Nazarene's Heading to Oklahoma City Museum of Art

NAZARENE COMMUNICATIONS NETWORKOKLAHOMA - MidAmerica Nazarene University (KS) extends an open invitation to see one of the world's largest private collections of rare biblical texts and artifacts with MNU Christian Ministry and Formation professors Randy Cloud and Jim Edlin July 22-23 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Passages, the worldwide traveling exhibition featuring a portion of Hobby Lobby president Steve Green's The Green Collection, has set the scholarly and religious worlds ablaze. The interactive exhibition premiered at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art in May. [link]

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Review: "Thumbs Up" for Bible Exhibit at Oklahoma City Museum of Art

EXAMINER OKLAHOMA
By Briana Joyce
OKLAHOMA - This season's special exhibit at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art is truly incredible. Art aficionados, bibliophiles, young and old, and members of all faiths will enjoy the Passages exhibit celebrating the 400th Anniversary of the King James Bible. Passages explores the Bible's history from its origins in Jewish scripture to its important English translation under King James. The Passages exhibit will be in Oklahoma City until October 16, but don't miss your last chance to see it in the USA—its next destination is Vatican City! [link]

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Review: "Thumbs Twisted" for Bible Exhibit at Oklahoma City Museum of Art

AOA NEWS
By Tahlib



OKLAHOMA - The Passages exhibition at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, an extraordinary collection of Holy Bibles, related letters and Dead Sea scroll fragments would be breathtaking if the producers had given it an equally breathtaking installation. This collection of some 300 works reminds us of the praiseworthy roots and reach of the Bible over generations and continents but feels as if the local troupe of pretenders from the Renaissance Festival picked up the collection and put it on display at the Circus. Simply put, the collection deserves better.

Instead of creating a fitting and dignified environment similar to those created for the "Treasurers of Heaven" at the Cleveland Museum of Art and the "Dead Sea Scrolls" at the Minnesota Science Museum, this installation has a carnival feel with an over-the-top Evangelical twist, I assume to extend its reach in this Bible Belt state. While the collection, as noted above is extraordinary, and to its credit also does some impressive things with new technologies to extend the journey, those triumphs however are greatly diminished by the amateurish Medieval scenery, ridiculously costumed docents with strange accents, the dusty-looking animatronic bible heroes (borrowed, I assume from the state fair), and a cartoon lion figure who pops up here-and-there including shouting out from down inside a well, "I've just been Lyon around..."

To be fair to the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, the installations of artworks on the other floors are wonderfully displayed (on separate floors from Passages). This includes another temporary exhibit "1934: A New Deal for Artists" on floor 1, and more permanent displays featuring photographer Amy Blakemore's " Plasters Marys" and Baroque painter Jacob Jordaen's "The Raising of the Cross" both on floor 2. This leads me to a hopeful conclusion that Passages on floor 3 is not a reflection on the expertise of the museum staff. Instead, it appears designed by a marketing department for a hobby store planning a trade show display at a religious convention, but who bought a museum instead. At least, I hope that is the case. Was it worth the trip to Oklahoma City? Yes, even with the carnival-like flaws. My disappointment is that the collection deserves much better, and my prediction is it will get better (much better) when it moves on to Rome. 'Passages’ is in Oklahoma City until Oct 16.

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Amy Blakemore at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art

Plasters Marys, 1992 by Amy Blakemore (American, b 1958)
Gelatin silver photograph

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Baroque Artist at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art

AOA NEWS

"The Raising of the Cross" Attributed to Jacob Jordaens
a major baroque artist fron Natwerp was painted during the Counter Reformation.
The Collection of the Oklahoma City Museum of Art



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Cross Burning at Oklahoma Church

FOX NEWS 23
By Jamie Oberg

OKLAHOMA - A cross at a church in Sapulpa was burned. The FBI is now involved because this could be a hate crime. You can still see the charred pieces of wood along the metal fence and on the ground. Deputies say they removed a 6 foot cross, they believe was built, brought to the church and burned because the members that go there are primarily black. [link]

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Preview: Hindu Temple of Oklahoma City, OK

AOA NEWS
By Ernest Britton

OKLAHOMA - Each morning, it is the Hindu tradition to awaken their god with a prayer/song, and this morning AOA joins in that awakening at the Oklahoma City Temple. The prayer/song, "Suprabhātam" is a collection of devotional hymn or poetic verses recited every morning to awaken the deity in Hinduism. Around 1430 A.D., Prativādibhayaṅkara Śrī Anantācārya (aka P B Annan) composed the following hymn, "Veṅkaṭeśasuprabhātam" which has been animated:



The temple serves the religious needs of about 1500 families in the surrounding area is located right outside of the city on a 15-acre campus. The Lord Balaji (Sri Venkateswara Swamy) is the main deity. Many Hindus consider that religious symbols embody the divine, and are in themselves sacred. The tradition is, as a result rich with religious art, visual, performance and literary.

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Preview: Islamic Burial Grounds in Oklahoma City

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS

OKLAHOMA - About twenty-miles outside of Oklahoma City is the Mercy Islamic Cemetary, located at 3815 N. St. Clair Ave, and AOA Meetup will convene there today right before prayer time at 1:36pm. The purpose of visiting the Muslim cemetery is to learn from Islamic sacred rituals, and consistent with that teaching is to remind ourselves that we too will die and that we must prepare ourselves for the Day of Judgment. All visitors within the cemetery are subject to specific rules and regulations such as appropriate dress, no flowers/candles or headstones. As sacred grounds, the cemetary is only for Muslims therefore no one else will be granted space in this cemetary and all funerals are under the supervision of the sexton (Person in charge of the cemetery).

Monuments are not permitted on graves or plots in any section within the cemetery. Instead, markers are set level with the ground at the head of each grave space. According to the teachings of Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H) there are ONLY three things that benefit the dead:

1. Charity; Continuos Charity
2. Knowledge left by the deceased from which some benefit may be obtained;
3. A virtuous son or daughter who makes Dua' (Pray, supplicate) on deceased’s behalf, or perform duties that the deceased did not do during his lifetime such as fasting missed days or Hajj, or pay his debts.

Also, in contrast to traditional Christian burials, all all graves shall be flush with the surface of the ground; Women are forbidden from attending the burial; The grave is dug perpendicular (Horizontal) to the direction of Qiblah; The deceased's body should be entered to the grave from the direction where his feet will be (From the rear of the grave); The deceased's face should be towards the Qiblah. Just after the burial, all Muslims including the deceased's relatives, may stay in the cemetery for a while and make Dua' (Supplicate) for the deceased, because during this time, Muslim believe the Angels are questioning him. Decoration (or candles) of the grave is prohibitied along with stepping over, leaning on, or sitting on a grave.

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A&O Meetup in Oklahoma City: Museum of Art on July 9, 2011

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Ernest Disney-Britton

Oklahoma City Museum of Art

OKLAHOMA - Alpha Omega Arts will Meetup at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art this Saturday, July 9 at 11am for a group visit to the largest exhibition ever on the Holy Bible. The interactive exhibition, "Passages: Sacred Texts of the Bible" features original materials and robotics to bring the stories to life as never before. Join us in seeing this exhibition in its entirety before it is shipped in smaller packages to other cities around the world including New York City and Rome. Find out about other OKC Meetup times/locations by tweeting me @ErnestBritton, or RSVP by July 5 at meetup@alphaomegaarts.org.

Oklahoma City Museum of Art

Esther's Scroll in "Passages" at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art

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VIDEO: July's AOA Meetup? Oklahoma City

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Ernest Disney-Britton

OKLAHOMA - The next AOA Meetup is in Oklahoma City, July 7-9 and features a visit to the largest exhibition ever on the Holy Bible. The Oklahoma Museum of Art exhibition, "Passages: Sacred Texts of the Bible" includes original materials and interactive robotics to bring the stories to life as never before. Other highlights of this month's Meetup include visiting the Oklahoma City Hindu Temple, Buddhist Monastery and the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City; as well as a movie & coffee dialogue around the newly released film, "Tree of Life" staring Brad Pitt. To join the AOA Meetup in Oklahoma City, RSVP at meetup@alphaomegaarts.org(by July 5) and I'll send you the OKC schedule, or follow me @ErnestBritton on Twitter.

One of the 14,000-square foot maze of rooms at the OKC Museum of Art
created to take participants through centuries of Bible history.

Esther's Scroll

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High-Tech Robots Bring Bible History to Life in Oklahoma

CHRISTIAN POST
By Regina Phan

The "Passages" Bible exhibit at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.
The exhibit features high-tech robots to help bring the story of translation and preservation of the Bible to life.

OKLAHOMA - The words "high-tech" and "ancient artifacts" don't usually go together but at the new "Passages" Bible exhibit, which debuted Monday at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, high-tech robots are combined with ancient Bible manuscripts to help bring the story of translation and preservation of the Bible to life. By the time visitors are done with exploring "Passages," they will have experienced over 14,000 square feet of interactive Bible history spanning over 2,000 years. The exhibit tells the story of the Bible by immersing the visitor in a historical environment, whether it's a synagogue or replica of the printing press. Animatrons, detailed placards, touch screens, flip books, and hands-on activities help bring a new sense of appreciation to the cost of human life and sacrifice that went into making the Bible available today. "Passages" will run until Oct. 16, 2011, at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. After that, the Bible exhibit will head to Vatican City and is tentatively scheduled to hit New York City and London during winter. [link]

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Video: Oklahoma's Bible Exhibit Premieres

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International Bible Exhibit Tour Launches Today in OKC

OKLAHOMAN
By Brandy McDonnell

This detail from an extraordinarily rare and fabulously illustrated,
painted and gilded early edition of Martin Luther’s famous
September Testament dates back to 1524.

OKLAHOMA - The Oklahoma City Museum of Art’s third floor has been transformed by a “museum inside a museum” for “Passages,” which seeks to put a vast array of rare biblical manuscripts and artifacts into historical context. Opening today, “Passages” is the nonsectarian, worldwide traveling exhibition of The Green Collection, among the world’s newest and largest private collections of rare biblical manuscripts and artifacts. The collection is named for the Green family, founder-owners of Oklahoma City-based arts and crafts retailer Hobby Lobby. “Passages” is making its world premiere at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art through Oct. 16 and then will travel to Vatican City and New York City. The 14,000-square-foot multimedia exhibit is debuting during the year of the 400th of anniversary of the King James Bible. “Passages” spans 2,000 years to tell the story of the translation and publication of the Bible in English. [link]

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