“Pursuit of the Spirit” exhibition opening at MOCRA on Sunday
Maybe it’s because I’m relatively new to St. Louis, but I only just learned that we have here in town a museum that bills itself as “the world’s first interfaith museum of contemporary art.” Saint Louis University’s Museum of Contemporary Religious Art (MOCRA) sounds like a pretty intriguing place, and this weekend looks like a great time to check it out. They’ve got a brand new exhibition, Pursuit of the Spirit, to celebrate their fifteenth anniversary.
There’s a free reception on Sunday, September 21, from 1 to 4 pm. Directions and more details can be found on the links above.
One blurb on their website that really stood out for me:
In a time when religion is a predominant topic in societies throughout the word–often generating more heat than light–MOCRA continues to foster dialogue that seeks deeper understanding of others’ traditions and greater appreciation of one’s own.
Very cool–and not far from what we’ve been trying to do on this blog.
It occurs to me that a couple of other bloggers on this site (Scott Lamb, Travis Scholl) have written nice posts based on some connection they have made to a work of art or an artist. I hope that anyone who makes it to the MOCRA exhibition will add a comment to this post and let the rest of us know what you see.
Picture credit: Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons. Cia Cara #1, 2008. Collection of the Museum of Contemporary Religious Art.
Pamela Dolan is on staff at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Webster Groves and is a Candidate for Holy Orders. After high school in Hawaii and college in California, she earned a master's degree in theology from Harvard before spending several years in New York studying medieval religion and literature. Pamela is married with two children. 
Thanks for sharing this. I had no idea this museum existed. I look forward to visiting.
Dana
“continues to foster dialogue that seeks deeper understanding of others’ traditions and greater appreciation of one’s own.”
What self-serving BS. Since art can be many things to many people, it could be argued that this stuff could also cause deep divisions and angst as well. But that wouldn’t get people through the door now would it?
I expect better uses of funds than this from SLU…
Tim, I don’t understand your reaction…why the knee-jerk skepticism? I have no reason to doubt the motivations or intentions of the good people of MOCRA, and I’m not sure why you would, either. To be honest, I think if they said they were out to cause “divisions and angst” they might well be MORE successful at getting people through the door (controversy sells, after all).
Part of what is exciting about the intersection of art and religion is that both can mean “so many things to so many people.” Often art is better at expressing religious experience than, say, theology, or even the fine craft of religion reporting. You’re probably right that exhibits at MOCRA have the potential to cause “divisions and angst,” but again, I have no reason to believe that is the intention of the organizers.
I don’t believe it is their intent either Pam, but like I said in my original post, using art to “foster dialogue” etc is a lousy way to foster dialogue. The gist of my post was not to question their intentions but to question the reality of their stated goal. There is no guarantee that a positive exchange of information is going to come from a bunch of oil on canvas.
We could have a gallery full of art on global warming, but if you don’t know anything about global warming what are you really going to learn? The only thing you are guaranteed to learn about while looking at art is…art.
My comments may appear knee-jerk, but this general topic of art fostering dialogue is not new and has come up before, and it doesn’t work in my opinion.
If you add up how much it costs to collect, maintain, and secure these works, verses holding classes or seminars with printed material full of facts about various faiths, and/or people OF those faiths present to answer questions, which one do you think would be more bang for the buck?