newspapers in the places where he had left the sculptures published reports of “Mokujiki fever” as a group of young intellectuals scoured the countryside to find them. For the group’s leader, Soetsu Yanagi , the search doubled as a research exercise to study the wealth of exquisitely crafted ceramics, metalwork and textiles made by anonymous artisans in towns and villages across Japan. The mingei movement and its enduring influence on artists, designers and artisans is the theme of the exhibition “Mingei: Are You Here?” running through Jan. 18 at the Pace Gallery in London. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Ross Douthat Pause for a moment....to glance at one of the manger scenes you pass along the way. Cast your eyes across the shepherds and animals, the infant and the kings. Then try to see the scene this way: not just as a pious set-piece, but as a complete world picture — intimate, miniature and comprehensive. It’s about the vertical link between God and man — the angels, the star, the creator stooping to enter his creation. But it’s also about the horizontal relationships of society, because it locates transcendence in the ordinary, the commonplace, the low. [ link ]

ARTDAILY Hassan Hajjaj, still from My Rock Stars Experimental, Volume 1, Poetic Pilgrimage, 2012, Purchased with funds provided by Art of the Middle East: CONTEMPORARY, courtesy of Rose Issa Projects. CALIFORNIA---The Los Angeles County Museum of Art presents " Hassan Hajjaj: My Rock Stars Experimental, Volume 1 ," an exhibition featuring a three-channel video installation by Moroccan-born artist Hassan Hajjaj . My Rock Stars Experimental, Volume 1 includes nine separately filmed performances by an international array of musicians—Hajjaj’s “rock stars.” The thoughtful message of Hajjaj’s (exuberant, colorful, and playful) video comes through its Moroccan-infused. [ link ] Los Angeles County Museum of Art : " Hassan Hajjaj: My Rock Stars Experimental, Volume 1 ," (Ends July 20, 2014);5905 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA; (323) 857-6000; lacma.org

TULSA WORLD SCENE By JAMES D. WATTS JR. “Empty Chairs” by Linda Soberman is made of up of dozens of small metal chairs, some with translucent photographs of people’s faces, that memorializes all the “undesirables” who were killed during the Holocaust. OKLAHOMA---Judging from the title alone, the new exhibit at the Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art might seem more than a bit out of the ordinary. Yet Drew Diamond, the museum's executive director, said "The Sexuality Spectrum," a show of works by contemporary Jewish artists that deal with issues of sexuality, identity, persecution and acceptance, is a perfect fit. The Sherwin Miller Museum is the second venue for the show, which was created by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Museum in New York. The exhibit was inspired by the debates that arose in 2011, when the New York state legislature was considering a bill on marriage equality. [ link ] Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art:  " The ...

DCIST By Julia Langley WASHINGTON, DC---Christmas is just around the corner, making this the right time to reflect on the history of Christianity. An exhibition currently at The National Gallery of Art provides the perfect opportunity. " Heaven and Earth: Art of Byzantium from Greek Collections " shows how some aspects of Christian iconography were derived from classical sources and others were a direct refutation of Greco-Roman ideals.At the end of the exhibition, then, a nod to the upcoming Renaissance, and another 500 years of history to muse upon in the holidays ahead. [ link ] The National Gallery of Art: " Heaven and Earth: Art of Byzantium from Greek Collections " (Ends March); 6th Street and Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC; (202) 737-4215; nga.gov

ALWTEIA By Daniel McInerny Of the bounty of delights in Father Robert Barron’s outstanding new documentary, Catholicism: The New Evangelization , which debuted Wednesday night on EWTN, one of my favorites was the segment on art and beauty. From a seat at The Eagle and Child, the Oxford pub where J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis , and others met to read and talk over each other’s work, Father Barron explained how Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings used fiction as a means of manifesting the beauty of the Faith. [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By TAHLIB A friend stopped by this week with news. "It's a very dark time in my life," she said. "Even my hands are black from the treatments." This week, as the rest of the world prepared for the winter solstice, my artist-friend tearfully disclosed that she is undergoing Cancer treatments. The winter solstice, also known as "the longest night" is a moment when  many cultures  ritualize seeing through the darkness to the promise of divine light. By continuing to create works of divine beauty, my artist-friend keeps her sights set on an illuminated future. "We don't want to see beauty," wrote C.S. Lewis. "we want to be part of it,"  and the beautiful promise of Winter Solstice makes it my  NEWS OF WEEK .

THE GUARDIAN By William Dalrymple Radha Krishna on the banks of the Yamuna, a folio from the Gita UNITED KINGDOM---How could it be appropriate to cover the exterior walls of a religious building with graphically copulating couples? The heady mix of sensuality and religion that defines so much of Indian art often confuses and even alarms western viewers when they first encounter it. The sacred and the sensuous rub shoulders in an intimate manner that seems strange to sensibilities that have been trained to see art through the lenses of a tradition rooted in Christian attitudes to sexuality and religion: why, we wonder, would a monastery built for celibate Buddhist monks be decorated with images of beautiful, half-naked palace women? [ link ] The Centre for Fine Arts: " The Body in Indian Art ," (Ends January 5, 2014);  Europalia International Arts Festival, BOZAR, Rue Ravenstein 23 B-1000, Brussels; europalia.eu

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Ben Austen Artist Theaster Gates sits with his large-scale installation, 13th Ballad, at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art ILLINOIS---Six blocks from where I grew up, on Chicago’s South Side, the artist Theaster Gates showed me a neo-Classical ruin, a Prohibition-era bank shuttered for 33 years that I only ever registered vaguely as a part of the area’s enduring blight. “That’s my bank,” he announced with a flourish, pointing proudly to its glazed terra cotta and its ornamental eaves. When the bank was days from demolition, Gates spoke with Mayor Rahm Emanuel, whose brother, Ari, owns several Gates pieces; the city agreed to sell the abandoned building to Gates for $1, with the stipulation that he come up with the $3.7 million necessary for its renovation. A portion of that money, Gates devised, would be made from the bank’s original marble, which he cut into individual “bond certificates” engraved with an image of the building, his signature and the...

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Kirk Davis Swinehart PUBLISHING---In “Thomas Jefferson’s Qur’an,” her fascinating if somewhat meandering new book, Denise A. Spellberg traces the partial origins of American religious toleration to a single day in 1765 when Jefferson, then studying law at the College of William and Mary, acquired an English translation of Islam’s sacred text. He never claimed that the Quran shaped his political orientation. Yet Spellberg, an associate professor of Middle Eastern studies at the University of Texas at Austin, makes a persuasive case for its centrality. To oversimplify: What began as an academic interest in Islamic law and religion yielded a fascination with Islamic culture, which disposed him to include Muslims in his expansive vision of American citizenship. [ link ]

AL-SHORFA.COM By Nohad Topalian in Beirut Syrian artist George Beylouni is displaying his paintings in an exhibit titled 'Reflections of the Soul' at the Afak Gallery in Beirut. [Nohad Topalian/Al-Shorfa] LEBANON---Defying the situation in his home town, Aleppo, and the dangers of the road to Beirut, Syrian artist George Beylouni transported 20 massive paintings to the Afak Gallery for his exhibition, "Reflections of the Soul", which opened December 12th and will continue until December 28th. Beylouni uses pastel, collage and earth colours to portray the ancient civilisations of Syria, infusing his paintings with ancient legends and mythology to tell the story of religious tolerance.[ link ]

GUARDIAN LV  By Kimberly Rubie On Saturday, Dec. 21, the winter solstice will mark another season when the Sun stands still. Due to our planet’s tilt on its axis, it makes the Sun look like it rises and sits over the course of a year, yet the Sun never moves. The Earth is the one rotating in relation to our personal star. The winter solstice this year will happen at 5:11 p.m. On that day the United States will receive just nine hours and 32 minutes of daylight. It is no accident that many holidays have arisen from being so close to these four times of the year. Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa and numerous other days of celebration come straight from the solstices and the equinoxes. [ link ]

THE TIMES-PICAYUNE By Sarah Bonnette When completed, viewers will see a ribbon-like, abstract form when the face artist Jed Malitz's unprecedented glass sculpture of Jesus Christ's Crucifixion. LOUISIANA---On Christmas Day, Christians worldwide will celebrate the moment of Jesus Christ’s birth in a manger. But it is the moment of his death on a cross that occupies the daily thoughts of metal and glass artist Jed Malitz . For the past year he has focused on capturing Christ’s Crucifixion in an unprecedented sculpture that combines glass panels, slices of wood, and metal. With working titles of “The Alpha and The Omega” or “The Hidden Face of God,” it will be the fifth glass sculpture the Covington artist has created in the past two years. [ link ]

DETROIT FREE PRESS By Randy Kennedy Detail from Michelangelo drawing for design of Sistine Chapel, estimates auction value is $12 million to $20 million MICHIGAN---The price tags are on the paintings. Detroit’s emergency manager released a report from Christie’s auction house on Thursday detailing market estimates for some of the greatest masterpieces in the collection of the Detroit Institute of Art . The estimates – which Christie’s said would total between $454 million and $867 million – cover about 2,800 pieces, or less than 5 percent of the institute’s entire collection because Detroit’s emergency manager, Kevyn D. Orr, asked Christie’s to focus only on pieces that had been bought with city funds over the years, not ones than had been donated or bought with other funds. The museum and its supporters have vowed to go to court to try to stop any sale. [ link ]

FREEDOM TO MARRY By Adam Polaski NEW MEXICO---Today (Thursday), the New Mexico Supreme Court issued a landmark decision in a lawsuit seeking clarification on laws regarding the freedom to marry in the state. The ruling affirmed what a majority of New Mexicans already know: That everyone in the state should have the freedom to marry the person they love. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Ed Rothenstien WASHINGTON, DC---Before we explore the problems with the permanent exhibition that opened this month at the National Archives here, it might help to recognize the challenges it faced. The exhibition, “ Records of Rights ,” is the first attraction you see after passing through the building’s new marble-clad entrance. Magna Carta is this exhibition’s promissory note, in more ways than one; its gallery’s promise is also unfulfilled. What are we left with, as we head up to the Rotunda to see the founding documents? No context or perspective; only grim struggles and partially won liberties. This is a peculiar way for an institution that is a reflection of the government itself, to see the nature of its origins, the character of its achievements, and the promise of its ideas. [ link ]

FUND FOR THE ARTS KENTUCKY---It’s been two years since the launch of power2give.org/Kentucky , an online crowd-funding platform, and the results have been extraordinary! More than 117 organizations have posted 430 projects and more than $1.1 million has been raised. Matching sponsors Kentucky Arts Council, Republic Bank & Trust Company, LG& E, Louisville Metro Government and Humana Foundation , have been an integral part of ensuring the success of the site, helping to leverage more than 3,600 gifts. Any 501(c)(3) organization in Kentucky or Southern Indiana can submit an Arts related project to power2give.org/kentucky for review. For more information please contact Annie Nelson at (502) 582-0128 or anelson@fundforthearts.com. [link]

ABC7 CHICAGO By Frank Mathie ILLINOIS--When we think of Nativity scenes or mangers, we usually think of small religious settings under the Christmas tree. But ABC7 Eyewitness Reporter Frank Mathie says the Art Institute of Chicago has gone big time with this ancient sacred story. "It's a crèche. A Neapolitan crèche . The Italians call it a precepio and it comes from the 18th century for the celebration of Christmas," said Sylvain Bellenger, curator, medieval European sculpture. Bellenger is responsible for acquiring the crèche from a collector in Naples, Italy. The familiar cast of Christmas Eve characters is all here but they are here in abundance, and they're dressed in the finest of Italian silks made by the finest designers almost 300 years ago. [ Link ]

ARTDAILY Ave Maria Gratia, oil on canvas, 14.75” x 12”. Peru, ca. 1775 NEW MEXICO--- Peyton Wright Gallery announces the 21st Annual Art of Devotion exhibition of historic art of the Americas. Consisting of ecclesiastical, secular, and decorative art and objects from Europe and the Americas, the exhibition continues through March 9, 2014. This exhibition showcases one of the largest and most significant collections of 17th to 19th century devotional artwork in the country, featuring Spanish Colonial Viceregal paintings, sculpture, furniture, silverwork, and objects from the former Spanish and Portuguese colonies – present-day Bolivia, Peru, Argentina, Mexico, Ecuador, Chile, Venezuela, Guatemala and the Philippines. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By David Barboza, Graham Bowley and Amanda Cox Ma Weidu, a major collector who picked up some pieces in exchange for cigarettes after the Cultural Revolution devalued art. CHINA---“The market is in a very dubious stage,” said Alexander Zacke, an expert in Asian art who runs Auctionata, an international online auction house. While the luxury-buying habits in China often mimic those in the West, the demand for art reflects uniquely Chinese tastes. While the rest of the world bids up Pollocks and Rothkos, Chinese buyers typically pursue traditional Chinese pieces, some by 15th-century masters, and others by modern artists, like Zhang Daqian, one of many who have chosen to work in that old style. [ link ]

CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE By Caroline Hroncich VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A year ago, Timothy Schmalz's bronze sculpture " Jesus the Homeless " had been rejected by St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York and St. Michael's Cathedral in Toronto. But in late November, Pope Francis blessed the sculpture at one of his weekly general audiences in front of thousands of eager pilgrims. The pontiff touched the knee of the sculpture and prayed for a few moments. Afterward, he told Schmalz he thought the sculpture was a "beautiful piece of art." [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By TAHLIB Overhaul of 4,000-year-old monument cost $44 million. Photo courtesy of CNN . We are headed to a Winter Solstice party this Saturday, December 21st. Our party however will be nothing compared to the celebration taking place at Stonehenge in England, where they've just opened a new $44 million Visitor's Center . The winter solstice is the high holyday of Stonehenge--the time at which the sun appears at noon at its lowest altitude above the horizon. The winter solstice lasts only a moment in time, and other terms are often used for the day on which it occurs, such as "midwinter", "the longest night" or "the shortest day". But what do you take to a Winter Solstice party? "Ornaments in the shape of the sun, stars, and other pagan symbols..." recommends  legal expert Dusty Sparks, because it is based on the four elements of earth, wind, water, and fire.

THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE By Donald Liebenson Judaica from the Arthur M. Feldman Gallery ILLINOIS---Part art gallery, part museum and part salon, the Arthur M. Feldman Gallery is back in business in Highland Park. The storefront location at 465 Roger Williams Ave. opened last month after Feldman previously operated a gallery of antiques, fine art and Judaica in downtown, first on St. Johns Avenue and then on Central Avenue. Feldman, a second-generation antiques dealer with degrees in art history and archaeology, served as director of the Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership. To continue educating the public, Feldman will present exhibitions under his banner Jewish Museum of Chicago. The first, a showing of commissioned Purim masks created by professional Chicago artists, is scheduled for March 2014. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK By Tom Mashberg Alain Leroy, owner of an auction company in Paris, surrounded by sacred Hopi spirit masks. CALIFORNIA---The foundation had never done something like this before — a repatriation effort — and the logistics were tricky, to say the least. More than 100 American Indian artifacts were about to go on sale at the Drouot auction house, including 24 pieces, resembling masks, that are held sacred by the Hopi of Arizona. Now the Annenberg Foundation decided to get involved from its offices in Los Angeles. It hoped to buy all of the Hopi artifacts, plus three more sought by the San Carlos Apaches, at the Dec. 9 sale and return them to the tribes. To prevent prices from rising, the foundation kept its plan a secret, even from the Hopis, in part to protect the tribe from potential disappointment. [ link ]

HAARETZ By Galia Yahav From 'Orient Express': Shows experts as genies returned to their bottle. ISRAEL---One of the most wonderful aspects of “Orient Express,” the brilliant exhibition of works by Nevet Yitzhak at Jerusalem’s L.A. Mayer Museum for Islamic Art , is the resounding answer she gives to the superficial, cliché-filled discourse on Islamic art. It is a discussion that defines Islamic art as a “rich, ancient, much respected culture” in a generalized manner that, as it declares the wealth of ancient Islam, presents Islamic art as homogeneous, monolithic and bereft of any nuances. [ link ]

NPR Each year, millions of people from different faiths make religious journeys. They travel far, to Mecca, Jerusalem, the Ganges River or Lourdes, France, to walk the paths of prophets, saints and martyrs. “Pilgrimage is something built into the human condition,” says George Weigel, author of Roman Pilgrimage: The Station Churches . “There seems to be something hardwired into us, spiritually, that the idea of a journey from A to B becomes part of the rhythm of the spiritual life.” In Roman Pilgrimage , Weigel, with his photographer son Steven Weigel and art historian Elizabeth Lev, tells the story of a spiritual trek that takes place in the Eternal City each Lent and Easter.[ link ]

THE HERALD SUN By Blue Greenberg The Durnovo Casket, silver gilt, enamel and sheets of lapis lazuli, Firm of Ovchinnikov, Russia, 1889, now on view at the N.C. Museum of History. NORTH CAROLINA---“Mother Russia” conjures up images of great writers; vast expanses of unbelievable cold; royal courts with tsars and tsarinas, the peasants or serfs, who were little more than slaves; the psychic Rasputin; the assassinations of the last tsar and his family; and the people’s devotion to the Eastern Orthodox Church. All this is part of the mystique surrounding this exhibition of more than 200 decorative and religious objects, which date from the first Romanov, Peter the Great (1672-1725), to Nicholas II (1868-1918), the last. [ link ] North Carolina Museum of History: “ The Tsar’s Cabinet: Two Hundred Years of Russian Decorative Arts under the Romanovs " and " Windows into Heaven: Russian Icons from the Lilly and Francis Robicsek Collection of Religious Art ” (Ends March 5); ...

AMERICANS FOR THE ARTS MICHIGAN---Students enrolled in Eastern Michigan University’s (EMU) Arts Management Programs (Undergraduate & Graduate) produce two-day music festivals, art competitions, face and body paint tailgating activities, art crawl events, and reality TV shows as part of an academic service learning project and student organizational activity designed to give members their first experiences as arts administrators. The Arts Management Project (AMP) is a yearly project undertaken by students of the Arts Management program at EMU. The project, which doubles as a student organization, produces arts-based events and creates opportunities for EMU’s student artists to present their talents to the campus community. [ link ]