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THE ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By  TAHLIB "Intersections" by Anila Quayyum Agha at Grand Rapids Art Museum On a cool Day #1 at ArtPrize2014  in Grand Rapids, we headed directly to the art museum to see "Intersections" by Anila Agha . It has been short listed in the Top 25 for both the Public Voting and the Juried Vote, and we are we excited to revisit it after it debuted at our gallery a year ago. What we found however was the piece we knew on steroids! Last year, we displayed a 2 x 2 ft square cube but the one at the Grand Rapids Art Museum was at least a six foot cube. It will remind many of the Kaaba in Mecca for its drawing power and resonance. Other works inside the GRAM were also noteworthy, and then at 8pm we simply walked the streets finally heading into the local pub, The Apartment Lounge for a cocktail before walking back to the hotel. One the way back we spotted the floating bunnies in the river --- another voter favorite and we'll get more pictures.

THE ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By TAHLIB "Walking on Water - Azurite" (2012) by Makoto Fujimura.  Mineral pigments on polished gesso; Width: 132 in, Height: 82 in MICHIGAN---"Walking on Water" by A&O Prize 2013 winner,  Makoto Fujimura  of New York City is on display this year at the Artprize competition in Grand Rapids---the world's largest fine arts competition. Artprize, launched in 2009 is intentially unlike any other art festival. It is 19 days of imagination when three square miles of downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan become an open playing field where anyone can find a voice in the conversation about what is art and why it matters. Visitors to the city can also then vote to see who wins the $200,000 top prize. It's this radically inclusive idea about contemporary art that led to the top prize in 2011 going to " Crucifixion " by Mia Tovanatti.

WND | WORLD NEWS DAILY By Marisa Martin Heads are rolling and infidel blood is pouring – play the Caliphate rag, boys. CALIFORNIA---Heads are rolling and infidel blood is pouring – play the Caliphate rag, boys. While we’re at it, why don’t we hold a massive, regional art exhibit praising and honoring Islam itself? The Los Angeles Islam Arts Initiative, or LA/IAI, will “investigate” Islam through the arts (but not too closely). Some of the new works are intriguing, especially the few that come cryptically close to raising questions about Islam. [ link ]

THE GRAND RAPIDS PRESS By Brian McVicar Espen Justesen, left, and Jannik Kvetmy work on a stained glass window being built at Cornerstone University on Wednesday, September 17, 2014. The windows were designed by Danish artists Peter Brandes and his wife Maja Engelhardt and will be installed in the school's new chapel. (Emily Rose Bennett | MLive.com) MICHIGAN---The vision is set. Now it’s time for Peter Brandes, a Danish artist hired by Cornerstone University, to start building. He arrived on campus last week to create four, large stained glass windows – valued at $1 million – for the Christian liberal arts school’s new chapel.Once completed, the windows will serve as a hallmark feature of the new chapel, bathing worshipers in red, blue and yellow light, and acting as a reminder of Cornerstone’s commitment to Christ, said university President Joseph Stowell. “These windows tell the redemptive story,” he said. “They are constant reminders to all of us on campus … of the marvel...

THE HINDU By S. M. Aamir Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque ABU DHABI---The Arab spring has swept across West Asia and North Africa, leaving behind change of governments, disturbed economy and society. Mercifully some places continue to be peaceful and can still be accessed by outsiders looking for a window to the Arab world. Abu Dhabi is one such place where tourism inflow has grown despite political unrest and security threat in the neighbouring countries. Between January-June 2014, 1,07,995 Indians visited Abu Dhabi, clocking a growth of 35 per cent over the corresponding period last year. Now looking to capitalise on its success, Abu Dhabi is opening its doors to Indian tourists, even claiming it has Jain restaurants, facilities for easy visa, affordable hotels and shopping. [ link ]

THE TIMES PICAYUNE By Kim Chatelain Sharon Infinger, one of the art conservators, puts finishing touches on a mural painted six decades ago by Dutch monk Gregory De Wit at St. Joseph Abbey Church Tuesday, September 23, 2014. LOUISIANA---Perched on a massive scaffold 75-feet above the altar of the St. Joseph Abbey Church near Covington, several artists have worked for weeks to bring images of Catholicism's most extolled and denounced figures back to life. Though Hurricane Katrina did not cause significant structural damage to the vaunted church, the 2005 storm is to blame for damaging some of Dutch monk Gregory De Wit's elaborate artwork that has adorned its walls and ceilings for six decades. Since late August, the two artists and their associates have bushed up some of the most famous religious artwork in the area, adding new light to the saints and sinners that line the walls and ceilings of the church. [ link ]

BREITBART By Frances Martel Islamists Destroy 7th Century Church, Mosque in Tikrit, Iraq IRAN---BBC Arabic reports that the terrorists of the Islamic State, in full control of the Iraqi city of Tikrit, have destroyed two of its most ancient religious sites: the 1300-year-old Assyrian Green Church and the ancient Forty Shrine mosque. According to the Assyrian International News Agency , which translated the BBC's Arabic-language report, Islamic State terrorists surrounded both buildings with explosives and completely leveled them. The Assyrian Green Church is believed to have been built in 700 A.D. and was considered among the most elaborate and beautiful ancient Christian sites in Iraq. [ link ]

THE ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By TAHLIB INDIANA---Saint Paul's Lutheran Church in Indianapolis is seeking artists for its 2015 exhibition:  "Art of the Passion." The deadline is September 30, and proposals are accepted via google.docs form .  The form allows artists to select multiple choices for both the "Stations of the Cross" and "Stations of the Resurrection." For each set of stations, you may briefly describe your top choice. The final selection of stations will be announced shortly after All Saints' Day (Nov 1). For questions, please contact arts@stpauls39.org . CALL FOR ARTISTS: SAINT PAUL'S LUTHERAN CHURCH

THE CINCINNATI ENQUIRER By Kurt Backscheider A closer look at the sand mandala the group of Tibetan monks created at Mount St. Joseph University the week of Sept. 22. The three-dimensional piece is constructed using dyed sand particles and serves as a vehicle to generate compassion. OHIO--Students and faculty at Mount St. Joseph University had a rare opportunity to witness Tibetan monks creating a sand mandala. Tibetan monks from the Drepung Gomang Monastery, a Buddhist monastery in South India dating back to 1416, were on the Mount’s campus the week of Sept. 22 to create an art piece using colored sand at the university’s Studio San Giuseppe Art Gallery. [ link ]

THE GRAND RAPIDS PRESS By Eric Souther's "Projecting Buddha" as part of an ArtPrize 2014. (Cory Morse | MLive.com) MICHIGAN---Yet again, the Grand Rapids Art Museum has organized a thoughtful and thought-provoking exhibition for ArtPrize . Revolving around the topic "[Dis]Comfort Zones," the works are grouped into categories that explore a variety of ways that artists push themselves and take chances in their work. The exhibition opens with a poignant installation, "Projecting Buddha" by Indiana-based Eric Souther . An iconic but mass produced Buddha figure is seated calmly confronting a video screen with a thousand various images of himself projecting forward. As these images change, the surface of the Buddha does as well. [ link ]

THE HINDU By Sujatha Shankar Kumar We sense the ambience filtering through Krishna Reddy’s prints that he also speaks of, growing up in a village community in Nadanoor INDIA--- This year, Krishna Reddy is 89. Krishna Reddy drove his art with an intimate knowledge of mechanics and materials. Krishna imbibed Nature and translated all of this with geometry, like women making kolams with dexterity, as if he was discovering the hidden lines of construction that make up each thing. Every time his mother took him to the temple, the priest preached about God. On the other side, a man in the town where he attended school announced that there is no God. These two possibilities set off an early revolution in his mind leading to his questioning the existence of everything in Nature we oft take for granted. [ link ]

THE WASHINGTON POST By Mark Jenkins “Spring Flight.” Installation of 12 gouache paintings by Helen Zughaib. (Courtesy Helen Zughaib and Gallery Al-Quds) WASHINGTON, DC---The path to Dagmar Painter’s office at the Jerusalem Fund Gallery Al-Quds leads past a crimson wall, painted that color in mid-August as a backdrop for a piece in the current show, Helen Zughaib’s “Fractured Spring.” The Foggy Bottom gallery, whose name pairs the Hebrew “Jerusalem” with the Arabic “Al-Quds,” was Painter’s idea. To Zughaib, Painter is a partner as well as a patron. “I’ll talk to her about my concepts and what I want to do. And she’ll listen to me and interject certain things. [ link ] Fractured Spring: New Work by Helen Zughaib. Through Oct. 17 at the Jerusalem Fund Gallery Al-Quds, 2425 Virginia Ave. NW; 202-338-1958; www.thejerusalemfund.org

THE CHIMES By Dylan Sapanza Artist Tom Tsuchiya and Earl and Virginia Green art gallery curator Jeffery Rau instal the final pieces to Tsychiya's new sculpture “The Spirit of Christ”. CALIFORNIA---A collaboration between President Barry Corey and the Public Arts Committee prompted the installation of four new art pieces on campus during the 2014-2015 academic year in hopes of increasing the spectrum of creativity on campus. “ The Spirit of Christ ”, the first of the four art pieces to be installed, was dedicated in front of the Earl and Virginia Art Gallery on Thurs. Sept. 18. The dedication has spurred students’ curiosity toward the other pieces of art soon to be released. [ link ]

IBN LIVE | CNN The comics are usually the adventures of a young Sikh boy and his uber cool grandfather who knows how to enjoy life. Originally the idea of Sikh Park was to break away from the stereotype of Sikhs/Punjabis. For the westerners we wanted to show Sikhs as more progressive (and not some Talibans) hence the iPods and LVs and Hummers. For the Indian masses, it was to show them as witty because we have been fed too much of these dumb Sardar Ji Jokes,' says  Dalbir Singh  about what Sikh Park is all about. The creator of Sikh Park Dalbir Singh has travelled from Hungary to Canada and Hong Kong to Morocco. Sikh Park was born after a well-known website Sikhchic.com started a humour section to promote Sikh art and culture. [ link ]

GREENCASTLE BANNER Jenni Artis, chairman of the First Christian Church general board, presents $100 for the Jason Asbury Endowment for the Arts of Putnam County to Dean Gambill of the Putnam County Community Foundation. INDIANA---First Christian Church held a benefit concert and ice cream social on Aug. 10. Church organist David Acton, a senior in the DePauw School of Music, spent the spring 2014 semester in Austria. He offered a concert of 10 pieces on the pipe organ, accompanied by photos of his travels. The audience contributed $100 to the Jason Asbury Endowment for the Arts of Putnam County at the Putnam County Community Foundation. [link]

WOOD TV CHANNEL 8 By Steve Kelso "Intersections" was previewed in 2013 at the A&O Prize Bi-Annual Exhibition MICHIGAN---ArtPrize organizers say 14,996 votes were cast Wednesday, the first day of the world’s largest competition. ArtPrize says that’s a little more than last year, when 11,557 votes were cast on the first day. It’s too early to say which pieces will take home the grand prizes, but some entries are already getting a lot of attention. One is at the Grand Rapids Art Museum. “Intersections” by Anila Quayyum Agha is a large cube of laser-cut wood. Lit from the inside with a single bulb, it casts shadows on every wall in its room. Art experts said early that “Intersections” was a piece to see. And it has been popular — it’s been talked about by ArtPrize-goers and is one of the most shared entries on Instagram and Twitter. ArtPrize runs through Oct. 12. [ link ]

ARUTZ SHEVA By Guilio Meotti Of the four great cities of the Roman empire (Rome, Carthage, Alexandria, Antioch), only the first still belongs to the West. Antioch has just a few mosaics; Alexandria (in ancient times, famous for its library) doesn’t resemble its once incomparable splendor; and the immense Carthage, with the amphitheater comparable to the Colosseum or the Baths of Antoninus, is traumatic for visitors. Islam has deleted everything else. [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS  By  Greg Disney-Britton This coming week, the United States Supreme Court  takes up the constitutional question of marriage equality , a priority topic for young Americans across the religious spectrum . At the same time, Los Angeles based painter and sculptor Jim Shaw is exhibiting his exploration of a mythical wedding between DC superhero the Flash and the Land O’Lakes butter princess . Shaw draws much of his inspiration from made-in-America religions like Mormons (1830); Seventh-day Adventists (1840's); Jehovah Witnesses (1870); The Church of Christ, Scientist (1879), and he even created his own religion called " Oism " (No converts yet). With our eyes focused this week on marriage, Shaw's humorous " The Wedding of the Ear " at Metro Pictures in NYC is my  NEWS OF WEEK .

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Jeannette Catsoulis Official movie poster for "Believe Me," in theaters and on  demand starting Sept. 26, 2014. Courtesy of The Christian Post HOLLYWOOD ---A smart, sly comedy about what its director, Will Bakke , calls “ the power of platforms ,” “ Believe Me ” parodies the machinery of faith-based fund-raising with its heart on its sleeve and its jokes above the belt. The film’s congeniality, however, in no way dulls its humor or the sharpness of its observations. Positing that belief in God is not essential for using him as a sales tool, Mr. Bakke — who was raised Christian and cut his filmmaking teeth on two faith-themed documentaries — takes aim at religious frauds without ridiculing their victims. [ link ] “Believe Me” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). Advice on how to swear, worship and fleece like a Christian. 

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Raphael Minder and Elisabetta Povoledo Add caption SPAIN---Beyond reverence, there is always a hint of mystery, even politics, at play whenever the Roman Catholic Church decides to advance someone toward sainthood. On Saturday, the Catholic Church will beatify Msgr. Álvaro del Portillo , a Spanish priest who led Opus Dei and died 20 years ago. But the rite is nonetheless seen as telling coming under Pope Francis, an Argentine who belongs to the Jesuit religious order, which is viewed as liberal and emphasizes ministering to the poor and the dispossessed. Opus Dei runs many charitable efforts that serve the poor, but it is best known for cultivating the highly educated and elite professionals who can spread Opus Dei’s ardent brand of Catholic spirituality to ever-wider and more powerful circles. [ link ]

RELIGION NEWS SERVICE By Kevin Eckstrom and Sally Morrow The Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange in Garden Grove, Calif. unveiled design plans for the Christ Cathedral, which will address the complex needs of the 1.3 million member diocese. Photo courtesy of Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange CALFORNIA---Roman Catholic leaders in Southern California unveiled designs Wednesday for the transformation of Robert Schuller’s famed Crystal Cathedral into Christ Cathedral, the new mother church for the sprawling Diocese of Orange. Schuller’s Hour of Power ministry surrendered the landmark 1981 Philip Johnson building last year after filing for bankruptcy. Catholic leaders scooped up the campus for a cool $50 million, and workers are busy transforming the glass-and-steel building into a space more fit for Catholic liturgy. The new Catholic cathedral is scheduled to open in 2016.[ link ]

JEWISH ART SALON By Tahlib "Honey and Apple Plate" (2004) by Helène Aylon NEW YORK---The Jewish Art Salon celebrated the first night of Rosh HaShanah , this year with a posting of  Helène Aylon's (2004) "Honey and Apple Plate." The ceramic plate is from the collection of The Jewish Museum , New York. The twin foods of apples and honey are traditional foods eaten to celebrate a "sweet" Jewish new year. According to the post : "Helène Aylon created this plate for a fund-raiser to combat domestic violence, employing a verse from Genesis describing Eve’s punishment for eating the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. The inscription compels the viewer to remember the eternal problem of violence against women, even at a festive time."

NEWSWEEK By Stav Ziv NEW YORK---A controversial new ad campaign featuring an image from James Foley's execution video and describing the presence of a "jihadi threat" in America will join some New Yorkers on their public transportation commutes this month. The American Freedom Defense Initiative, run by blogger and activist Pamela Geller, has paid $100,000 to place a series of ads at two subway stations and on the backs of 100 buses for four weeks. The goal of the campaign, Geller tells Newsweek, is to "put an end to the denial and willful ignorance about that threat [of jihad in America] so that we can adopt effective counterterror measures." The term jihad refers to a holy war or personal struggle done in devotion to Islam. Geller's organization placed a round of ads in the NYC transit system in 2012. [ link ]

THE ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By Ernest Disney-Britton Freedom to Marry is taking to the airwaves with a new national TV ad titled “It’s Time.” The third-second spot highlights the tangible harms to same-sex couples still discriminated against in many states and will air on Sunday morning network news shows in the DC market and on cable news next week. The ad be viewed online at: http://youtu.be/URrFRrgCPVE .

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Ben Kenigsberg HOLLYWOOD ---“ The Maze Runner ,” adapted from James Dashner’s novel, is a perfectly serviceable entry in the young-adult dystopian sweepstakes. It combines elements of “Lord of the Flies” with the Minotaur and Orpheus myths, but it plays as something closer to “The Hunger Games” experienced through a dissociative fog. Much suspense comes from wondering which favored Hollywood twist the movie will employ. Is this actually the present day? Has someone blown up the planet? The dime store explanations are unsatisfying, but the movie does its main job: raising curiosity for a sequel. Problem solved.[ link ]

RELIGIONS NEWS By Ken Chitwood PHILANTHROPY---Move over Ice Bucket Challenge. Muslims have a new take on the viral social media phenomenon: the Quran Challenge . The new campaign seeks to raise awareness and funds for Muslim “da’wah” — a call to propagate the faith — by reciting verses from the Quran on various online platforms. Issam Bayan, a 26-year-old student and professional Islamic singer, came up with the idea as a way to awaken Muslim piety, just as the Ice Bucket Challenge raised awareness and well over $30 million for ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a degenerative condition also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. All of the recitations are in Arabic — the language of the Quran. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Jeannette Catsoulis Lluís Marco plays a pastor whose mission is to rid afflicted souls of an ancient demon. Credit IFC Midnight HOLLYWOOD ---“Asmodexia” is a movie about demonic possession, and its visuals hint at what the inside of an infected mind might contain. Ragged addicts scrabble in shadows like dusty lepers, and insane, emaciated women terrorize their caregivers in a comfortless psychiatric hospital. The look is stark, and the colors are drained, the whole washed in an eerie, echoing sound design of plinking pianos and ghostly choirs. The atmosphere of rack and ruin is so strong that it takes a while to notice that the story (by the Spanish director Marc Carreté and Mike Hostench) is steeped in silliness — a detail that’s hardly unique in horror movies. Here, though, we have the twin consolations of Xavi Garriga’s dehydrated cinematography and Mónica Murguia’s smashing makeup effects. [ link ]

ARTSBEAT | NYT By Randy Kennedy Bas-relief work on display at the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad. Scholars say antiquities from parts of Iraq and Syria controlled by the Islamic State are threatened by looting.Credit Hadi Mizban/Associated Press More than 80 prominent archaeologists and other scholars from around the world have signed an open letter calling on the United Nations Security Council to ban trade in Syrian antiquities, a market they say is now destroying Syria’s cultural heritage and providing funding for extremist groups. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Ken Johnson Jim Shaw’s “Wedding of the Ear” (2013), with the DC superhero the Flash and the Land O’Lakes butter princess. Credit Courtesy of the artist and Metro Pictures NEW YORK---The uncannily imaginative Los Angeles painter and sculptor Jim Shaw has what the Romantic poet John Keats called negative capability: the ability to be “in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.” The mural-size “Wedding of the Ear,” one of this thrilling show’s biggest and most metaphorically complex pieces, brings together all of Mr. Shaw’s best qualities. As in the show’s other works, these characters are rendered on a beautiful old theater backdrop: in this case, a 20-foot wide swath of unstretched muslin bearing the image of a medieval chapel. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Emily Jane Fox Rabbi Raysh Weiss will be leading services on Cape Cod during the High Holy Days. Rabbi Rami Schwartzer, a Connecticut-born fourth-year rabbinical student at Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, won’t be spending the High Holy Days as he usually does. Instead, he has traveled nearly 1,600 miles to spend the Jewish New Year, which began Wednesday evening, in Cypress, Tex., leading services for a bunch of strangers with a borrowed Torah in a rented clubhouse. Cypress is among the many communities throughout the country with no full-time rabbi of their own. About 40 percent of the 350 Jewish congregations in the 11 Southern states (plus Oklahoma and Kentucky) do not have a full-time rabbi on staff, according to a 2011 study by the Institute of Southern Jewish Life, a nonprofit organization based in Jackson, Miss. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Eve Kahn Fragments of the trove of texts known as the Cairo Geniza that have not yet been through a treatment and restoration process. Credit Jewish Theological Seminary of America NEW YORK---Experts at the Jewish Theological Seminary in Manhattan are puzzling over curly bits of ancient paper recovered from a closet in a Cairo synagogue. Boxfuls of the formerly soggy and bug-infested fragments are undergoing delicate repairs and digitization in the hope that the texts can be reunited, at least virtually, with the rest of their manuscript pages, which are scattered at institutions worldwide. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Fayemi Shakur For many Nigerian gays and lesbians living in New York, even those who have had their asylum request approved, there is still a very real fear of the impact that their sexual orientation becoming public will have on family members back home. Bloom Global Pride Party, Harlem. June 2014. NEW YORK---Nigeria’s passage of a law criminalizing same-sex relationships drew immediate international outrage earlier this year. In New York, gay activists held protests outside the Nigerian government’s offices, something that amazed Rahima Gambo . With so much of life hidden in Nigeria, she said, nothing so bold would have happened there.That realization led Ms. Gambo, a Nigerian photographer raised in London, to explore the lives of the growing number of gay men who have fled to the United States seeking asylum and a chance to live freely. It was during the March protest in New York that she met Shaheed Ipadeola, a young man living in a Brooklyn home for asy...

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Gary Gutting This is the 11th in a series of interviews about religion that I am conducting for The Stone. The interviewee for this installment is Sajjad Rizvi, a professor of Arab and Islamic studies at the University of Exeter and the author of “Mulla Sadra and the Later Islamic Philosophical Tradition.” Sajjad Rizvi: The very notion of Abrahamic religions is arguably Islamic. The Quran presents Abraham as an adherent of Islam, but here “Islam” means the primordial faith that connects humanity to one God and leads in turn to Judaism, Christianity and then historical Islam as proclaimed by Muhammad. There are some who view Islam as a faith that supersedes the two earlier monotheistic religions. But I think it’s more useful to understand Islam as a religion that is self-conscious about its relationship to Judaism and Christianity and explicitly takes account of their scriptures and traditions. [ link ] This interview was conducted by email and edited. All ...

THE DETROIT FREE PRESS By Mark Stryker MICHIGAN---When Detroit's bankruptcy trial restarts on Monday, the battle over the value of the Detroit Institute of Arts will return to center stage. The city's largest holdout creditor, bond insurer Financial Guaranty Insurance Co. If FGIC can prove that the museum is undervalued or that art can and should be sold, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes could reject Orr's restructuring plan to slash more than $7 billion in city debt, reinvest $1.4 billion in services and preserve the DIA as an independent institution. Though Rhodes has signaled several times that selling DIA treasures would not sustain city finances or services in the long term, the fight over the value of the museum speaks directly to the legality of the $815-million grand bargain at the core of Orr's plan — and whether the plan is fair and feasible. [ link ]

ARTDAILY PHILANTHROPY---The Cincinnati Art Museum announced today a gift from the Louise Dieterle Nippert Trust to endow its director’s position, a post that will soon be filled by Cameron Kitchin, the ninth director in the institution’s 128-year history. Valued at more than $6 million, the endowment is one of the largest gifts ever given to the Art Museum. “Louise Dieterle Nippert has played a tremendous role in ensuring Greater Cincinnati remains a cultural arts destination, and her generosity and dedication to local arts institutions are immeasurable,” shared Marty Ragland, President of the Cincinnati Art Museum Board. [ link ]

THE CHRISTIAN POST By Jeffrey Scott HOLLYWOOD ---Christian film producer Laura Waters Hinson has a problem with Christian films: they dont cover the really tough issues accurately. Hinson said something that bothers her in the industry of Christian film is that they don't get dirty and cover the issues as deeply as secular cinema. She said what makes a great film is an "accurate portrayal of darkness, and how it can be overcome by light." Hinson spoke at the 2014 AEI Evangelical Leadership Converence in the "Song and Cinema: Why Engagement Upstream Matters" panel along with singer/songwriter Charlie Peacock and moderator Mark Rodgers. [ link ]

ARTNEWS By John Chiaverina Still from Shirin Neshat’s Passage. QATAR---On October 13th, Sotheby’s will put Passage, a 2001 video piece by Iranian artist Shirin Neshat , up for auction at its outpost in Doha, Qatar. Filmed in Essouaria, Morocco, Passage is a single channel work depicting three parts of an Islamic funeral procession moving separately and eventually together. Punctuated by an original Philip Glass soundtrack, the piece has a haunting quality. It is Neshat’s defining work, and the artist’s first video to be sold at auction. Sotheby’s estimates that the piece, taken from The Sender Collection, will fetch between $200,000-300,000. Passage–which exists in an edition of 6 with one artist proof–is already included in collections at The Guggenheim, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, with two copies of the video in undisclosed private collections. [ link ]

NPR | CULTURE  By Deena Prichep Image courtesy of Religion News Rosh Hashanah , the Jewish New Year, is a day when everything tastes like dessert. In symbolic hope of a sweet year to come, the table is positively sticky — honey marinades, honey cakes, raisin-studded challah bread. And, depending on where your family is from, sweet gefilte fish. Gefilte fish, those oft-reviled patties packed in jelled broth, can be a hard sell even in the standard savory form. On one side of the divide: sugared sweet gefilte. On the other — the side whose gefilte became standard in American Jewish cuisine — the fish is savory, seasoned with salt and lots of pepper. [ link ]

ARTDAILY Restorers walk past the painting "Adoration of the Magi" (Adorazione dei Magi) representing a nativity scene by Italian Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci, during its restoration in the "Opificio delle Pietre Dure restoration laboratories" at Fortezza da Basso, in Florence, on September 23, 2014. AFP PHOTO / ANDREAS SOLARO. ITALY---Yesterday morning, at the Opificio delle Pietre Dure and Restoration Laboratories in the Fortezza da Basso in Florence, the results of the first stage of the restoration work of Leonardo da Vinci’s Adoration of the Magi were presented with the attendance of Cristina Acidini, superintendent for the Historical, Artistic and Ethno-anthropological Heritage and for the Museums of the City of Florence, Marco Ciatti, superintendent of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, Antonio Natali, director of the Uffizi Gallery and Maria Vittoria Rimbotti, presidentof the Amici degli Uffizi association. [ link ]

THE WASHINGTON POST By Josephine Mckenna Two Argentinian artists, Marianela Perelli and Pool Paolini ITALY---Barbie has had a number of careers in her 55 years — flight attendant, veterinarian, astronaut, even president. Her latest role, however, is raising eyebrows. Italy’s Catholic bishops are furious about controversial artistic depictions of the popular Barbie and Ken dolls as the Virgin Mary and a crucified Jesus Christ and other saints. Two Argentinian artists, Marianela Perelli and Pool Paolini, produced 33 dolls of various religious figures for a show named “Barbie, The Plastic Religion,” which opens in Buenos Aires on Oct. 11. [ link ]

RELIGION NEWS SERVICE By Brian Pellot Satan photo by Danny Hammontree via Flickr OKLAHOMA---In the free speech battle between “good and evil,” I’m siding with Satan. On Sunday (Sept. 21), a black mass in Oklahoma drew a few dozen devil worshippers and a few hundred protesters, most of them Catholic. Some prayerful opponents called the satanic ritual offensive and blasphemous. Fair enough. But was it dangerous? The First Amendment protects acts and expressions some people find unpopular or offensive. Think neo-Nazis marching in predominantly Jewish towns, abortion opponents shouting outside reproductive health care facilities, poorly produced Islamophobic YouTube clips and Westboro Baptist Church. [ link ]

THE ART NEWSPAPER By Gareth Harris UNITED KINGDOM---The co-founders of the Frieze fair empire, Matthew Slotover and Amanda Sharp , announced today, 25 September, they were stepping down as co-directors of Frieze London and Frieze New York. Victoria Siddall , in addition to her current role as the director of Frieze Masters, has been appointed director of all three fairs, completing the senior management restructure less than a month before its two London fairs are due to open in Regent’s Park. Slotover told the Financial Times that the restructure allows him and Sharp to “move away from the day-to-day administration and have time to look at the long list of projects [we] have not had time to conceptualise”. [ link ]

THE DAILY STAR By Hashem Osseiran "Arab Spring" by Helen Zughaib LEBANON---Chaos and contradiction, the Lebanese art displayed in the U.S. Embassy’s "Art in Embassies" exhibition received great reviews by fleshing out the anarchy of the Lebanese existence and plastering it on canvas. Describing his own painting, Lebanese artist Joseph Harb said that “it’s reminiscent of the chaos in Beirut, you kind of get the feeling of traffic, and the notion of a spontaneous mistake.” Another painting that stood out in the collection was Helen Zughaib’s “Arab Spring.” Her painting's vibrant floral designs stood in stark contrast to a dark figure in the background, whose shape and color resembled a woman dressed in a black niqab. [ link ]

THE HINDU By S. Sandeep Kumar A visitor captures a Thanjavur art piece of Lord Venkateswara through her cell phone at the Poompuhar crafts mela that began in Vijayawada on Tuesday. - PHOTO: V. RAJU INDIA---Have you ever come across seven-feet tall and five-foot wide Lord Venkateswara’s Thanjavur art piece made up of 22 carat gold and American diamonds? Well, if you have not, then make a visit to Poompuhar crafts mela at Moghal Exhibition Hall, Madhu Chowk in the city. The price of the above art piece is Rs.7 lakh. There is another Thanjavur art piece of goddess Gajalakshmi with Asta Lakshmi carvings, which is of the similar size and cost. The Tamil Nadu Handicrafts Development Corporation Limited’s Poompuhar crafts mela has handicrafts, brass articles, bronze icons, wood carvings, rosewood inlay products, stone carvings and etc on a wide display. [ link ]

AMES TRIBUNE Monks from Drepung Loseling Monastery, from left, Kelsang Thinley and Gesse Tendor, work on a mandala sand painting on Tuesday in Iowa State University's Memorial Union. Photo by Nirmalendu Majumdar/Ames Tribune IOWA---Monks from Tibet are creating an immensely intricate piece of art at Iowa State University this week. These Tibetan Monks of the Drepung Loseling Monastery are creating a sand mandala, a geometric shape that in Buddhist culture is a spiritual object. No two mandalas are alike and each has a specific purpose. When they complete the mandala Thursday morning, it will exist in its completed form for only a couple hours. At 12:45 p.m. Thursday, the sand artwork will be released into College Creek. The four-day mandala project at Iowa State is a Green Tara Mandala, which symbolizes wisdom. [ link ]

JEWISH DAILY FORWARD By Mira Sucharov Courtesy of the Aga Khan Museum CANADA---North America just got its first museum devoted to Islamic art, a $300 million project in Toronto made possible by the Aga Khan. For now, the Aga Khan museum’s collection appears to be focused primarily around traditional Islamic art forms like calligraphy, illuminated Qu’ran manuscripts, and ceramic and architectural ornamentation. Still, it will be fascinating to see whether the museum eventually follows the lead of some of North America’s most notable Jewish museums in injecting a playful — and perhaps even subversive — twist on ethno-religious concerns. [ link ]

THE ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By TAHLIB NEW YORK---Earlier this month, the 7th Circuit federal court of appeals joined nearly 40 other state and federal courts in ruling for the freedom to marry. Freedom to Marry has shaped the national conversation by finding and sharing the real life stories of couples and families experiencing tangible harms as well as highlighting the support of unexpected allies and messengers like Republicans and young Evangelicals. They are always on the look out for compelling stories, diverse messengers, and creative ways of making the case for ending marriage discrimination nationwide now. That is why they jumped at the chance to work with U.S. Presidential Inaugural Poet, Richard Blanco . Even though Richard has been inundated with hundreds of requests for his work ever since, he agreed to create an original poem, Until We Could, in honor of Freedom to Marry’s decade of accomplishments.

BOSTON REVIEW By Claude S. Fischer Beggar receiving money, New York City. Photograph: Library of Congress. Paul Bloom, the noted Yale psychologist, wrote, in a 2013 New Yorker article and again in the most recent Boston Review forum, “ Against Empathy .” We are urged to feel empathy in order to do good for others, but empathy is a poor guide to altruism. Empathy is “parochial, narrow-minded, and innumerate,” Bloom writes. Isn’t there a better guide? My small addition to the conversation is simply to note this oddity: Bloom and the BR commentators did not refer to the obvious guide, at least for Americans: organized religion. [ link ]

THE RAPIDIAN By Elizabeth Rogers Drouillard Voting at ArtPrize MICHIGAN---In an effort to continue broadening the discussion between public and expert opinions, ArtPrize has changed the prize system for this year which may affect how the public decides to vote. The much talked about Top 10 will become the Final 20, split into four groups of five finalists. During the first round of voting, the public still votes for any and all artwork they like. This year, after that first round the Round Two selections are broken into categories. For the first time this year, the public votes and juried votes will run along parallelled tracks. Both the jury and the public will be mulling over the same four categories, awarding prizes with the same amount of money for each category at $20,000 and awarding an equal Grand Prize of $200,000. “We wanted more comparison between the public and the juried picks," says Kevin Buist, Director of Exhibitions for ArtPrize. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Christian Ajudua SLEEP IN ART Clockwise from top left: "Asleep in the Cyclone" at the 21c Museum Hotel; Antony Gormley's suite at the Beaumont; "A House for Essex"; "Al's Grand Hotel" at Frieze New York.Credit Clockwise from top left: Ryan Kurtz/Courtesy of 21c Museum Hotel; Stephen White, London; Dave King/Channel 4 Television; "Al's Grand Hotel" (1971) with public fiction (2014)/Photography by Marco Scozzaro/Courtesy of Frieze. Hotels dotted with paintings and prints are hardly rare, but taking a cue from “ Al’s Grand Hotel ” — Allen Ruppersberg’s bookable, seven-room installation, which popped up on Sunset Boulevard for six weeks in 1971 and was restaged at this year’s Frieze New York — more and more properties are blurring the lines between artwork and accommodation. The 21c Museum Hotel in Louisville, Ky., recently commissioned Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe to create “Asleep in the Cyclone,” an immers...

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Thomas L. Friedman There is a tension at the heart of President Obama’s campaign to confront the Islamic State, and it explains a lot about why he has so much trouble articulating and implementing his strategy. Quite simply, it is the tension between two vital goals — promoting the “soul-searching” that ISIS’s emergence has triggered in the Arab-Muslim world and “searching and destroying” ISIS in its strongholds in Syria and Iraq. Get used to it. This tension is not going away. Obama will have to lead through it. The good news: The rise of the Islamic State, also known and ISIS, is triggering some long overdue, brutally honest, soul-searching by Arabs and Muslims about how such a large, murderous Sunni death cult could have emerged in their midst. Nurturing this soul-searching is a vital — and smart — part of the Obama strategy. [ link ]

ARTDAILY The Segovia Master (active in Castille, Spain, c. 1500), St. Bonaventure with the Tree of Life, c. 1490, oil, gold leaf, and silver leaf on panel, Lent by Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Campbell, 28.2014.1. TEXAS---A rare example of early Renaissance Spanish painting, St. Bonaventure with the Tree of Life, has been restored in the DMA’s Paintings Conservation Studio and is now on view in the Dallas Museum of Art’s European galleries on Level 2. The picture is part of the Museum’s conservation program to collaborate with private collectors on the study and care of their collections, and then present the works in the DMA galleries for public viewing. Saint Bonaventure (1221–1274) was a Franciscan friar and one of the most important Catholic philosophers of the late Middle Ages. In this painting, he is shown next to a “Tree of Life,” a diagram that was meant to serve as a visual aid, helping the faithful remember twelve spiritual lessons of the life of Christ. [ link ]

THE ALPHA OMEGA ARTS  Bill Viola (American, b. 1951), The Crossing (detail), 1996 INDIANA---The Indianapolis Museum of Art announced an exhibition of works by the world-renowned video pioneer Bill Viola . "Bill Viola: Capturing Spectacle and Passion" will feature two works by the acclaimed video artist. On loan from the Dallas Museum of Art, "The Crossing" (1996) consists of a double-sided screen with two videos simultaneously projected—one featuring a man being engulfed in flames, the other a man consumed by water. The 12-minute spectacle confronts the eternal cycle of life, death and the hope of rebirth. Also on display is "The Quintet of the Silent" (2001), a work from the IMA’s contemporary collection. The exhibit opens Sept. 26 in the June M. McCormack Forefront Galleries. Indianapolis Museum of Art: " Bill Viola: Capturing Spectacle and Passion Exhibition " (September 26, 2014-January 20, 2015); June M. McCormack Forefront Gallerie...

THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR By Will Higgins Tim Youd, performance artist, types an entire work of literature on one sheet of paper.(Photo: UM Communications) INDIANA---All this week, Banned Books Week, a man will camp out in the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library, in the large picture window that fronts the sidewalk, and type. He is the performance artist Tim Youd, who specializes in typing works of literature. Entire books. Word for word. On a typewriter. Youd lives in Los Angeles. He is 47. He has typed books by some of the 20th century's greatest writers — This week Youd will type Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451,"which is about censorship and book burning, a fitting way to mark Banned Books Week. [ link ]

AMERICANS FOR THE ARTS By Christina Logothetis It's September. Fall is in the air. It's a new school year for students, parents, and teachers. And once again, last week was National Arts in Education week—a time to join together to celebrate the arts in education each year. All of us here at Americans for the Arts share a common vision: a nation where every child has access to—and takes part in—high quality and lifelong learning experiences in the arts, both in school and in the community. While people like you understand and appreciate the value of an education rich in the arts, our nation continues to undervalue the arts as a creative learning force. Please, show your support and invest in arts education across the country and in communities like yours by contributing today . That will take us one step closer to the vision we all share for the future. [ link ]

FRANCE 24 Eccentric artists Gilbert & George have unveiled an exhibition of more than  60 new pieces drawing on the East London neighbourhood where they live. UNITED KINGDOM---They're the best known duo in contemporary art. Gilbert and George have an anti-elitist approach, seeking to make "art for all" with a clear focus on their East London neighbourhood. They put themselves on display in each of their pieces, keen to provoke and mock the establishment. Their new exhibition at the Ropac gallery in Pantin, just outside Paris, shows how their art is changing and taking a political turn. Gilbert and George tell Clovis Casali why they feel religion is exacerbating tensions around the world. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By RUETERS (Reuters) - Nearly three-quarters of the public think religion is losing influence in American life and a growing number want religion to play more of a role in politics, according to a poll released on Monday.The share of Americans who say churches and other houses of worship should express their views on social and political issues has gone up 6 percentage points since the 2010 midterm elections, to 49 percent from 43 percent, the Poll Research Center survey found. Also, a growing minority of Americans, up to 32 percent from 22 percent in 2002, think churches should endorse candidates for political office, the poll found. Overall, it showed 72 percent of Americans say religion is losing influence in the country, up 5 points from 2010. [ link ]