Greeting from the Director

Imagine what might happen if creative individuals of different religious/spiritual perspectives and from diverse artistic disciplines and practices were to come together for sustained reflection and conversation about one sacred text with faculty in religion, the arts, and literature. The Religion, Spirituality, and the Arts Seminar sponsored by IUPUI Arts and Humanities Institute, has created such an encounter.

Thirteen artists, along with faculty members, have spent eight weeks studying the story of Noah’s Flood from the book of Genesis. Together we explored the diverse ways the story has been expressed through religious interpretation, poetry, music, and the visual arts.  We considered the theme of the environment, physical and social, as a way to encounter the story.  In light of the present crises of climate change, pandemic, and racism, we explored such questions as: What does it mean to be sealed in the ark, a boat with neither rudder nor sail?  Who gets saved and what do we choose to preserve? Is there any longer a high ground to which we can escape? What is our response to human calamity- our role in creating it and our responsibility in repair?

This unique collaboration, now in its seventh year, has produced extraordinary results. Artists have gained inspiration from a variety of ancient texts, and their conversations with one another have enriched and nurtured their imaginations. Visual artists, composers, and poets have built a shared community of thought and practice, to talk not just about their art, but about their spiritual lives. Something transformative happens during those weeks.

This is just the beginning. These artists will join others from previous seminars to continue their conversations and create new work. We look forward to bringing these conversations to congregations, community centers, libraries, and schools across the state as we all to seek to discover new ways in which religious texts can be expressed and renewed through the arts and address contemporary and social issues.  If you are interested in inviting faculty or artists to your group, please contact us and we will help connect you. If you are interested in joining the next RSA seminar, please apply here.

Welcome to the 7th RSA Exhibition, Noah’s Flood and the Environmental Imagination,

Sandy Eisenberg Sasso
Director of Religion, Spirituality, and the Arts