Tell Your Children to Standup

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Greg Disney-Britton



For Chanukah, I celebrate God's gift of my bestfriend Laurie who stood up for her gay friends as children of God, and did so in the face of Christian bigotry. During Chanukah Jews remember how one tiny sanctified jar of oil was found in the Temple after it had been rampaged and desecrated. From this small amount of pure oil emerged a light that miraculously would not go out. Laurie is like that light, and this video shared by Rabbi Yitzchok Moully, the 2013 A&O Prize Clergy Advocate of Year tells another version of such hatred and desecration. Entitled, "Tell Your Children" it is the story of a Jewish child who escapes Nazi execution only to experience religious bigotry again as a senior. Still she stood up. Chanukah is about standing up, and celebrating lights in the darkness like Laurie.

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2013 A&O Prize Art of Year: "Golden Sea" Available Online for Holydays

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By TAHLIB

NEW YORK---The full version of this moving Plywood Pictures documentary on Makoto Fujimura's career will ONLY be available with the purchase of Golden Sea monograph. The Golden Sea retrospective monograph is a beautiful cloth-bound book, embossed with gold detail reminiscent of Fujimura’s "Golden Sea" painting. Designed by Darilyn Carnes of Abrams Books, it contains images of Fujimura’s paintings throughout his career. For more information on the entire "Golden Sea" project, see the "Golden Sea" website. [Purchase Here]

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Learning from President Lincoln to Build a Team of Rivals: Art + Religion

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS 
By Ernest Disney-Britton

"Birth of Jesus" (2010) by Tom Torluemke

On Monday, I gave a tour to the Regional Board of Directors of the Disciples of Christ of the A&OPrize exhibition, "Religious Risks" at Indiana Interchurch Center. The experience reminded me of the book "Team of Rivals", where Doris Kearns Goodwin wrote about Abraham Lincoln's brilliant ability to bring together rivals as part of his administration. Isn't the conflict between the worlds of art and faith simply a rivalry between two great powers of influence?

In the newest issue of SEEN, Taylor Worley wrote: "Is moving beyond this conflict even possible? Can the rivalry be resolved?" Many artists, and clergy, make the argument that the rivalry is good. "Our job as artists is not to seek the easy way but to challenge society and open up some wounds, so that they can be cleaned rather than allow them to fester," said American Theatre director Peter Sellars. If this rivalry is a good thing, and that was the consensus amongst the Disciples on Monday, what should we be doing about it? I suggest we keep pushing engagement, and rejecting avoidance. We need to be more like Lincoln and bring the rivals together. It will benefit us all.

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Thanks to Those Who Helped Us Meet Our Goal to Reward Artists!

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Greg Disney-Britton

Thanks to everyone for pitching in to help us reach our goal for the ALPHA OMEGA PRIZE Fall 2013 Artist Fund Campaign. It’s true what we say about art, faith, and risk…it takes a lot of partners, a lot of creativity to make spiritual and religious art a successful and growing part of the art world. As a result, last Saturday night, November 9, Alpha Omega Arts officially reached our fall power2give goal of $2,500! Thank you for your investment in artists who dare to use their religious imaginations.

GREG DISNEY-BRITTON is Chair, the Alpha & Omega Project for Contemporary Religious Arts, and led the organization's most successful year of fundraising in support of artist honorariums

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2013 A&O Prize for Art News of 2013: Manjari Sharma's Goddess of Good Over Evil

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By TAHLIB

INDIANA---Alpha & Omega Project for Contemporary Religious Arts completes its 2013 announcements of A&O Prize honorees with the Religious Art | News of Year:  "Manjari Sharma's Goddess of Good Over Evil" (Oct. 6, 2013). It is one of the over 1,000 news stories curated on Alpha Omega Arts News during 2013. Gregory Disney-Britton, chair of Alpha Omega Arts sent his commendations to the team curating the news blog, and the members/subscribers voted overwhelmingly to name this the #1 religious art news story of 2013.

Since 2008, Alpha Omega Arts has been surveying members about the impact of Religious Art experiences in the United States, and awarding the ALPHA OMEGA PRIZE.

"Manjari Sharma's Goddess of Good Over Evil" (Oct. 6, 2013)

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A Sampling of Works in the Inaugural Alpha Omega Prize Exhibition

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By TAHLIB

Installation by Anila Quayyum Agha

Alpha Omega Prize: "Religious Risks" (Nov. 1-29), at Indiana Interchurch Center's IIC Gallery, 1100 W. 42nd Street, Ground Floor; Indianapolis, IN; 317-919-0570; alphaomegaarts.org

"Jesus Wept" by Terry Wilson

"The Promise" by Bonnie Stahlecker

"On His Shoulders" by John D. Crowe

"One Planet; One People" by Constance Edwards Scopelitis

"Engimatic Riddle" by Linda Witte Henke

"Risk" by Bailee Brantley
A&O Prize Student Art Contest Winner 2013

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2013 A&O Prize for High School Student Art is Bailee Brantley

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By TAHLIB

INDIANA---Alpha & Omega Project for Contemporary Religious Arts is pleased to announce the 2013 winner of the A&O Prize for High School Student Art, eleventh grade student Bailee Brantley of Indianapolis. "We seek to inspire youth to engage with the realities of religious diversity," said Gregory Disney-Britton, chair of Alpha Omega Arts. "This painting of the risk gay couples take when seeking religious connections is a particularly relevant message for today." Past winners of the A&O Prize for High School Student Art are: Samreen Uzzama (2012); and Rachael Walker (2011). All student participants must be residents of Indianapolis (grades 9-12).  Bailee's prize also includes professional framing of her painting "Risk" (below) by AVFraming of Indianapolis, and will be presenting during tomorrow's Spirit & Place Festival program, "Art+Faith+Risk."

Since 2008, Alpha Omega Arts has been surveying members about the impact of Religious Art experiences in the United States, and awarding the ALPHA OMEGA PRIZE.

"Risk" by Bailee Brantley, 11th Grade, Crispus Attucks High School
Winner of the A&O Prize for Contemporary Religious Art - Student Art Contert 2013

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2013 A&O Prize for Religious Art is Artistic Holyday is Spanish Harlem's Epiphany Day

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By TAHLIB

NEW YORK---Alpha & Omega Project for Contemporary Religious Arts is pleased to announce the 2013 A&O Prize inductee for Artistic Influence in a Holyday: "Epiphany Day" in Spanish Harlem. Also known as the Three Kings Day Parade, the 36th annual event is sponsored by the El Museo del Barrio New York. "Holydays are important to believers, because they help us to remember," said chairman Gregory Disney-Britton. "The creative drama of this Epiphany Day parade" reminds viewers of why the story of the Three Wise Men matters to Christians, and to non-Christians too." The other two finalists for 2013 were, Judiasm's Sukkathon2013 and Islam's Eid Al-Fitr 2013.

Since 2008, Alpha Omega Arts has been surveying members about the impact of Religious Art experiences in the United States, and awarding the ALPHA OMEGA PRIZE.

Three Kings Parade in Spanish Harlem 2013

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2013 A&O Prize for Clergy Advocate is Rabbi, Yitzchok Moully

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By TAHLIB

NEW YORK---The board of Alpha & Omega Project for Contemporary Religious Arts is pleased to announce the selecton of Rabbi Yitzchok Moully as the Clergy Advocate for 2013. Clergy advocates are strong defenders of artistic and religious freedom. The voting members of Alpha Omega Arts were impressed with his unique position in the world as an orthodox Chassidic rabbi,  contemporary pop artist, and coordinator of the Creative Soul Gallery. Moully is the Youth Rabbi at the Chabad Jewish Center in Basking Ridge NJ, where he resides together with his wife and five children. He is a Rabbi by day and an artist by night.

Since 2008, Alpha Omega Arts has been surveying members about the impact of Religious Art experiences in the United States, and awarding the ALPHA OMEGA PRIZE.

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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

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2013 A&O Prize for Philanthropy is 10,000 Buddhist Relics to California Temple

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By TAHLIB

CALIFORNIA---Which act of philanthropy from 2013 will have the biggest influence on U.S. Religious Art collecting? Throughout human history, religions and art have been joined as part of the wider quest for meaning. "That is why we need both," says Greg Disney-Britton, chair of the Alpha & Omega Project for Contemporary Religious Arts in Indianapolis. Since 2008, Alpha Omega Arts has been surveying our members about the impact of Religious Art in the United States, and this year the members picked the donation of 10,000 Buddhist relics to a temple in California as the winner. "There has been a tremendous surge in collecting Buddhist Art, and not only in the United States but in China and other places around the world," say Disney-Britton.

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Artist, Terry Wilson Shares the Risk Taken by Black Christ in Indianapolis

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By TAHLIB

INDIANA---Join the dialogue about "Jesus Wept." Why is it so talked about? There is it's large size; the three-dimensionality; and the use of objects found in nature; but a Lebanese visitor vocalized the truth out loud: "He's Black" she said joyfully. Wilson's multimedia work, "Jesus Wept" is an example of the risks we face with religion when we experience it outside our comfort zone, and it's now on display this November as part of "Alpha & Omega: Religious Risks" at Indiana Interchurch Center, 1100 West 42nd Street in Indianapolis, a program of the 2013 Spirit & Place Festival.

You can thank Terry, and the other artists for taking a risk with religious imagination, by making a gift to the Alpha Omega Prize: Artist Fund via power2give.org. 

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2013 A&O Prizes for Literary Arts: Norbert Krapf, Tasha Jones, and Bonnie Maurer

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By TAHLIB

INDIANA---The board of Alpha & Omega Project for Contemporary Religious Arts are pleased to formally announce the 2013 honorees of the project's first Literary Arts prizes to: Norbert Krapf, Tasha Jones, and Bonnie Maurer. "These inaugural literary arts prizes celebrate three local poets who have responded to an internal challenge to explore the spiritual and religious," explained Gregory Disney-Britton, chair of Alpha Omega Arts. "By sharing new works of 100 lines or less, in a public setting, we hope to stimulate the interaction of ideas and spiritual thought." Nominations were sought this past spring, and the three honorees will perform their readings during the Spirit & Place Festival on Saturday, November 9 at 2:00 p.m. at Indiana Interchurch Center, 1100 W. 42nd Street, Indianapolis.

Since 2008, Alpha Omega Arts has been surveying members about the influence of Religious Art in the United States, and awarding the ALPHA OMEGA PRIZE.

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Meet Norbert Krapf, A&O Prize for Literary Arts Honoree for 2013

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By TAHLIB

INDIANA---Norbert Krapf is one of the first three literary artist honorees to receive the A&O Prize; and on Saturday, November 9 at 2:00 p.m. he will be honored at Indiana Interchurch Center, 1100 W. 42nd Street in Indianapolis. Krapf is also an Indiana Poet Laureate; has recieved a Creative Renewal Arts Fellowship from the Arts Council of Indianapolis; and is author of the soon to be release book of poetry, "Catholic Boy Blues." A native of Indiana, he received his B.A.in English from St. Joseph’s College (Indiana); and later earned both his M.A. and Ph.D. in English from the University of Notre Dame with a concentration in American Poetry. Krapf is also emeritus professor of English at Long Island University, where he taught for 34 years and directed the C.W. Post Poetry Center.  In eleven full-length poetry collections, he explores his German-Catholic heritage. He is also an editor; the author of a prose memoir; music collaborator; and student of the blues.

Below are Norbert's answers to two questions about religious risk. You can thank Norbert, and the other artists taking a risk with religious imagination, by making a gift to the Alpha Omega Prize: Artist Fund via power2give.org. 

1. What is your experience with “risks” relating to religious experience.

The experience written about in Catholic Boy Blues, a collection of 135 poems scheduled for  2014 publication by Greystone Publishing, came about as a religious “risk” that did not involve a choice.

I was a victim-survivor of childhood sexual abuse by a priest, in a German-Catholic community in southern Indiana. That for twenty years after the abuse took place, I could rarely enter a church because of painful associations does not mean that I did not have an active spiritual life during that period. In many ways, the poems I wrote the past 43 years have been a search to find an alternative spiritual life and a new language in which to express my longing for spiritual sustenance (see links below to samples).

All along I felt a desire for religious or, more precisely, spiritual fulfillment, but I did have problems with the religious institution that ignored the abuse, then denied it, inflicting grievous harm on the young people it claimed to serve. Religious risk?  No religion can ignore and violate the moral and spiritual values it claims to uphold and survive as a living force. Any religion that functions this way runs the risk of losing vitality and relevance. Of course there was and remains a risk in writing and publishing Catholic Boy Blues, the ancient tradition of attacking the messenger of bad news. I am the messenger of  bad news of childhood sexual abuse and will no doubt serve as a lightning rod to displaced anger some feel over what their church has done.

Not to have written these poems, however, would have been to violate my calling and mission as a poet. One does not rectify a violation by an institution of any kind, or help that institution recover,  by remaining silent and violating a sacred obligation to help others, in this case my fellow survivors, their extended families, and the clergy and church hierarchy. All of us need to heal.

2. How have you chosen not to use religion to overcome life challenges?

It is difficult if not impossible for a child to admit that all he and his family hold sacred about their religion has been violated by a man who is “God’s representative”  but who is nevertheless revered by his family and community.  It is impossible for an abused child to bring charges against his revered violator within a two year period, as stipulated by law.

What I did, fifty years after the abuse, was to face it and write poems documenting it, to proclaim to all the devastating  life-long effects that such abuse has on the innocent young,  but also to show the possibility of healing and recovery. A religion that covers up such a scandal is left with no moral authority. Ironically, the blues serve as the major agent of healing in the poems, but the thrust of Catholic Boy Blues is not negative. Fifty years after the abuse, I was finally ready to testify, knew that for the sake of my own healing and the good of my fellow survivors, I would speak, from within the church, on their behalf.

The support of our pastor for the past nine years at St. Mary’s Church, Indianapolis, Fr. Michael O’Mara, was monumental. He wrote the lead blurb for Catholic Boy Blues, which concludes: “It has been a spiritual journey to walk with Norbert Krapf through this ‘dark night.’ His courage to share this journey with us will be a resource for others who have experienced abuse and for their caregivers. Publishing this book required a lot of strength and prayer, and the Holy Father should have a copy.”

Lastly, Norbert Krapf also provided some links to his writings (pre-Catholic Boy Blues poems); and they are below including his  along with a brief interview about it:

1. YouTube reading of  a 9/11 poem,” Prayer to Walt Whitman at Ground Zero,” http://iupress.typepad.com/blog/2011/08/podcast-norbert-krapf-discusses-his-september-11-poetry.html
2. Here is a link to ten “Christmas card poems” on my web site: “Christmas Paper Mountain Drifts,” “Songs in Sepia and Black and White,” “Woods Chapel,” “Candles,” “One Long Love Song,” “Going to Church,” “Apples in Rainwater,” “Woods  Hymn,” “Strawberry Patch Song,” and “The Language of Place” all have to do with a religious or spiritual impulse: http://www.krapfpoetry.com/xmascard.htm.
3. Scroll down and you will find “Dogwoods and Rosebuds for Rita.” http://www.krapfpoetry.com/sepia.htm 
4. Scroll down for the prose poem “Legacy.” http://www.krapfpoetry.com/american_toc.html 
5. Four poems from Sweet Sister Moon: http://www.wordtechweb.com/krapf_poems.html 
6. “Still Dark" http://www.valpo.edu/vpr/krapfstill.html 
7. “Letter from a Star Above Southern Indiana,” prose poem. http://www.krapfpoetry.com/letter_from_star.htm 

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Meet Bonnie Mauer, A&O Prize Honoree for Literary Arts 2013

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By TAHLIB

INDIANA---Ms. Bonnie Maurer is one of the first three literary artist honorees to receive the A&O Prize; and on Saturday, November 9 at 2:00 p.m. she will be honored at Indiana Interchurch Center, 1100 W. 42nd Street in Indianapolis. Maurer is also a two-time recipient of the Creative Renewal Arts Fellowship awarded by the Arts Council of Indianapolis, and self described as "Jewish American". Last year, as part of her fellowship, she traveled to Germany to inform a new series of poems based on the Holocaust. Maurer holds a Masters in Teaching English as a Second Language and an MFA in Poetry from Indiana University. Her poetry chapbooks are numerous, and her poems have appeared in the Indiana Review; Lilith, a feminist journal; Nimrod International Journal; Innisfree online journal; on the IndyGo buses; on a CD of Central Indiana Women Musicians; on the website of the T.C. Steele State Historic Site; and in the recent anthology: And Know This Place: Poetry of Indiana, published by the Indiana Historical Society.

Below are Bonnie's answers to two questions about religious risk. You can thank Bonnie, and the other artists for taking a risk with religious imagination, by making a gift to the Alpha Omega Prize: Artist Fund via power2give.org. 

1. What is your experience with risks relating to religious interaction?
 
I am a Jewish American. My experience with risk relating to religious interaction is the story of others in my family: My grandmother Martha’s story, for one, and her mother who I was told hid her down the cellar inside the pickle barrels when the Cossacks rode through their  Russian village wielding swords. My grandmother Martha escaped the Russian pogroms (Jew killings) in Lithuania. Was she hidden in a rickety wagon under straw to pass the border guards? At 16, she voyaged to America choosing its July 4th birthday as hers.  That’s the story she would tell me over and over, pulling the pins from her bun, silver strands falling down her back like a waterfall.

One of my father’s stories occurred during WWII in the army. He didn’t go to college but he wanted to become a bombardier. He had to take the college equivalent exam. He studied nights under the bathroom light and took the exam. Though he got the highest grade, he was told by his immediate superior that the officer above him did not like Jews and that someone else would be getting the award he deserved. He did go on to become a bombardier.
 
My mother’s story goes like this: She designed our new house for a new north-side neighborhood. A few families there of women whom she had gone to Shortridge High School with made it known that they did not want our Jewish family to move in to the neighborhood. We did.
   
Compared to their stories, their struggles and risks in the name of religious freedom and justice, I have taken no risks. I have not had a need in America to fight for my life in the dark of anti-Semitism, or been denied an “A” plus award because I am Jewish or not let in the door of opportunity because of my religious background.
 
But these stories of courage have fortified my life with a fierceness and resilience. Their stories (and more from our Jewish history) fuel my own desire to pursue knowledge and to create a just world in the ever enlarging circle around me.

2. How have you chosen to use or not to use religion to overcome life challenges?
   
So I have learned my lessons well, in the light of life’s challenges. Judaism is taught as a way of life—to follow ethical values and to repair the world the best we can. The Talmud teaches us that it is not incumbent upon us to complete the task, but neither are we exempt from beginning.
 
As one of my life’s challenges to promote understanding and dispel ignorance, I have stood up against prejudicial expressions toward me as a Jew. In my teens, in fact, I had to explain to some girls that Jews did not have horns!
   
If finding my way after college is one of those life’s challenges, then I chose to use my religion to seek opportunity. I took a big risk in becoming a volunteer during the Yom Kippur War of 73 in Israel by taking the place of soldiers gone to war with neighboring countries who did not want them to coexist.
   
In my challenge with breast cancer in my 40’s, I can say that again the precepts of Judaism to honor the body as a temple kept me strong and wanting to sustain myself with positive images. But I was also lucky.
 
Now in my 60’s, I have challenged myself as a Jewish poet---choosing to explore themes related to my heritage. The horror and madness of the Holocaust will never disappear from our consciousness (nor I hope from the consciousness of the world) and although it is not my personal story, I have recently taken the risk to create poetry after visiting Holocaust sites.  Perhaps by reading my work, sharing these poems with others, I can serve as an “agent of historical memory” to preserve and transmit words about the atrocities of history at its very worst. Perhaps I can educate others on my way to begin repairing the tears of the world.

In so many endeavors to create a better humanity, there is so much work to be done.

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Meet Tasha Jones, A&O Prize Honoree for Literary Arts 2013

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By TAHLIB

INDIANA---Ms. Tasha Jones is one of the first three literary artist honorees to receive the A&O Prize; and on Saturday, November 9 at 2:00 p.m. she will be honored at Indiana Interchurch Center, 1100 W. 42nd Street in Indianapolis. Jones is a current Creative Renewal Arts Fellow, as awarded by the Arts Council of Indianapolis, and in the words of her nominator/and mentee: "She is a rare and wonderful spoken-word artist." She has the soul of a Nikki Giovanni draped in the haute couture fashions of a runway model. Her work speaks to her dichotomy, to the easy equilibrium she has found between being a student of life and a teacher of lessons. On stage she tells the story of her life and in doing so tells the story of all women; a story of love, loss and life. She offers a perspective, poignancy and insight in her writing that allows men to see themselves through her work and women to see themselves in her work. During a recent TedX presentation in Indianapolis, she proved herself to be simultaneously what women are and what they aspire to be.

You can thank Tasha, and the other artists for taking a risk with religious imagination, by making a gift to the Alpha Omega Prize: Artist Fund via power2give.org. 

Thank you for thinking of me, I am honored. Although, I do believe in a higher power I am no expert on the subject. I am open to and for what has extended and deepened an unshakeable hope in me. I am standing on the answers below as my unapologetic opinion! 

1. What is your experience with 'risks' relating to religious interaction?

I will attest to "the risks" relating to religious interaction or religious anything, it becomes 'religious!' Not in the sense of relating to or believing in but in the compelling sense of superiority. A sort of classism or bigotry can form unconsciously or consciously, which in turn could annihilate the very things and/or foundation being built upon. 

2. How have you chosen to use or not to use religion to overcome life challenges?

As before stated, my beliefs have helped to secure an undeniable hope and an unshakeable faith in a power outside of my self to see the world from a different view. I accept the harmony in all things and am becoming keenly aware of when I am out of harmony. I make a conscious effort to be forgiven (for being off course) because I know me being off course can directly affect the people, places, and things around me or within my reach. These lessons have taught me to align myself accordingly and proceed on the mission of continual learning and growth. Written work forthcoming... 

Links with more information on Ms. Tasha Jones:

• http://luxuryawaits.com/versesandflow/episodes/episode-2.aspx?section=EpisodeGuide&videoLocation=EpisodeGuide
• http://luxuryawaits.com/lifestyle/tasha-jones.aspx?nav=Other
• http://iamtashajones.com/2011/04/new-video-no-more-flies-watch-now/

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2013 A&O Prize for Museum Exhibition is “Chagall: Love, War and Exile”

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By TAHLIB

NEW YORK---The board, and the members of Alpha & Omega Project for Contemporary Religious Arts are pleased to announce the 2013 inductee for museum exhibition of the year: "Chagall: Love, War and Exile". This exhibit of Marc Chagall’s paintings at New York’s Jewish Museum includes many images of the Jewish Jesus, a subject of great interest in recent years by museum curators as exemplified by the blockbuster impact of "Rembrandt's Jesus" of 2012. "It's a  relatively new exhibit, that has already helped with the rebuilding of the Jewish-Christian relationship" explains Gregory Disney-Britton, chairman of Alpha Omega Arts. "It increases our capacity to talk about our similarities in ways both groups have chosen to forgot." The Jewish Museum of New York's “Chagall: Love, War, and Exile,” ends in February 2, 2014.

Since 2008, Alpha Omega Arts has been surveying members about the influence of Religious Art in the United States, and awarding the ALPHA OMEGA PRIZE.

"Persecution" (1941) by Marc Chagall

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Artist, Tony Melendez Takes Risk with the Annunciation in Indianapolis

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By TAHLIB

"Annunciation---Me?" by Tony Melendez, 

INDIANA---Spanish Harlem-native, Arsenio "Tony" Melendez denies being Roman Catholic, but he shares a Catholic fascination with the Virgin Mary. His "Annunciation---Me?" spotlights that moment when the angel Gabriel calls upon her to take a risk of the virgin birth, and her response is "Who---me?" Tony's view of that moment is the first work visitors will see in this November's "Alpha & Omega: Religious Risks" exhibition. "Tony's paintings are a favorite of people working inside the center" according to Mel Jolliff, Executive Director of Indiana Interchurch Center. "The first collector was the Episcopal Bishop," he says. "What at first looks very traditional, is instead filled with very contemporary ideas." Melendez will join the other artists in a dialogue about Art+Faith+Risk on Saturday, November 9 as part of the Spirit & Place Festival.

You can thank Tony, and the other artists for taking a risk with religious imagination, by making a gift to the Alpha Omega Prize: Artist Fund via power2give.org. 

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2013 A&O Prize for Artwork of Year: "Golden Sea” by Makoto Fujimura

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By TAHLIB

Makoto Fujimura, “Golden Sea,” 2011.
Mineral Pigments and Gold on Kumohada, 80 × 64”. 

NEW YORK---The chair, Gregory Disney-Britton, the board, and the members of Alpha & Omega Project for Contemporary Religious Arts are pleased to announce the 2013 inductee for artwork of the year: "Golden Sea". Created by Makoto Fujimura, the selection honors the work of contemporary religious art that had the greatest influence in bridging the art vs. religion divide in the United States during the past year. "Throughout human history, religions and art have been joined as part of the wider quest for meaning. "Golden Sea" shows why we need both," said chairman Disney-Britton. Featured this past May at Manhattan's Dillon Gallery, the "Golden Sea" exhibition of new works, coincided with publication of Fujimura's first retrospective monograph, as well as a biographical documentary.

Since 2008, Alpha Omega Arts has been surveying members about the impact of Religious Art experiences in the United States, and awarding the ALPHA OMEGA PRIZE.

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Taking a Risk: Seven Days of Giving to Support Creation

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Gregory Disney-Britton



Color me risky! 33 artists are taking a "risk with religion" in Indianapolis this November, and I need your help to say "thank you" by giving to the Alpha Omega Prize - artist fund (Until Nov. 8, 2013). Working professionals, emerging artists, and one youth winner are now on display at Indiana Interchurch Center as part of the 2013 Spirit & Place Festival. The theme is "risk" and for seven days, I invite you to make a gift to thank an artist for taking the risk to explore religious ideas in the exhibition. One of the artists said they were concerned people would be angry about his relationship with religion, but he took the risk and is in the show. Another said, she was concerned that people wouldn't appreciate her positive relationship with religion, but she took the risk and she is here too. A third asserted her belief as an Atheist---but all are welcome, and included in this exhibition. [To give: click here]

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