Disney-Britton

CHRISTIANITY TODAY By Alissa Wilkinson "Jesus" Artists who work in nonfiction, by contrast, try stick to the contours of what happened while primarily serving the themes of the story. Journalism aims to inform a citizenship about the world; art aims to evoke in the audience an experience of the world. Both want to make the reader or viewer see the world in a new way, but journalism is doing that through facts, and art is doing it through emotions. Whether the artist is justified in tweaking the facts is still hotly debated, a long-running argument about ethics that can't be settled in a column. What's interesting here is the this concern and its Biblical movie analogue. [ link ]

THE FINANCIAL TIMES By Jane Ure-Smith Portrait of Shirin Neshat at her studio in New York WASHINGTON, DC---No sooner am I through the door of Shirin Neshat’s New York studio than we are talking politics. The artist, whose work over two decades, which she describes as “subversively candid”, has precluded her from returning to her native Iran, is excited about the fragile diplomatic agreement reached in Geneva at the beginning of this month. Next month, a retrospective of Neshat’s work will open at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, in Washington DC. [ link ]

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS By Stepehn Rex Brown NEW YORK---An “Islamic frittata” campaign lampooning a conservative firebrand’s anti-Muslim posters is set to debut in city subways Tuesday. Documentary filmmakers Negin Farsad and Dean Obeidallah say they will post 144 posters in 140 subway stations thanks to roughly $20,000 raised through crowdfunding. The posters bear messages like: “The ugly truth about Muslims: Muslims have great frittata recipes.” They come in response to Pamela Geller’s ads with the message “Killing Jews is worship that draws us close to Allah ” alongside an image of a menacing Muslim. [ link ]

THE NATIONAL By Ben East Michael Rakowitz’s The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist – Headless Female Figure. Courtesy The Trustees of the British Museum UNITED KINGDOM---In the same week that the British Museum announced plans for a major new gallery dedicated to the Islamic world, news began to filter through that ISIL militants were tearing apart ancient cities in Iraq full of priceless artefacts, manuscripts, sculptures and buildings. As Venetia Porter, the lead curator of Islamic art at the British Museum, marvels at the beautifully detailed archaeological finds from Samarra in Iraq in the British Museum’s current display, the irony is not lost on her. [ link ]

ARTSBEAT | NYTIMES By JENNIFER SCHUESSLER FRANCE---The cartoonist who drew the Prophet Muhammad for the first issue of the French satirical weekly "Charlie Hebdo" after the killings at the publication’s offices in January has said that he will no longer turn his pencil to that subject. Muhammad “no longer interests me,” Rénald Luzier, who works under the name Luz, said in an interview with the French magazine "Les Inrockuptibles" that was excerpted on its website on Wednesday. [ link ]

THE GUARDIAN By John Sweeney ‘Pope’ David Miscavige took over the controversial church after L Ron Hubbard. Photograph: KeystoneUSA-ZUMA / Rex Features The most mesmerising moment in "Going Clear," Alex Gibney’s wrecking-ball job on Scientology, watched so far by 5.5 million Americans, is a clip of leading church executives singing along to a clunking 1980s rock anthem, "We Stand Tall." So, the clip of Scientologists singing along with Miscavige is sinister, an eerie negative of thousands of North Koreans weeping at the death of mass murderer Kim Jong Il. It feels like brainwashing in action. The North Koreans have an excuse for going along with thought control lest they end up in the gulag; Scientology’s extraordinary achievement, perhaps, is to pull off brainwashing in Florida, in California. [ link ]

THE HINDU By Rana Siddiqui Zaman Abstract works by Jaspreet Gujral is on at the Triveni Kala Sangam till April 30 INDIA---An Osho follower was looking at an abstract painting even as tears kept rolling down his cheeks. When asked the reason, he said “I have been meditating for decades. I am directed to look for a peak point where I find God. I feel his presence here.” He then went on to buy the canvas, titled “Truth, truth, and…”. Many may not buy this, but this how viewers often react to abstract works by Jaspreet Gujral . What makes his art unique is that it has been created by a Colonel and are a spiritual reflection of a journey the painter has been undertaking for close to three decades now. [ link ]

SLATE MAGAZINE By Ruth Graham A visitor in the main gallery of the Museum of Biblical Art during a preview on May 10, 2005 in New York. The museum announced it would be closing in June. NEW YORK---The Museum of Biblical Art , a 10-year-old Manhattan institution which “celebrates and interprets art inspired by the Bible,” announced Tuesday it will shut down in June. Why couldn’t this respected institution survive? The answer isn’t flattering to either secular art patrons or religious ones. Perhaps the problem was that pesky aroma of Christianity. But the museum’s closure should also embarrass wealthy Christians, who ought to have been thrilled to support a rare serious-minded institution devoted to the Bible’s influence on culture. It’s a shame that in order to survive, a museum like MOBIA apparently has to become either overtly “faith-based,” or not frighten anyone by even including the word “Biblical” in its title. [ link ]

AL JAZEERA  Similar AFDI advertising campaigns have run in other US cities, including in Washington DC [File: AFP] A United States federal judge has ordered New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to display on its buses a controversial ad that refers to Muslims killing Jews, rejecting the argument that the ad could incite "terrorism" or imminent violence. In his ruling, published on Tuesday, US District Judge John Koeltl in Manhattan said the ad from the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), which had previously run in Chicago and San Francisco, was protected speech under the First Amendment of the US Constitution. Similar AFDI campaigns have also run elsewhere, including in Washington DC. [ link ]

THE ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By Ernest Disney-Britton Work drawn from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection – a component of the Fundación Cisneros which was founded to enhance the appreciation of art from Latin America. NEW YORK---This summer, Manhattan's Museum of Biblical Art will close its doors permanently  but projects it inspired will continue. One of those projects is the exhibition " Power and Piety: Spanish Colonial Art from the Patricia Cisneros Collection ," which was planned to launch a national tour in New York City later this year.  As a result of the closing, Art Services International will now  premiere the exhibition at the Society of Four Arts in Palm Beach, Florida in March of 2016. The exhibition will then tour nationally through 2018. The Museum of Biblical Art (MOBIA) is an independent non-profit arts institution whose mission has been to examine the Bible's influence on the Western visual tradition, and on artists from the historical past...

THE GUARDIAN By Jonathon Jones Barnett Newman "Adam" (1951–2) at the Tate Museum Is the Bible hot? It is not – at least in the art world. New York’s Museum of Biblical Art has announced that it is closing, despite a big success with its latest – its last – exhibition about the great Florentine artist Donatello. If you think religious imagery has no place in modern art, consider Barnett Newman’s paintings Adam and Eve. Newman translates the Bible’s first man and woman into red vertical columns in fields of purple-brown: the nude portrayals of these inhabitants of Eden by earlier artists such as Albrecht Dürer become lines of stark abstraction. [ link ]

CHRISTIANITY TODAY By Peter Chattaway Image: NBC Pilate (Vincent Regan) forces Caiaphas (Richard Coyle) to eat the ashes of his dead soldier. HOLLYWOOD---The first three episodes all peaked with spectacular sequences like the resurrection of Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. This episode, on the other hand, gives us a sense—just a small sense, but a sense nonetheless—of how the Church is beginning to grow and work as a community. There is no moment in this episode that goes the full Thomas Kinkade, but bits of kitsch remain, like the repeated gusts of wind that flutter across Peter's face during his trial before Caiaphas. A.D. The Bible Continues began airing on Easter Sunday, and during its run, Peter Chattaway recaps episodes as they air. Recaps involve spoilers, especially if you’re not familiar with the Bible story. [ link ]

RELIGION NEWS SERVICE By Kimberely Winston A monk carrying chairs walks out from the damaged monastery at Swayambhunath Stupa, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, after Saturday’s earthquake in Kathmandu, Nepal. Photo courtesy of REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar NEPAL---In one minute, the April 25 earthquake in Nepal toppled, destroyed and damaged a millennium of religious history. What religious buildings were damaged, and which ones are gone? What religious significance did these buildings have and to whom? Will they be rebuilt? Can they be? About 80 percent of Nepalese are Hindu, making it the second-largest Hindu nation outside of India, with about 2 percent of the global total. But the small, mountainous country is also the birthplace of the Buddha and home to Muslims and Christians, too. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Randy Kennedy The Museum of Biblical Art opened in 2005. Credit Ruby Washington/The New York Time NEW YORK---Since it opened in 2005 in a modest space at 61st Street and Broadway, the Museum of Biblical Art has been the little museum that could, the home of many highly focused, critically lauded shows  that looked at Western art through the lens of the Bible and its legacy in Christian and Jewish tradition. Over the last two months, the museum has been drawing the largest crowds in its history for a curatorial coup, a show of sculpture by Donatello from the Duomo museum in Florence , pieces never before seen in the United States. [ link ]

USA TODAY By Richard Wolf and Brad Heath WASHINGTON, DC---The Supreme Court appeared both cautious and deeply divided Tuesday on whether to change an opposite-sex definition of marriage that several justices noted has existed for "millennia." Finally addressing head-on the question of whether gays and lesbians should be allowed to marry nationwide, the court's key conservatives indicated that a victory for same-sex couples would not come easily. At the same time, two conservatives -- Justice Anthony Kennedy and Chief Justice John Roberts -- showed sympathy for same-sex couples unable to marry in 13 states because marriage laws are intended to regulate procreation. [ link ]

THE RAPIDIAN By Rick Beerhorst Mariano Chavez's "First Date" uses depicts what looks like a page taken straight out of a dusty old science textbook in a chapter exploring the theory of evolution. Chavez has added weird blue spheres and flower bouquets into the hands of our primal ancestors to suggest some kind of cultural transaction may be going off the rails. MICHIGAN---Could it be that the in an age when many have chosen to put distance between their inherited religious cultures that they may now find connection to the spiritual in the art gallery rather than the mosque, the temple or the church? The current show at the Urban Institute for Contemporary Art (UICA) with the poetic title of "Power Objects: The Future Has a Primitive Heart" provides us with a wonderful example of what it means to build an art collection with a singular vision. If anything the role of art making and art collecting has some how remained the constant.... [ link ]

SEDITION In Shonibare’s digital version of "The Last Supper Exploded" for Sedition, the artist animates his sculptures and raises the work’s visual impact to a further level of the grotesque. Yinka Shonibare MBE’s "The Last Supper Exploded" is based on a sculpture of the same name first on view at the artist’s solo show Pop! at Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, 2013. The exhibition’s main themes explored corruption, excess and debauchery in contemporary society, with particular reference to the most recent on-going economic crisis. In "The Last Supper Exploded," Shonibare investigates the worship of luxury goods and the reckless behaviour of in particular the financial industry by paying art historical homage to one of humanity’s best known artworks: Leonardo da Vinci’s "The Last Supper." In Shonibare’s digital version of "The Last Supper Exploded" for Sedition, the artist animates his sculptures and raises the work’s visual impac...

THE TIMES OF IREAL By Jessica Steinberg For artist Andi Arnovitz, her latest collection of collages, titled 'Threatened Beauty,' is an opportunity to wonder about the culture, people and regimes threatening Iran and Iraq  ISREAL---Artist Andi Arnovitz worries about a nuclear Iran. She also spends a lot of time thinking about Islamic State and Iraq. It’s not that she doesn’t have other, more immediate worries. But the current headlines about beheadings in Syria and nuclear enrichment in Iran leave her uneasy and full of questions. “Where’s the truth in this?” she asked. “I can’t figure it out; somebody’s bluffing.” That may be. But for now, Arnovitz, 55, who often works watercolor, collage and other print media into her prints and installations, put her nervous energy into “Threatened Beauty,” a weighty group of works currently on exhibit at Jerusalem’s L.A. Mayer Museum for Islamic Art. [link]

CNN NEWS By Daniel Burke, CNN Religion Editor According to  PRRI's poll , there are now more people of faith who favor marriage equality than stand against it, a dramatic turn in one of this country's most divisive debates and a generational shift with the potential to sweep through everything from the wedding industry to the 2016 presidential race. But as PRRI's survey shows, there are often differences of opinion between the pulpits and the pews. Despite vocal opposition from the U.S. Catholic Bishops, for example, 60% of Catholics now favor same-sex marriage. That's a huge increase from 2003, when just 35% backed gay rights, according to survey conducted at the time by the  Pew Research Center . What a difference a decade makes. [ link ] 77% of Jews; 76% of Buddhists; 60% of Catholics; 55% of Hindus support same-sex marriage (Source: Public Religion Research Institute)

THE NEW YORK TIMES By William N. Eskridge, Jr. THIS week, committed gay couples seeking the right to marry will take their case to the Supreme Court. Religious groups are on their side, too. While several prominent religious organizations have filed briefs in opposition, leaders in the Episcopal Church , the United Church of Christ , the Unitarian Universalist Association , the official organizations of conservative and reform Judaism , and more than 1,900 theologians signed a brief urging the court to legalize same-sex marriage. [ link ]

BBC NEWS Bhaktapur's Durbar Square shown in July 2011, with intact Vatsala Durga temple (grey stone) NEPAL---As well as the devastating loss of human life in Saturday's earthquake, Nepalis, and the world, have lost parts of the country's unique cultural heritage. Seven monument zones in the valley make up the world heritage site. The three urban zones at the site are Durbar squares - meaning "noble courts" - in the settlements of Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Patan. The four other zones are religious sites: Buddhist stupas [monuments] at Swayambhunath and Boudhanath and Hindu temple complexes at Pashupatinath and Changu Narayan. [ link ]

THE ADVOCATE By Chadwick Moore In 1983, in Oregon, two men, Alfred Smith and Galen Black, were fired from their jobs as substance abuse counselors at a drug rehab clinic. Taking peyote is illegal in Oregon, as it is in most states. But the men were both members of the Native American Church , where peyote is used in religious ceremony, and the Oregon Court of Appeals reversed the decision, stating that to deny the men unemployment benefits based on the religious use of a controlled substance violated the men’s First Amendment right to free expression of religion. Oregon appealed, and the case went to the U.S. Supreme Court twice. Now, the legislation born from that bag of peyote has set the legal stage for what’s being called the “partial-birth abortion” era for LGBT rights as lawsuits and conservative state governments, under the guise of protecting the religious freedom of Christians, attempt to chip away at the extraordinary surge forward of legal protections for queer people...

JOURNAL OF TURKISH WEEKLY By Maria Kugel and Daisy Sindelar A detail from Blue Monkey (above), which was so popular it was purchased before it could be featured in the annual winners' exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in London. LATIVIA---All sorts of motifs turn up in Sergei Dyomin's mildly dystopic paintings -- pigs, sewing machines, railway cars. But it's the monkeys that proved the lucky break. Dyomin, an artist living in the Latvian capital, Riga, won international attention in 2010 when his icon-style painting Boris And Gleb -- featuring two monkeys in the guise of the 11th-century Orthodox saints -- was a finalist in an online competition created by the prestigious Saatchi Gallery. Dyomin's "holy monkeys" have definitely raised his profile in the art world. Most of his paintings now sell for upwards of $10,000 apiece. [ link ]

TIME By Eliza Berman Believers might pray to a saint candle to ward off evil spirits, protect a pregnancy or summon a miracle. But it’s not clear what you might wish for upon lighting a candle emblazoned with the face of Daya, Alex, Piper, Crazy Eyes or Red, characters returning on the third season of Orange Is the New Black , which debuts on Netflix June 12. The show’s new art is rife with religious references, from the candles to the tagline — “The Third Coming” — which is clearly as much an allusion to the inmates’ dalliances as it is to their hope for salvation. A previously released trailer and clip have hinted at plot developments viewers can expect this season. [ link ]

INDIANAPOLIS STAR INDIANA---Religious leaders are spearheading a movement against changes to Indiana's religious objections law that some believed would allow discrimination against gays, lesbians and others. Gov. Mike Pence this month approved changes to the law that prohibited merchants and groups from using it as a legal defense for refusing to provide services or to discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Members of the Indiana Pastors Alliance plan to protest the change Monday at the Statehouse and deliver letters to Republican leaders expressing their concerns. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By David W. Dunlap The new galleries will open next month, taking up the story after the island’s immigrant processing and detention station closed. Credit Michael Appleton for The New York Times NEW YORK---Everywhere in America, immigration is an unending story. Everywhere, that is, except at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum , where the story ends in 1954, when the immigrant processing and detention station there was closed. Next month, however, the museum will leap more than 60 years forward with the opening of two new galleries in what had once been the station’s kitchen and laundry. They pick up the narrative where it was left off. [ link ]

THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR By Maureen Groppe INDIANA---Despite vigorously defending a state’s right to prohibit same-sex marriages for years, the Indiana attorney general’s office is not weighing in on the case that is expected to settle the issue. Indiana is not among the 17 states asking the U.S. Supreme Court to side with Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee in the challenges to those states’ gay marriage bans to be argued before the court Tuesday. Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller says he no longer has a duty to defend that position after fighting for the state’s ban all the way to the Supreme Court last year. [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By Gregory Disney-Britton As advocates for the art of the religious imagination, we often seek out artists who explore the mysteries that come from wandering in the wilderness. In his current show at Linda Warren Projects , Tom Torluemke applies colorful strokes of sexuality with social commentary to capture that spirit. He describes himself as often feeling "exposed, uncertain and not able to find what I’m searching for," but in this he is both a journeyman and master conductor. He even recommended " Commonweal ," a Catholic magazine he regularly reads. Wandering in a world that values clarity is what makes "Blind Man's Bluff" exhibit by Tom Torleumke my NEWS OF WEEK . Thanks!

BBC NEWS By Peter Wilson UNITED KINGDOM---A major cinema chain has cancelled all screenings of a film about the founder of the Sikh religion , after protesters in the West Midlands caused a cinema to be evacuated over concerns for safety. Hundreds of movie-goers were asked to leave on Sunday night after a sit-in protest at Cineworld in Bentley Bridge, Wolverhampton. Some people said the film Nanak Shah Fakir was blasphemous to the Sikh religion. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Daniel M. Gold HOLLYWOOD---“ Body and Soul: The State of the Jewish Nation ” is a concise, skillful recounting of the story of the Jewish people and their connection to the land of Israel. While it tends to conflate Judaism with Zionism — a position not all Jews agree with — the film is straightforward in presenting the historical record. Featuring contemporaneous documents and artifacts from ancient days through the Middle Ages to modern times, the film is as cogent as it is inspiring. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Stephen Holden HOLLYWOOD---The steady performances of Tom Wilkinson, playing a kindly priest, and Emily Watson, an angelic mother, in Alejandro Monteverde’s “ Little Boy ” do little to offset the cloying sweetness of a movie that has the haranguing inspirational tone of a marathon Sunday-school lesson. This tear-stained lump of hokum, drenched in oversaturated color, is a World War II fable about faith versus magical thinking. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Manholda Dargis HOLLYWOOD---For “ The Water Diviner ,” his muddled directorial debut about love in the time of war and dissemblance, Russell Crowe wanted to go full David Lean while nodding at Peter Weir’s “Gallipoli.” Like many filmmakers, Mr. Crowe also wanted to tidy up history to suit his dramatic needs. He plays Joshua Connor, a widowed Australian farmer who four years after the Gallipoli campaign of 1915-16 goes to Turkey to find his three missing sons. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Manhola Dargis HOLLYWOOD---In “The Age of Adaline,” Blake Lively plays the title character, a woefully under-conceptualized gimmick who, after a strange car accident — lightning flash, a cold bath, some narrated mumbo-jumbo — stops aging. Adaline becomes forever 29, but, like a few vampires, knows that immortality isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Adaline, alas, isn’t resurrected with any special talents (not aging is more burden than gift for her, and certainly not an aptitude); the problem with this movie is that she isn’t resurrected with much of a personality, either. [ link ]

ARTNET | NEWS By Sarah Cascone The Shroud of Turn. Photo: Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Turin, Italy, The Shroud of Turin , one of the world's most contested art objects/religious relics, is back on display for the first time in five years. The cloth bears a ghostly image of a man that many believe is Jesus Christ. Christian tradition says the shroud was used to bury Jesus following his crucifixion, before his resurrection from the dead three days later. (See The Most Controversial Depictions of Jesus in Art .) The Shroud of Turin is on view at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Turin, Italy, April 19–June 24, 2015. [ link ]

THE NEW WORK TIMES By William Grimes Sales of art online rose to $2.64 billion in 2014, from $1.57 billion the previous year, according to a report to be issued on Tuesday by the British insurance company Hiscox. Online art buying, the report found, accounted for 4.8 percent of the value of the global art market, which it estimated at $55.2 billion. The majority of online transactions — 84 percent — were below $15,000, the report stated. It also found that social media were influential in the online market, with 24 percent of respondents saying that posts by museums, galleries and artist studios had a direct influence on their art-buying decisions. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Ellen Barry Millions of devotees in India and abroad offer prayers to Goddess Lakshmi at the Mahalakshmi temple. INDIA---“For thousands of years, Hindu society has donated this gold to temples whose trusts have safeguarded it,” said Vyankatesh Abdeo, the organization’s all-India secretary. “Our wealth is in gold; the government’s evil eye is on this wealth. This is absolutely wrong, and we oppose this move. This wealth is God’s, not the government’s.” In his mission to build India’s economy into one that could someday rival China’s, Prime Minister Narendra Modi would like to mobilize the roughly 20,000 tons of gold thought to be in private hands, 2,500 tons of it in major Hindu temples. Economists call it “idle gold,” and Mr. Modi’s team would like to see it used for trade and investment. In May, the government is expected to introduce a plan to induce Indians to deposit gold in banks, offering fixed interest rates for a “metal account.” [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Eve Kahn Slave quarters at the McLeod Plantation, which has been turned into a museum on the outskirts of Charleston, S.C. Credit Charleston County Park and Recreation Commission SOUTH CAROLINA---A new museum on the outskirts of Charleston, S.C., will focus on the lives of slaves owned by middle-class farmers. The McLeod Plantation , which opens to the public on Saturday, is set on 37 acres a few miles from a downtown wharf where newly arrived Africans were sold.  It went through a half-dozen owners before the Civil War, including several slave traders. The largely unfurnished buildings, Mr. Halifax said, are meant to encourage visitors “to have their own almost spiritual connection to the site, without it being cluttered by things.” [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By By JORI FINKEL, RANDY KENNEDY and HILARIE M. SHEETS Wilshire Boulevard Temple is asking Rem Koolhaas to design a building next door. CALIFORNIA--- Wilshire Boulevard Temple , famous for its ornate 1929 synagogue, is trying to create another Los Angeles landmark, negotiating with the Pritzker Prize-winning Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas to design a building next door for special events. It would be open for use by the public as well as by congregants. “Architecture is a form of prayer,” said Rabbi Steven Z. Leder of the Reform congregation, which is in Koreatown. He said the intention was to create “an inspiring gathering place for the many different communities in our neighborhood, which may well be the most ethnically diverse neighborhood west of Brooklyn.” [ link ]

ARTNET | NEWS Richard Long, red Vallauris clay on black, 41 x 61 inches (2010). NEW YORK---Over the years, Jason Rulnick has played many roles in the art world. He's been the artist, the museum worker, the gallery owner, and now the art advisor. His experience working in all realms of the art world has prepared him well for his current role because he knows what is at stake in every scenario. He also knows that collecting art is not just a monetary investment but also an emotional and spiritual one. Here, he lets us in on a few of his thoughts about buying and collecting art for both the experienced and the inexperienced. [ more ]

THE ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By Ernest Disney-Britton Interior view of Christ Cathedral an Episcopal church in downtown Indianapolis INDIANA---On Friday, the Center for Interfaith Cooperation  will host a public dialogue, "Art - A Bridge Between Cultures" led by Faisal Al Juburi, Executive Director of Bridges of Understanding. This "free" spirited conversation will bring together experienced diplomats and artists, including Ambassador Cynthia Schneider, film director Ruba Nadda , Bronx educator Brandon Cardet Hernandez , and Herron School of Art and Design professor and Artprize winner, Anila Quayyum Agha . Together, with the audience, the group will explore how an artist’s cultural and religious background can help bridge understanding to shape public policy. The program takes place at on Friday, April 24, at 4:00 p.m. at Christ Cathedral in downtown Indianapolis at 125 Monument Circle.

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Roger Cohen FRANCE---The five million Muslims of France and the 500,000 Jews of France eye each other with unease. Muslims complain that questioning the Holocaust is forbidden by law but insulting the Prophet Muhammad is not. Two weights, two measures, they say. Sephardic Jews in suburbs of hostile Muslims feel they are back in the North Africa their forebears fled. Muslims, often encountering daily prejudice, are susceptible to old libels about Jewish wealth, influence and power. Four Jews — Yoav Hattab, Yohan Cohen, Philippe Braham and François-Michel Saada — are shot dead in a kosher supermarket by a jihadi fanatic and Paris, to some Jews, looks like the epicenter of a war between Islam and the West. Mosques are defaced. Synagogues are protected by soldiers. Muslims are ghettoized in drab projects, asked to pray in disused barracks. [ link ]

THE ALPHA OMEGA ARTS Salvador Dalí. City of Drawers, 1936. Gift of Frank B. Hubachek. © Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, 2014. ILLINOIS---A century ago, society and life were changing as rapidly and radically as they are in today’s digital age. Freeing themselves from the restraints of tradition, modern artists developed groundbreaking pictorial strategies that reflect this new shift in perception. "Shatter Rupture Break," at the Art Institute of Chicago explores the manifold ways that ideas of fragmentation and rupture, which permeated both the United States and Europe, became central conceptual and visual themes in art of the modern age. In the wake of new theories of the mind as well as the literal tearing apart of bodies in war, artists such as Hans Bellmer, Salvador Dalí, and Stanisław Witkiewicz produced photographs and objects revealing the fractured self or erotic dismemberment. The Art Institute of Chicago:...

ARTNET | NEWS By Ben Davis Keith Haring's Altarpiece "Life of Christ" at Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Courtesy of untapped cities NEW YORK---New York's a tough city, and one that encourages a gloomy view of the future for erratically paid creative types (see Why I Believe New York's Art Scene Is Doomed ). Here's a video tour of 10 of these art spots to remind you why the city is worth the struggle: "The Life of Christ" - Finished just weeks before his death of AIDS complications in 1990, Keith Haring created this 600-pound bronze triptych finished in white gold leaf, telling the Christ story in his signature ebullient stick figures. Haring's memorial was held at St. John's, and the altar donated to it shortly thereafter by his estate; seeing it there is quite moving. [ link ]

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE By News Desk With the widespread growth of Islam over the centuries, the fusion of distinct architectural styles and traditional Islamic art has given the world some of the most intricate and breathtaking architecture ever seen. The ceilings of mosques in particular are a focal point of mosques. Islamic architecture draws heavily on mathematics and geometry, especially in the Arab world. The repeating perfect spirals and geometric forms are reminiscent of the intricate mandalas found in Buddhist art as well. Iran especially, is known for its extraordinary collection of stunning mosques. [ More ]

ARTNET | NEWS ILLINOIS---The Chicago art collector and retired plastics mogul Stefan Edlis and his wife Gael Neeson have donated a collection of 42 pop and contemporary artworks worth a combined $500 million to the Art Institute of Chicago, the Wall Street Journal reports. According to the museum, it is the largest gift in its history. The gift includes nine seminal silkscreens by Andy Warhol , three Jasper Johns paintings, two Roy Lichtenstein canvases, four Gerhard Richter paintings, and a Cy Twombly sculpture. [ link ]

ARTWIS.COM By Elisheva Marcus The second room entitled “Remembrance” mounts full-size black and white prints of these lost paintings. At the entryway sits Botticelli’s Madonna and Child with Candle- bearing Angels . GERMANY---Directly after the war ended in 1945, hundreds of world-class artworks were destroyed or damaged in two fires, ironically while being held for safe-keeping in a military bunker in Friedrichshain, Berlin. This astonishing exhibition contains fragments of that art collection. The show will have special appeal to Berlin residents who may want to explore what once filled their museums. But it also has universal appeal to anyone interested in preserving the memory of these missing art treasures or those curious to see how to resuscitate art. The exhibit runs until September 27, 2015. [ link ]

RADIOLAB Producer Tim Howard introduces us to linguist Guy Deutscher, and the story of William Gladstone (a British Prime Minister back in the 1800s, and a huge Homer-ophile). Gladstone conducted an exhaustive study of every color reference in The Odyssey and The Iliad. And he found something startling: No blue! Tim pays a visit to the New York Public Library, where a book of German philosophy from the late 19th Century helps reveal a pattern: across all cultures, words for colors appear in stages. And blue always comes last. [ link ]

THE ALPHA OMEGA ARTS "Infinity nets" (1999) by Yayoi Kusama ARTNET is hosting a special auction this week featuring paintings, sculptures, prints and multiples, and photographs by top Contemporary Asian artists including Nobuyoshi Araki, Yayoi Kusama, Yue Minjun, Takashi Murakami, Nam June Paik, Zhang Xiaogang, Ai Jing, Shi Lifeng, Zhong Biao, Mr. , and Ai Weiwei among others. Live for bidding now through April 23, 2015 .

THE ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By Ernest Disney-Britton Detail from "Snow Blue" by Siona Benjamin The love of books, is a faith tradition that goes back centuries, and for the new book " Mirror Mirrored: A Contemporary Artists’ Edition of Grimms’ Tales " Gwarlingo and Uzzlepye Press have launched a new series of limited-edition classic books illuminated by contemporary artists, starting with Grimms’ fairy tales. They've invited contemporary artists to reimagine Grimms' stories, and to share fresh spin on these traditional tales. The project is the result of a successful Kickstarter project, and one of the 27 artists is Siona Benjamin from the Jewish Art Salon whose work reimagines the evil Queen's dialogue in Snow White: "Mirror mirror on the wall; Who is the bluest of them all Come dark maiden on the call; Float my boat but not too tall; Black and blue you have some gall; Bet you couldn’t take the fall." Books can be preordered using paypal....

THE ECONOMIST Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader. By Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli. Crown Business; 464 pages; $30. Sceptre; £25. “NEAR-DEATH experiences can help one see more clearly sometimes,” said Steve Jobs. He was speaking about struggling companies. Yet he could easily have been talking about his own life. In 1985 Mr Jobs was pushed out of Apple Computer, the firm he had helped found, only to return after a decade away. In doing so, he mounted one of capitalism’s most celebrated comebacks. Mr Jobs’s own professional “near- death” experience helped him learn new skills that enabled him to become probably the most visionary innovator of his time, according to a new book by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli, two business journalists who have long covered America’s tech industry. After Mr Jobs’s explosive temper and meddling ways had led to his expulsion from the company, he spent years working in the wilderness, away from the sp...

THE HUFFINGTON POST By V.R. Marianne Zahn Conservative Christians love to get their knickers in a twist over various things from time to time.... Politics aside, a perpetual source of gleeful angst is when someone formerly deemed "one of us" dares to nuance an obscure theological teaching about heaven (Rob Bell), dares to be honest about doubt in the life of faith (Ryan Bell), dares, heaven forfend, to make a slight lateral move from Christian pop to secular pop (Amy Grant), or worst of all, becomes Episcopalian! In the most recent kerfuffle, Christian author and blogger Rachel Held Evans has been excoriated in advance of her upcoming book, Searching For Sunday , where she speaks about her faith journey from Evangelical roots to sacramental worship that has led her to her current worshipping community at an Episcopal church. [ link ]

THE ALPHA OMEGA ARTS GEORGIA--- Grantmakers in the Arts (GIA) hosts a national dialogue for arts funders, on June 2, on increasing funding and access to funding for African, Latino(a), Asian, Arab and Native American (ALAANA) organizations. Held at the Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta, the Forum is a continuation of GIA’s work on racial equity in arts philanthropy. The day will include recommendations from ALAANA organization leaders, the opportunity to discuss your local community’s barriers and successes in racial equity and inspirational talks by nationally known Atlanta-based actor, director, and producer, Kenny Leon and theatre artist and executive director of Alternate ROOTS, Carlton Turner. [ Register ]

CHICAGO MARRON By Darren Wan Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago ILLINOIS---The development of the medium of print in both the East and the West is inextricably tied to the dissemination of religious ideas. A comparative exploration of religious prints in Japan and in Western Europe, Spreading Devotion , recently opened at the Art Institute of Chicago. The exhibit engages the material by closely juxtaposing Buddhist and Christian texts and images. Most of the exhibition consists of didactic images that could be understood by both the educated classes and the illiterate laity. European prints often depict events or personages that are easily identifiable, even by those Christians who are unfamiliar with scripture. [ link ]

THE CHICAGOIST By Margaret Paulson Cardinal Francis George listens at Holy Name Cathedral during Bishop Blase Cupich's Rite of Reception service. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File) ILLINOIS---Cardinal Francis George, Archbishop Emeritus of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, died Friday morning after a near decade-long battle with cancer. His successor, Archbishop Blase Cupich, issued a statement calling George “a man of great courage who overcame many obstacles to become a priest,” one of them being polio as a child. Cardinal George was a born-and-raised Chicagoan, having grown up on the Northwest Side and attended St. Pascal School in Portage Park. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Alastair Macaulay A Theyyem dancer in Kerala, in southwest India. Theyyem is an example of trance dance and divine embodiment. The makeup takes hours to apply. Credit Eric Lafforgue/Gamma-Rapho, via Getty Images NEW YORK---New York sees excellent examples of Indian dance each year. On April 25-26, three examples of its classical styles will be on view. Two, at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts at New York University, are World Music Institute “Dancing the Gods” performances, each exemplifying a different classical idiom. Bharata Natyam — a genre rich in pure form and expressive acting, deriving from the southeastern state of Tamil Nadu — has a centuries-old matrilineal tradition. On April 25, Rama and Dakshina Vaidyanathan , mother and daughter, perform “ Dwita — Duality of Life .” [ link ]

THE GUARDIAN LJG Synagogue by Search, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 2010. Photograph: Iwan Baan Religion continues to inspire some of the world’s finest buildings, but these stunning non-traditional places of worship – from the South Korean Church of Water and Light to an award-winning Islamic cemetery in Austria – have rejected old-fashioned architecture and turned towards the light. "S acred Spaces ," a new book published by Phaidon on 20 April, sings their praises. [ link ]

THE ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By Gregory Disney-Britton Anila Quayyum Agha is pictured with her ArtPrize entry "Intersections" inside the Grand Rapids Art Museum Sunday, Oct. 5, 2014. (Cory Morse | MLive.com) INDIANA---No one expected this. For the first time, one artist won both the public vote and juried Grand Prizes at the 2014 ArtPrize — Indianapolis artist Anila Quayyum Agha . This Wednesday, while the entry "Intersections" is on view in Dallas, Texas , the Indianapolis Arts Council Creative Renewal Arts Fellow  will speak at the Indianapolis Museum of Art about her entry. "Intersections" is a 6.5 foot wooden cube made of laser-etched Islamic patterning illuminated from the interior. This public conversation with Agha also includes ArtPrize Director of Exhibitions, Kevin Buist. Wednesday, April 22, 7:00 pm, The Toby Auditorum at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, 4000 Michigan Road, Indianapolis, IN | (317) 923-1331

THE NEW ZEALAND HERALD The Jedis are all but extinct, the Old Republic is in turmoil and the threat of the Death Star is looming in Rogue One , fans learned at Star Wars Celebration. Director Gareth Edwards ( Godzilla ) debuted a tantalising concept reel to preview the mysterious film, which is part of a series of films exploring other stories outside of the core Star Wars saga. Set between the third and the fourth movies in the Star Wars saga, the film will follow a band of resistance fighters who unite to steal the Death Star plans and "bring a new hope," referring to the subtitle of the original Star Wars . [ link ]

BULLETIN STANDARD  CALIFORNIA---A prosperous Pasadena artist wanted for allegedly stealing practically $8 million in China has built an empire of devoted disciples in California primarily based on the claim that he is the reincarnation of Buddha. Now known as His Holiness Dorje Chang Buddha III, the native of the Sichuan province leads a obscure sect of Buddhists with followers in San Francisco and the San Gabriel Valley who think he can execute miracles and build masterpieces worth millions of dollars . Regardless of a following that some say spans the globe, most specialists on Buddhism and in the art planet did not know of him. [ link ]