Disney-Britton

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By Ernest O. Disney-Britton INDIANA---New York Times bestselling author and pastor Rob Bell visited Indianapolis tonight. During a pre-lecture gathering with religious leaders, he autographed copies of his new book, “The Zimzum of Love” a new way of understanding marriage. [ link ]

ARTDAILY Acquired with a generous donation from Ronald S. Lauder, 2015. The work was purchased for $7,683,797. UNITED KINGDOM--- Giovanni da Rimini’s "Scenes from the Lives of the Virgin and other Saints" - the only high-quality work from fourteenth century Rimini still in Britain – has been acquired for the nation, thanks to Ronald S Lauder providing the funds to enable the National Gallery to purchase it. The gold-ground panel, painted around 1300-05, had been in the collection of the Dukes of Northumberland at Alnwick Castle since 1853, until it was sold at auction in July 2014. American businessman, philanthropist and art collector Ronald S Lauder has now stepped in to provide the funding to enable the painting to be bought by the National Gallery. [link]

THE HUFFINGTON POST By Priscilla Frank The hybrid images invite the viewer to meditate on the opposing images of spiritual wholeness and sexual objectification. CANADA---One thing conservative politicians tend not to like is explicit artwork. One thing they really do not like is explicit artwork that evokes sacred or religious symbols. You know, like Andres Serrano's "Piss Christ" or Chris Ofili's "The Holy Virgin Mary." The latest artist to ruffle feathers with her cocktail of the sacred and profane is artist Rosalie Maheux . The Toronto-based artist is feeling the heat over her "Sacred Circles" series, a collection of kaleidoscopic mandalas that, upon closer examination, are made from chopped up pornographic images. [ link ]

ARDAILY Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia (L) speaks to Russian President Vladimir Putin during a visit to the recently restored St. Prince Vladimir Equal-to-the-Apostles Church during celebrations marking the 1000-year anniversary of the canonisation of Great Prince Vladimir in Moscow on July 27, 2015. AFP PHOTO / RIA NOVOSTI / POOL / ALEKSEY NIKOLSKYI. RUSSIA---Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday marked 1,000 years since the death of Prince Vladimir, the Orthodox saint credited with bringing Christianity to the country in the Middle Ages. "By stopping strife, crushing internal enemies, Prince Vladimir initiated the formation of a united Russian nation, in fact paving the way for the construction of a strong, centralised Russian state," Putin said at ceremony in the Kremlin alongside the head of Russia's Orthodox church. [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By Ernest O. Disney-Britton "Christ on the cross adored by two donors" (1590) by El Greco If  God designed the human body as perfect , why are physiologists always seeking ways for us to  get fit ? It's because so many of us have grown overweight and obese . Most Americans are in fact  23 pounds heavier than our ideal. In Scripture , we have God’s guide to perfect health. It teaches ideal dietary choices and habits such as fasting . In religious art, we also find depictions of God's perfection. El Greco and other artists provide examples of God's design. This design is not narcissistic body-building but maintaining God's perfection .

GIA BULLETIN Advancing Racial Equity in Arts Philanthropy will be presented on August 18. Maurine Knighton, who is senior vice president for grantmaking at the Nathan Cummings Foundation as well as chair of the GIA Racial Equity Board Committee, will begin this session by sharing what GIA has been and is working on towards racial equity in arts philanthropy. Kelly Brown, director of the D5 Coalition, will then discuss the coalition’s research on diversity, equity, and inclusiveness in philanthropy and identify areas where the field of philanthropy is still lagging. [ link ]

AQUILA-STYLE "99 Names" by Peter Gould Peter Gould is no stranger for those in the creative world. A truly multi-faceted talent, Peter has inspired many through his art, photography, design and branding. His modern Islamic art is centred around an intention to create cultural harmony and peaceful understanding in a global environment of misunderstanding using beautifully vibrant and fresh contemporary approach. Peter’s beautiful work is a welcome addition to the contemporary Islamic art scene, a mixture of deep faith and youthfulness that represents tangible modern interpretations of Islam’s everlasting beauty in mind & spirit.”: Juliana Rahim, Curator, Islamic Arts Museum , Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. [ link ]

TRICYCLE By Andrew Cooper What are religion’s prospects in an increasingly individualistic society? Religious evolution is an area rife with controversy—the validity of the term “religious evolution” itself is in dispute. Tricycle contributing editor Andrew Cooper speaks with prominent sociologist Robert Bellah. Few people can address the social dimensions of religion with the knowledge, insight, and eloquence of Robert Bellah. Through his teaching and, especially, his writing, Bellah’s ideas have traveled beyond the academy to influence the culture at large. "Unfortunately, neither fundamentalism nor New Age spirituality have any valid answers to the problems posed by our incoherent culture," [said Bellah] "Only a reappropriation of the great traditions through second naivete has any chance of doing that."[ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Nicholas Fandos MASSACHUSETTS---All four, some of European America’s earliest leaders, died in colonial Jamestown from 1608 to 1610 and were long thought lost to history. Researchers have identified the remains of four of the colony’s leaders, and found surprising signs of  religious division . Captain Archer died at 34 in late 1609 or early 1610, during the “Starving Time,” a six-month period during the winter of 1609-10, when famine and disease nearly wiped out the colony. Also among his remnants: a small silver box that researchers have identified as a Roman Catholic reliquary containing seven fragments of bone and two pieces of a lead ampulla, a type of flask used to hold holy water. If correctly identified, the finding could indicate that Captain Archer, or those who buried him, secretly harbored Catholic faith, even as the colony was outwardly Anglican. [ link ]

INDIANAPOLIS STAR By Cara Anthony INDIANA--- Rob Bell is back. The author of a New York Times bestseller and hipster pastor has kicked things up since his last visit to Indy in 2006. After the release of his book “Love Wins” in 2011, he walked away from the 10,000-member mega church he built in Michigan and moved to California to reach a broader audience. The “ Everything is Spiritual " tour is his one-man show designed to make people feel more connected to the universe. [ link ]

INDIANAPOLIS STAR INDIANA--- Tom Torluemke (right), lead artist for the "Pillars of Society" mural being created under the I-65 overpass of Central Avenue at East 12th Street, and master painter Bill Pozzo work on the mural on Wednesday, July 29, 2015 that they expect to complete Friday or Saturday. Torluemke developed the concept. Painting started about three weeks ago. The Vibrant Corridors partnership with the Arts Council of Indianapolis, Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, Inc., Downtown Indy and the city of Indianapolis links artists with mural locations throughout the city to create public works of art. Charlie Nye / The Star [ link ]

ARTDAILY "Endless Column" (1992), Vetroresina e pigmento, 400 x 60 x 60 cm 42 / 43 ITALY---Internationally acclaimed as one of the most significant contemporary artists, Anish Kapoor returns to Italy with " Descension ," an exhibition project conceived specially for the former cinema and theatre space of Galleria Continua in San Gimignano. Kapoor belongs to the line of artists who pose alchemical questions , and who also proceed by way of paradoxical concepts, producing works that push us beyond appearance in search of being. [ link ]

THE HANS INDIA Gonds are aboriginal people living in central India and per AGSA website, “Their paintings, often compared to Australia’s contemporary indigenous art, document the rich spiritual and cultural heritage of Gond communities” AUSTRALIA---Government run Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA) in Adelaide is displaying Hindu goddess Kali among other artworks in a “Gond Paintings” exhibition till November eight. Gonds are aboriginal people living in central India and per AGSA website, “Their paintings, often compared to Australia’s contemporary indigenous art, document the rich spiritual and cultural heritage of Gond communities”.  [ link ]

THE CONVERSATION By Sam Bowke Ekramy Hanafy – Contemporary Khayamiya, 2014. Hand-stitched cotton applique on canvas. Bowker Collection. Photograph courtesy of Timothy Crutchett AUSTRALIA---For some Australians, Islamic art might evoke artworks and architecture designed within religious contexts. These are usually centuries old and not located in Australia. The most recent contributions to this field include the extraordinary glitched carpets of Faig Ahmed of Azerbaijan, the feminist photography of Lalla Essaydi and Hassan Hajjaj from Morocco.... If Australians are to engage with Islamic art internationally, we need to participate within the present. The Islamic Museum of Australia (in Thornbury, Melbourne), which opened in 2014, can play an important role in this process as a mediator between researchers in universities, objects in our galleries, and the Australian public. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Laurie Goodstien In his first year, he shocked the world with his comment, “Who am I to judge?” uttered in response to a question during an airborne news conference about his attitude toward a celibate gay priest serving in the Vatican. Pope Francis and the church in the United States are both struggling to navigate a new era. In a formal letter sent to Pope Francis at the Vatican, groups representing gay and transgender people, Catholics, and Hispanics said the church in America was in the midst of a “pastoral crisis” over gay issues and asked to meet with him while he was in the United States. [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By Ernest O. Disney-Britton I am a Christian, born in America, but I am grateful to my Muslim cousins for their Ramadan. You see my African ancestry traces back to Senegal , a Muslim nation of 15 million people in Africa. This past June 17-July 17, I joined them on their 30-day holy month, the world's biggest act of mass religious observance. It is a period of daily fasting, prayer and giving to charity , and in doing so, I learned a great deal about my African cousins. I expected to purify my thoughts and to be more able to focus fully on devotion and service to God. It is what I did not expect that makes me most grateful.

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS Jean-Michel Basquiat. Leonardo da Vinci's Greatest Hits, 1982. Acrylic, oil paintstick and paper collage on canvas, 213.2 x 183.3 cm. The Schorr Family Collection © Artists Rights Society (ARS) New York / ADAGP, Paris NEW JERSEY---Princeton University Art Museum presents " Collecting Contemporary, 1960–2015: Selections from the Schorr Collection " featuring pioneering artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol . The exhibition includes approximately twenty prints, paintings, drawings, and photographs acquired by Herbert Schorr and Lenore Schorr over the last fifty-odd years. The exhibition includes striking examples of Pop art, whose practitioners’ fascination with celebrities and commercial imagery defined much of the art of the 1960s.

SUNDAY REVIEW By Mohammed Hanif Most of Muslims’ dog hate comes to us via the Hadith , a collection of sayings attributed to the Prophet Muhammad . If you go by the fatwas issued by today’s religious scholars, some dogs are allowed in Islam and other dogs are not. There is a popular belief among the pious that if they come in contact with a dog, they become unclean. You have to take a ritual bath before you can offer your prayers. [ link ]

INDY ARTS GUIDE INDIANA---This week, artist Tom Torluemke is putting the final touches on Pillars of Society, his latest mural at 12th and Central just south of the Indiana Landmarks building. When designing the concept for the mural, Torluemke stated that he thought about "what an important role the bridge columns serve in helping people get to where they want to go." He wanted to represent the surrounding neighborhoods and how the people within them have a similar importance of holding up their community.

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Erik Eckholm A boy scout carried a rainbow flag during a gay pride parade in San Francisco last year. The group on Monday ended its nationwide ban on openly gay adult leaders. Credit Noah Berger/Reuters The Boy Scouts of America on Monday ended its nationwide ban on openly gay adult leaders. But despite a compromise allowing conservative church-sponsored units to pick their own volunteer leaders, the Mormon Church, the country’s largest sponsor of Scout units, said it might leave the organization. “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is deeply troubled by today’s vote by the Boy Scouts of America National Executive Board,” said a statement issued by the Mormon Church moments after the Scouts announced the new policy. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Samuel G. Freedman From the moment the Supreme Court ruled last month in favor of a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, opponents placed the decision in a very specific analytical frame. Here, they contended, was an egregious example of secular culture triumphing over religious values and religious freedom. Yet the discussion of secularism versus religion is incomplete. In that regard, one of the most significant amicus briefs in the Supreme Court case was filed in support of marriage equality on behalf of nearly 2,000 clergy members, theological seminaries and denominational officials, including Episcopalian, Reform and Conservative Jewish, American Baptist, Buddhist and Unitarian Universalist. [ link ]

THE GUARDIAN By Rueters The statue of a winged Baphomet with a human body and a goat’s head is seated before statues of a boy and a girl. It is nine-feet tall and weighs one-ton. MICHIGAN---A Satanic organisation unveiled a controversial bronze Baphomet sculpture in Detroit just before midnight on Saturday, after trying in vain to have it installed near a Ten Commandments monument in Oklahoma. The Satanic Temple unveiled the one-ton statue at an industrial building near the Detroit River just before 11.30pm local time as supporters cheered: “Hail Satan.” Some of the hundreds in attendance rushed to pose for photos. [ link ]

ARTDAILY Antony Gormley, EXPANDED FAMILY X 5: HOMOTHETIC, 2014. 4 mm Corten steel 5 sculptures, dimensions variable. Photograph courtesy Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac Paris/Salzburg. AUSTRIA--- Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac is hosting an exhibition of sculptures, which are part of Expansion Field by Antony Gormley in the Space Out exhibition at the Halle in Salzburg. Space Out continues the artist’s investigation of body and space, interrogating the body as place and architecture as the primary conditioner of our experience of space. Antony Gormley explains: "Expansion Field (2014) tests the relationship between what something feels like and its external appearance. Each work is the result of a moment becoming objectified in a frame, one that has no absolute dimension. Space Out is an attempt to sculpt space itself. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Eve M. Kahn The “Sopranos” actor Federico Castelluccio bought this St. Sebastian portrait, thought to be by Guercino. Credit Federico Castelluccio Collection NEW JERSEY---Federico Castelluccio, who played the ponytailed hired gun Furio Giunta on “The Sopranos” TV series, has rediscovered the artwork, a depiction of St. Sebastian said to have been painted by Guercino in the 1630s. This week, in its first American showing, the painting went on view at the Princeton University Art Museum after its European debut in a survey of St. Sebastian portraits at a castle near Turin, Italy, last year. Mr. Castelluccio and an unnamed co-investor bought it for about $70,000, and its value has been estimated at up to $10 million. [ link ]

THE HUFFINGTON POST By Shana Nys Dambrot "Eternal Lovers" (2010) by Tino Rodriguez. Oil on wood 18 × 24 inches. Private collection CALIFORNIA---"Art AIDS America" is the first comprehensive survey considering some 30 years of art produced in response to the AIDS epidemic in the United States. Covering the early years of the crisis through to the present day, "Art AIDS America" was organized by the Tacoma Art Museum in partnership with the Bronx Museum of the Arts -- its full version opens in Tacoma in late 2015 followed by New York in 2016. But as a kind of high-culture present for its 30th birthday, the City of West Hollywood gets to see it first. [ link ]

ARTDAILY Drawing of a crucified Jesus wearing a gas mask. GERMANY--- George Grosz (July 26, 1893 - July 6, 1959) was a German artist known especially for his savagely caricatural drawings of Berlin life in the 1920s. He was a prominent member of the Berlin Dada and New Objectivity group during the Weimar Republic before he emigrated to the United States in 1933. apn Photo/Franka Bruns . [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By TAHLIB, Curator Religious relics are physical reminders of our connections to religious figures. The " Holy Thorn Reliquary " was created in 1397 to house one such relic: a single thorn from the crown of Christ's crucifixion. This container of gold, enamel, rock crystal, pearls, rubies, and sapphires is just 12 inches high and weighs only 3.1 pounds. Creating suitable housing for such a relic is why the British Museum's new gallery for the " Holy Thorn Reliquary " (detail above) is our NEWS OF WEEK .

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By Ernest O. Disney-Britton It is right to warn people against the sin of idolatry , but that's not the reason for collecting religious art. God forbade the worship of statues, but he did not forbid the religious use of statues. Instead, he actually  commanded their use  in religious contexts. One of the most counter-cultural things a Christian can do is become a  collector  of religious art, and I don't mean for their church but for their home. When we collect, we preserve. When we collect for our homes, we remind ourselves and our guests what is most important in our lives.

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD By Andrew Taylor 'It's just a Jew on the cross': Adam Cullen said this of his depiction of Christ, which was entered in the 2008 Blake Prize. AUSTRALIA---Threatened with damnation after it was deserted by sponsors last year, Australia's top prize for religious art has found a saviour. The Blake Prize will be taken over by Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, which will award it every two years, increase prize money and offer a one-month residency and solo exhibition at a facility run by Liverpool City Council. The winner of the 64th Blake Prize, which will be awarded in February 2016, will receive $35,000 – a $10,000 increase in prize money – while the emerging artist award will increase by $1000 to $6000. [ link ]

ARTNET NEWS By Amah-Rose Abrams Sigalit Landau, Thirst at the Elma Hotel. Photo: Courtesy the Elma Hotel. In the material world we live in there is always someone trying to make it big by redefining luxury. While there is always a Jeff Koons-designed yacht to contemplate, there is no debating the fact that waking up in a gorgeous location looking at millions of dollars' worth of beautiful art is pretty incomparable. If you're a fan of luxe traveling, and are aiming to avoid well-trodden tourist sites (some of which are plagued by rats) this summer holiday, we have compiled a list of eight top hotels around the world that boast great art collections. Add them to your bucket list! [ link ]

CHRISTIANITY TODAY By Jessica Gibson Image: Marvel Studios 'Ant-Man' HOLLYWOOD---Marvel Studios has done it again: Ant-Man is a good superhero movie. And once again, that’s just about it. Ant-Man has all the right parts, but in Ultron’s wake and at the forefront of a long upcoming lineup of films, it really is time for Marvel to start doing better. Right parts or no, Ant-Man is a filler movie. Its only real purpose is to tide us over in the lull before Captain America: Civil War next year. The most exciting scene in the whole movie isn’t even in the movie, it’s the Civil War related post-credits bonus. [ link ]

CHRISTIANITY TODAY By Timothy Morgan Recently, some high-profile evangelical leaders have also warned about the threat of Muslim immigrants. "We are under attack by Muslims at home and abroad,” Franklin Graham, head of Samaritans Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, wrote on his public Facebook page on July 17. “We should stop all immigration of Muslims to the US until this threat with Islam has been settled.” At press time, more than 167,000 people had “liked” the post. Graham’s comments came one day after 24-year-old Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez, born in Kuwait and living in Chattanooga, Tennessee, shot seven people, killing five, outside a military recruiting office. [ link ]

ARTDAILY Andrea del Verrochio, The Virgin and Child with Two Angels, About 1476-78. Egg tempera on wood, 96.5 x 70.5 cm © The National Gallery, London. UNITED KINGDOM---The exhibition 'Visions of Paradise: Botticini’s Palmieri Altarpiece' (on view from November 4th to February 16th 2016) is the culmination of three years of research on Francesco Botticini’s monumental altarpiece (228.6 x 377.2 cm) of the Assumption of the Virgin , completed in about 1477 for the funerary chapel of Matteo Palmieri (1406 – 1475) in the church of San Pier Maggiore in Florence. Dr Jennifer Sliwka, Ahmanson Curator in Art and Religion at the National Gallery said: 'The Assumption of the Virgin' is a painted collaboration between an artist and patron in which the patron’s visions of Paradise, both the ideal city on Earth and in Heaven, are realised.” [ link ]

ABC ONLINE By Mohamed Taha Blake Prize logo AUSTALIA---The prestigious national Blake Prize for religious art has secured a permanent home in western Sydney. On Thursday, the Blake Society and Liverpool Council announced the Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre would take over the management of the prize and present the exhibition. Blake Society chairperson Dr Rod Pattenden said the partnership would give the Blake Prize a stronger future. "Casula for us is the perfect match," he said. "It's a gallery committed to contemporary arts practice and to cultural diversity." [ link ]

NPR | NEWS By Ari Shapiro Sun Woo directs the visitor program at Jinkwansa, a Buddhist temple outside Seoul famous for preserving the art of Korean temple food. Behind her are giant jars filled with fermented soybeans. Ari Shapiro/NPR SOUTH KOREA---Detox diets come and go, like any other fad. In South Korea, one popular diet has staying power. It has been around for at least 1,600 years, ever since the founding of the Jinkwansa temple in the mountains outside of Seoul. "You can't understand monastic culture without understanding monastic food," says Gye Ho, the Overt Nun who runs this temple. She has been a practicing nun for more than 50 years. Like all of the nuns here, Gye Ho has a shaved head and wears traditional gray robes. "The food creates the entire human being," she says. "It shapes our mind and body." [ link ]

INDIANAPOLIS STAR By Associated Press Archbishop Joseph Tobin discusses the first year of Pope Francis's papacy during an interview in Indianapolis on February 25, 2014. (Photo: Matt Detrich/The Star) INDIANA---The Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis is eliminating fees for marriage annulments, a step that follows comments by Pope Francis that the church should make it easier for some divorced Catholics to remarry. Archbishop Joseph Tobin says those seeking to have a previous marriage declared null had been asking to pay $675 to help cover administrative costs. The Fort Wayne-South Bend Catholic diocese and others around the country also have eliminated such fees. The Indianapolis archdiocese includes some 230,000 Catholics in central and southern Indiana. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Roderick Conway Morris The Waddesdon Bequest includes the Holy Thorn Reliquary, made to house a supposed thorn from Christ’s crown. Credit Waddesdon Bequest/Trustees of the British Museum UNITED KINGDOM---Of the many collections amassed during the 19th century by the various branches of the Rothschild family in their 45 mansions scattered across Europe, Ferdinand’s is the last to remain intact. Among these is the Holy Thorn Reliquary , an astonishing confection of gold, precious stones, rock crystal and numerous tiny enameled figures, made around 1400 to house a supposed thorn from Christ’s crown of thorns. In 1860 it was sent by the Imperial Treasury in Vienna for repair, but the unscrupulous restorer made a copy and secretly sold the original, which was later acquired by Ferdinand. That the baron had unwittingly bought the original was only confirmed in 1959, when the copy was brought to the British Museum for comparison. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Eliza Griswold The future of Christianity in the region of its birth is now uncertain. One hundred years ago, the fall of the Ottoman Empire and World War I ushered in the greatest period of violence against Christians in the region. The genocide waged by the Young Turks in the name of nationalism, not religion, left at least two million Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks dead. Nearly all were Christian. Among those who survived, many of the better educated left for the West. Others settled in Iraq and Syria, where they were protected by the military dictators who courted these often economically powerful minorities. From 1910 to 2010, the number of Christians in the Middle East — in countries like Egypt, Israel, Palestine and Jordan — continued to decline; once 14 percent of the population, Christians now make up roughly 4 percent. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Tom Mashberg and Max Bearak India is a ripe target: It is home to thousands of remote shrines and archaeological sites with rare Hindu artifacts that sit unguarded. INDIA---On this spring evening in 2009, Mr. Kapoor, 60, owner of Art of the Past on Madison Avenue, stood atop the Indian art world. After his 35 years in business, museums and collectors were paying seven figures for his Hindu, Buddhist and South Asian antiquities. What no one in the room knew was that Mr. Kapoor was under investigation on two continents, suspected of running a $100 million art smuggling operation. Their best evidence, they say, is an almost unimaginable 2,622 items, worth $107.6 million, confiscated mostly from storerooms in Manhattan and Queens, and virtually all of it contraband from India. [ link ]

KOREA OBSERVER By Yonhap News Shown is a stolen 18th century Buddhist painting that was reclaimed by South Korea in June. (Yonhap) (Photo courtesy of Cultural Heritage Administration) SOUTH KOREA---South Korea has reclaimed a stolen 18th century Buddhist painting from a U.S. art collector, the cultural agency said Tuesday. The Cultural Heritage Administration said the work, presumed to be from about 1738, was donated by the American who had initially offered it at an auction in March. The agency reclaimed it last month after asking the collector to cancel its sale. The work, which is 65 centimeters wide and 97 centimeters long, is a portrait of a great Seon monk that used to be kept inside Seonam Temple in Suncheon, located 294 kilometers south of Seoul. [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love." [ 1 John 4:18 ]

GAZZETTA DEL SUD By ITALY---Organizers of a major exhibition say they hope their 'Art of the Islamic Civilization' show which opens Friday at Rome's Scuderie del Quirinale may help to bridge differences heightened in today's tense geopolitical world. "Art is the best ambassador of these cultures and civilisations, now over a thousand years old," says a statement written for the exhibition at Rome's Scuderie del Quirinale. "The rich and varied Al-Sabah Collection...will allow visitors to explore an art that is multi-faceted, rich, elegant, sophisticated and in many ways a true surprise - a challenge to foster dialogue and understanding, and at the same time a discovery of outstanding value". [ link ]

ARTSHUB By Gina Fairley AUSTRALIA---A miracle of sponsorship has allowed the prestigious Blake Prize for religious art to rise again, defying Doomsday predictions.At the close of the 63rd Blake Art Prize in January this year, Chairman of The Blake Society, Rev. Dr. Rod Pattenden told ArtsHub that unless the Prize could secure a sponsor it would ‘extinguish itself’. It seems that miracles do happen. Casula Powerhouse Art Centre (CPAC) and Liverpool City Council have announced that the future of the prestigious Blake Prize has been secured with a move to Western Sydney and a guarantee of $25,000 annually, in perpetuity. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMESB By James Hannhan Transformation . Credit Ryan Pfluger for The New York Times NEW YORK---The creators of ‘‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch’’ must recognize that casting [Taye] Diggs is a powerful, timely move. They’re celebrating both the ambiguity of gender and the beauty and skill of a black actor at a time when displays of black people’s bodies in peril have become daily news. A sinewy black man with a shaved head, wearing shiny gold ankle boots, sashays runway-style across the pine floorboards of the New 42nd Street Studios, microphone in hand. In addition to the boots, he wears black drop-crotch sweatpants and a gray tank top that soon becomes drenched in sweat. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Charles Isherwood Amazing Grace A slave auction from this new musical about the human trafficker turned hymn writer John Newton. It opened Thursday at the Nederlander Theater. Credit Sara Krulwich/The New York Times NEW YORK---The timing is fortunate for “Amazing Grace,” a Broadway musical about the unusual life story of the man who wrote the lyrics for that classic hymn. “Amazing Grace,” thick with such moralizing, naturally concludes on a note of uplift, or rather many notes of uplift: a choral singing of the title song. And while the musical certainly gives animated (overanimated?) dramatic form to the history of its author, I’m not sure this knowledge really enhances our enjoyment of the hymn. The song is simple, beautiful, immortal; the musical, not so much. [ link ]

THE NEW YORK TIMES By Dan Bilefsky The testing, which is more than 95% accurate, has dated the parchment on which the text is written to between 568 and 645 AD, the researchers said. UNITED KINGDOM---Fragments of a manuscript kept at the University of Birmingham have been found to be part of one of the world’s oldest texts of the Quran, researchers at the school said on Wednesday. The ancient fragments are probably at least 1,370 years old, which could place the manuscript’s writing within a few years of the founding of Islam, researchers say, and the writer of the text may have known the Prophet Muhammad. [ link ]

ARTDAILY In this photograph taken on May 21, 2015, Dhana Kumari Bajracharya, the longest reigning Kumari of Nepal, sits in her quarters in Kathmandu. AFP PHOTO / Ishara S. KODIKARA. NEPAL---When a massive earthquake struck Nepal in April, Nepal's longest-serving "living goddess" was forced to do the unthinkable -- walk the streets for the first time in her life, she told AFP in a rare interview. Still following the cloistered lifestyle she entered at the age of two, Dhana Kumari Bajracharya also opened up about her unusually long 30-year reign, suggesting the pain of her unceremonious dethroning in the 1980s was still raw. The Himalayan nation's living goddesses, known as Kumaris, live in seclusion and rarely speak in public, bound by customs that combine elements of Hinduism and Buddhism. [ link ]

HAARETZ By Nir Hasson Dr. Amos Orkan’s 1991 vision for the Third Temple, which was intended to rise on the Temple Mount plaza. ISRAEL---Some unsuspecting cow could soon become for Judaism more or less what Mary was for Christianity: A messianic mom. Or so Temple Mount devotees fervently hope. In about a month and a half, the faithful, whose ultimate aim is to build a third Jewish Temple on the Jerusalem’s Temple Mount – where the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque now stand, and which Muslims call the Noble Sanctuary – will be implanting red-cow embryos in the wombs of cows in the south. [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS "Ezekiel Saw the Wheel" (1939) by William Henry Johnson. Collection of Camille O. and William H. Cosby Jr. WASHINGTON, DC---The Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art is well aware of the recent revelations about Bill Cosby’s behavior. However, the museum's “ Conversations ” exhibition, which includes works of African art from its own permanent collection and African American art from the collection of Camille and Bill Cosby, is not about the Cosbys. It is fundamentally about the artworks and the artists who created them. " Conversations " at the Smithsonian Institute brings together African and African American artworks in a visual and intellectual dialogue about particular crosscutting themes including " Spiritualities ." The artworks here span continents, reflecting both long-standing traditions and new sources of inspiration.

LOS ANGELES TIMES By Mike Boehme The Mogao Grottoes, a vast network of 492 caves in China, are covered with Buddhist murals. Exact replicas of three of the painted caves will come to the Getty Center in a 2016 show that also will include artifacts from the caves. (Neville Agnew / J. Paul Getty Trust) CALIFORNIA---Showing replicas of artworks instead of the real thing is usually anathema to an art museum, but the J. Paul Getty Trust on Tuesday showed why that rule has its exceptions. The Getty Trust fleshed out details of its 2016 exhibition “Cave Temples of Dunhuang: Buddhist Art on China’s Silk Road,” which will include complete, exact, walk-in replicas of three decorated caves that artists adorned with Buddhist-themed murals over 1,000 years starting in the 4th century. [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By Ernest O. Disney-Britton "The Thankful Poor" (1894) by Henry Ossawa Tanner The art collection of Camille and William Cosby Jr. explores many aspects of the African American  experience, including spirituality in the 1894 masterwork “ The Thankful Poor ” by Henry Ossawa Tanner and in the 1943 painting “ Boy and the Candle ” by South African artist Gerard Sekoto . As friends and organizations run from everything related to Bill Cosby, only the Smithsonian is standing up for artistic and religious freedom. Bill Cosby was clearly wrong , but that should not prevent access to the African and African American artists in his collection. The Smithsonian says it has no plans to take down the Cosby exhibit, and the Smithsonian is right.

WBAA INDIANA---A piece of art at a Ball State University museum is now involved in a controversial international theft investigation. The bronze sculpture is more than 1,000 years old and depicts the Hindu god Shiva and his bride, Parvati, the Hindu goddess of love. But the U.S. Justice Department alleges the dealer, Subhash Kapoor, is one of the world‘s top art smugglers and temple raiders. [ link ]

THE GUARDIAN By Mark Brown Temple Church, Bristol Photo: Max McClure Courtesy Situations UNITED KINGDOM---It is one of the most ambitious arts events likely to happen this year: the first UK public project by the lauded American artist Theaster Gates , in which the dramatic ruins of a city centre church will host performances around the clock for 24 days. Visitors to Bristol’s Temple Church might encounter a choir at teatime, performance poetry at 10pm, a drum and pipe band at 8am, popstars at noon or readings in the depths of night. The project, which will launch on 29 October, is called Sanctum . [ link ]

JEWISH JOURNAL By Kylie Jane Wakefield PUBLISHING---Let’s face it — in our largely secular world, observant Jews can stand out. Many wear modest clothing, don head coverings and don’t touch people of the opposite sex if they aren’t related. When entering the workforce, these and other belief-based practices are bound to create challenges. To begin with, how much do you say, or show, on that all-important first interview? But not everyone shares Shapiro’s confidence in approaching these questions. To help observant Jews navigate the workplace, authors Lavie and Rachel Margolin wrote the book “Can I Wear My Kippah on Job Interviews?” [ link ]

WFAE | 90.7FM  By John Burton Photograph by Norman Mauskoff, 2004 NEW MEXICO---There are two things that have put El Rito on the map. In the little village in northern New Mexico, there's a tiny cafe that serves the best red-chili Frito pie in the world. And then there's the santero — Nicholas Herrera . As a santero, or saint carver, Herrera continues a tradition of Spanish religious art that goes back to the 1700s in this remote part of the American Southwest. But his works are not relics. He carves edgy, comic, satirical pieces that reflect contemporary realities of the hispanos of the high desert. [ Listen ]

ARTDAILY Burkinabe soldiers pay tribute to six United Nations (UN) peacekeepers who were killed in an ambush in northern Mali, during their funeral on July 10, 2015 at the municipal cemetery of Ouagadougou. AFRICA---The UN's cultural wing has reported the destruction of precious mausoleums during an Islamist takeover of northern Mali to the International Criminal Court, its head said on a visit Saturday to witness their reconstruction. Al-Qaeda-linked insurgents seized Timbuktu -- around 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) northeast of Mali's capital Bamako -- alongside the west African nation's other desert towns and cities in 2012. They wrecked 16 of its shrines to Muslim saints that date back to the ancient caravan city's 15th and 16th century golden age as an economic, intellectual and spiritual centre. [ link ]

ARTNEWS  Skate’s Art Market Research has released its quarterly report on art fairs, which examines attendance numbers and exhibitor totals, and above is a brief summary of some of its findings in graph form. It confirms that Art Basel remains the leader in the field; it reported that its attendance jumped 6.5 percent to nearly 100,000 people and that it let in 13 more exhibitors than last year. Looking for more information on fair performance? Take a look at a graph of the Q1 report here, and the full 2014 report here. The latest report from Skate’s, which is owned by the same parent company as ARTnews, is available here . [ link ]

THE HUFFINGTON POST By Colton Valentine M Heung-soon’s work explores the ongoing process of modernization and globalization in Korea as seen through the eyes of older generations whose lives have spanned these momentous shifts. NEW YORK---“ Reincarnation ” will leave you displaced and uncertain -- especially if you’re an American. Two video feeds project on opposite walls, so that visitors must glance back and forth in a harried daze. “Reincarnation,” in short, tracks Korean populations circulating between several countries, moved by historical reasons that Americans are, regrettably, little acquainted with. It’s a demanding statement, one that reaffirmed my sense that “Reincarnation” was intentionally alienating -- building on the cinematic precedents of the French Nouvelle Vague and the writings of Louis Althusser to distance rather than comfort the viewer. [ link ]

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS By TAHLIB, Curator " Eid Mubarak !" The Muslim example of sacrifice during 30-days of Ramadan  was a grand inspiration, but it's all over now. They prayed 5-times a day; fasted from sunrise to sunset; and increased their charitable giving . They also celebrated Ramadan's end with a joy-filled 3-day festival called  Eid al-Fitr . We admired their journey and repurposed portions of it as our own. That's why " God is Alive, He Shall Not Die (blue) " (above) by Nasser Al Salem is our  NEWS OF WEEK .

BANGKOK POST By Asst Professor Imtiyaz Yusuf Buddhist Lent begins at the end of the month. It's worth noting that both the occasions of Phansa and Ramadan are annual events for spiritual renewal . Thai Buddhist monks will be entering the period of Khao Phansa , Buddhist Lent, on July 31. During the three months of Khao Phansa, the Buddhist monks and laity engage in alms giving, practicing meditation, chant the suttas, listen to dhamma talks and observe the eight precepts for the uposatha days. [ link ]