{"id":122911,"date":"2023-02-22T00:01:24","date_gmt":"2023-02-22T05:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/?p=122911"},"modified":"2023-02-21T13:44:20","modified_gmt":"2023-02-21T18:44:20","slug":"yale-sacred-music-center-launches-climate-change-art-initiative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/yale-sacred-music-center-launches-climate-change-art-initiative\/","title":{"rendered":"Yale sacred music center launches climate change art initiative"},"content":{"rendered":"

Initiative director said he is open to including pagan perspective<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The Institute of Sacred Music at Yale University has a new initiative that seeks to combine art, religion and concern for “ecological crises.”<\/p>\n

Titled the \u201cReligion, Ecology, and Expressive Culture Initiative,” the program\u2019s aim is to \u201camplify cross-disciplinary and integrative work at the intersection of religion, ecology, and expressive culture,\u201d according to its website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ryan Darr, the postdoctoral researcher who runs the program, told The College Fix<\/em> via email that the goal is to \u201csupport and disseminate the work of scholars, artists and practitioners both at Yale and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGoing forward, we hope that most of the initiative\u2019s energy and resources will go to supporting the proposals of others,\u201d Darr said in his email.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur plans for the initiative this semester include a webinar series titled \u2018Mass Extinction: Art, Ritual, Story and the Sacred,\u2019\u201d Darr said. The initiative also plans an \u201cart exhibition in April with Angela Manno called \u2018Sacred Biodiversity: Icons of Threatened and Endangered Species.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Manno is an iconographer who “has brought the same kind of religious ‘reverence’ to nature by featuring endangered animals in her art,” the\u00a0Yale Daily News<\/em> reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re also involved with the \u2018Breath of Life\u2019 concert, including a roundtable before the conference on images of Eden and the garden,\u201d Darr told\u00a0The Fix<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The Fix<\/em> asked if these plans seemed similar to earth worship and if the initiative planned to include pagan and Druid and other earth-focused religions.<\/p>\n

MORE:<\/strong> Seminary has students confess sins to plants<\/a><\/p>\n

He said he would be \u201chappy\u201d to consider those points of view.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is to encourage work on religion, ecology and expressive culture from people working across the humanities and in all religious, sacred, and Indigenous traditions,\u201d Darr said. \u201cWhile we have no current plans for events focused on pagan or Druid religions, we would be happy to receive proposals for such events.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we\u2019ve done most of the event planning this semester, we\u2019re now inviting others to submit proposals for events (conferences, concerts, exhibitions, webinars) on the themes of the initiative,\u201d Darr said, when asked for the plans for the project.<\/p>\n

A Catholic sacred music and liturgy expert called the Yale project \u201cbizarre.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis seems a rather bizarre initiative to me,\u201d Peter Kwasniewski told The Fix<\/em> via email. \u201cIt’s one thing to celebrate the theme of divine creation in music (there’s an abundance of sacred music devoted to the praise of God in His handiwork), but quite another to \u2018celebrate\u2019 ecology, environment, biodiversity, etc., for their own sakes, or as if they were sacred themes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kwasniewski has taught music and theology at several universities and also is a composer.<\/p>\n

He said there is a \u201cdanger\u201d in trying to subordinate the arts to a \u201cpolitical agenda.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is here a palpable danger of subordinating what was inspired by and dedicated to the glory of God to some human political agenda, which denatures and even prostitutes the fine arts,\u201d he told The Fix<\/em>.<\/p>\n

MORE:<\/strong> Trees cut down at UC Berkeley receive Sunday memorial service<\/a><\/p>\n

IMAGE: Nicholas Lamontanaro\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

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