By Bridget Whelan
Athens NEWS Contributor
Athens received a rare global treat last week when the North American Sacred Art Tour set up ancient art exhibitions from Tibet, many of which never before have been seen in the West.
Eight artists from the Drepung Gomang Monastery in southern India visited the Athens, Marietta and Nelsonville areas over the last two weeks, sharing their collection of art in order to improve cultural awareness and to raise money for Tibetan refugees.
The tour arrived in Athens last Saturday with an art show in Ohio University’s Seigfred Hall to kick off the week-long exhibition of traditional Tibetan paintings as well as the step-by-step construction of a sand mandala, a type of sand drawing common among Tibetan Buddhists.
Nancy Beres, who organized the art tour, said the art show did not bring out as many visitors as they had hoped, citing location and lack of publicity as potential reasons.
“A lot of people couldn’t find Seigfred Hall, and I couldn’t do as much promotion as I would have liked because my husband has been ill,” Beres explained.
However, the tour included several other activities besides the exhibit in Seigfred that stirred greater community involvement. Thursday night’s mask-making workshop at the Athens Public Library had a “huge turnout,” said Beres, and children and parents alike showed up to learn more about the ritual of mask making in the Tibetan monastery.
Beres also estimated that around 200 people attended the closing ceremony Friday, in which the monks destroyed the sand mandala they had created earlier in the week. They then brought it to a pond, dubbed the “Peace Pond,” to “be given to the world as a gesture of healing,” according to the art show program distributed throughout the week.
Beres said the tour’s “greatest success” was the collaboration between the visiting monks and local artists from Passion Works, a non-profit art studio for mentally handicapped adults in Athens, on Monday and Tuesday. Their creations are for sale at Passionworks.
“The monks are thrilled about the connection they’ve made with Passion Works,” said Beres.
Beres helped coordinate the art tour after seeing the monks’ first art performance in the United States in 1999. As a practicing Buddhist, she explained, “it’s really nice for me to get a chance to enjoy the things that they have to offer.”
OU student Jennifer Verbofsky attended the exhibit in Seigfred on Wednesday. She commented on the originality of the pieces and the distinct difference between them and Western art.
“These pieces seem to be much more focused on religion and spirituality than most American art,” she observed. Art shows like this are important to the community because they help increase understanding of other cultures, she said.
“I really enjoyed the art show and was very interested in the live aspect of the making of the sand mandala,” Verbofsky said. “I wish more people would have taken advantage of it so that OU and Athens would sponsor more events like this.”
Beres and Verbofsky agreed that the tour seemed to achieve its mission — “to provide cultural awareness and the opportunity for exchange and dialogue on various sacred traditions within the arts,” as stated in the art show’s program.
Despite some disappointment with community turnout, Beres said that everyone involved with the tour was “very happy” with the overall experience.
