2013 A&O Prize for Public Dialogue is Chicago's "Ten Thousand Ripples"

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By TAHLIB

INDIANA---The 2013 A&O Prize honoree for inspiring public dialogue is "Ten Thousand Ripples". This public art project involved installing 100 statues of a partial Buddha heads in 10 Chicago neighborhoods as a response to street violence. Since last November, the 300-pound emerging Buddhas began suddenly appeared as if rising out of the ground. While some believe the best strategy to preventing neighborhood violence is more police; this project responded to violence by creating art.  Since 2008, Alpha & Omega Project for Contemporary Religious Arts member have been voting  about the influence of Religious Art in the United States, and awarding the ALPHA OMEGA PRIZE.

Pedro Angel Alvarez, 4, checks out the emerging Buddha sculpture
outside Amor de Dios United Methodist Church in the Little Village neighborhood