Doris Duke Foundation Awards $1 Million for Islamic Art's Building Bridges Program Across USA

WALL STREET JOURNAL
By Associated Press

RHODE ISLAND — Providence is one of five cities across the country that will participate in a pilot program designed to showcase the diversity of Islamic societies through their art. The Providence-based organization FirstWorks will host an artistic and cultural exchange program known as Caravanserai: A place where cultures meet. It is funded by a $1 million grant from the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art's Building Bridges grants program. Officials said the program will focus on music and film from Pakistan. It will feature contemporary vocal and instrumental music and an award-winning Pakistani filmmaker. A public performance is scheduled for November. The other participating cities are Littleton, N.H.; Oswego, N.Y.; West Long Branch, N.J.; and Helena, Mont. [link]

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Siona Benjamin's Interviews on Canvas Faces of the Bene Israel

ASIAN JEWISH LIFE
By Erica Lyons

Sharon Galsurkar at Magen David Synagogue

INDIA - The story of the Jews in India goes back 2,000 years and is one of peaceful coexistence in a colorful world that embraced them yet one of isolation from global Jewry. When artist Siona Benjamin, an American, set out on her trip back to the India of her childhood in 2010, she arrived with an intense sense of purposefulness heavily laden with nostalgia. She was intent on rescuing the stories and narratives of these people, her people, the Jews of India. Benjamin was awarded the Fulbright Senior Scholar Fellowship 2010-11, which enabled her to embark on this four month intensive research study in India that allowed her to photograph, interview, and record the Bene Israel's stories lest they fall into oblivion. [link]

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Siona Benjamin's Hindu Portraits Show the Varied Faces of Jews

MONTCLAIR TIMES
By Elizabeth Oguss

NEW JERSEY - In an empty synagogue in Pune, India, an old man prays alone, his still-strong voice rising to the rafters as he chants the Hebrew prayers. The moment is captured in still photos and on video by an American artist, Siona Benjamin. "His voice in the empty synagogue was a symbol," Benjamin said, recalling the moment in the basement studio of her Montclair home. "Once there were 30,000 Jews in India. Now there are around 4,000. When he sang alone, his voice echoed."Her aim is to explore the many faces of Indian Jews in order to "reconfirm" something she has always known: "There is no such thing as a Jewish race." As a Bene Israel Jew raised in a Hindu and Muslim society and educated in Christian and Zoroastrian schools, Benjamin knows firsthand what it is to feel "other." PHOTO: Benjamin with cantor in Mumbai. [link]

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INSPIRE ME! Artist, Gerda Liebmann

Art has an inherent ability to express the divine

~ GERDA LIEBMANN

Splintered Cedar installation with mulch and cedar chips 8' diameter

By Ernest Disney-Britton

When I asked Swiss-born, now New Jersey-based Gerda Liebmann to join us in the INSPIRE ME series, her gentle answer was, "Thank you for the opportunity." There is an intense gentleness about Gerda's expressions, in her paintings, sculptures and installations which make her ideal for this series. I hope you find that same gift in her works.

Gerda Liebmann profile with teacup

GERDA: Art has an inherent ability to express the divine. It speaks directly to the part of us that responds viscerally to beauty—and that responds to the meaning things have, simply because they are. That's why art is especially helpful for bringing new life to familiar scriptures.I really try to use the right medium for the message. So my work includes painting, photography, video and installations. I am often inspired by scripture. But I also draw inspiration from the expressions of God’s being I find in the world.

"The Wind Blows Where it Wishes" (Watch: Video)

"Salvation: Self Portrait Triptych"
acrylic and gold leaf on canvas, 3 x 20" x 16"

GERDA: I share the trust of the Church in a redeeming God who is bringing us from lostness to foundness through the work of the Cross and the new life of the resurrection. Central to my faith is the love by which God unites us with Himself and each other.

"Beauty Instead of Ashes,"
acrylic on canvas, collage, plaster, gold leaf , 12" x 12"

GERDA: Some people are highly resistant—if not outright hostile—towards art that has an explicitly religious theme. Also, the gestation process for a piece that combines both esthetic and doctrinal integrity can be trying to them.

"The Body - The Blood"
fabric, hosts, veil, dye, 2 x 12' x 2'

GERDA: I appreciate Makoto Fujimura and Bruce Herman, because of their love for God, people and beauty—and because of the guidance they’ve given me personally. Other favorites are Chagall (for his whimsy and narrative language), Van Gogh (for the sheer physical intensity of his canvasses) and the abstract expressionists as a whole.

"Because of the Cloud"
acrylic on canvas, gold leaf, 4' x 6'

TAHLIB: We at Alpha Omega Arts invite you to discover more about Gerda Liebmann and her work. Please visit her website, follow her blog or join us in following her on twitter too:

• http://www.gerdaliebmannarts.com/

www.gliebmann.blogspot.com

www.twitter.com/imxinmei

Gerda's "Daily Cross" photo invitation

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The Blue, Indian Jews on View in Manhattan

AOA News

"Beloved" (Sarah and Hagar) By Sonia Benjamin

NEW YORK - In the vibrant world created by Indian-Jewish artist Siona Benjamin (born in Bombay, now living in New Jersey), Biblical characters come in the form of blue angels who face problems and dilemmas of the contemporary world. [link]
"Unable to deal with the conflict between Sarah and Hagar, Abraham tells Sarah to “do what is right in her eyes,” said Siona. "The Sarah and Hagar in my painting titled “Beloved” are reunited. In deep embrace they are mere reflections of each other. Being raised Jewish in a Hindu and Muslim India, I grew up having close friendships with Muslims. I cannot but see the similarities we share as human beings not our differences." “Finding Home: The Art of Siona Benjamin.” features paintings that fuse Indian art practices like miniature images with biblical and Sephardic imagery. The exhibition runs through July 29 at the 76th Street Jewish Community Center in Manhattan, NYC.

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