RELIGIOUS ART | TALK OF WEEK

AOA NEWS
By TAHLIB

The "NATIVITY SCENE" (above) is on view at a Texas courthouse, and Atheist extremists are angry about it, again. At Alpha Omega Arts, we are grateful to these extremists for the "annual" news controversy, because it gets Americans excited about defending Art & Faith. The first ever Nativity scene was created in the year 1223 by St. Francis of Assisi in response to his trip to the Holy Land. Each features at minimum the baby Jesus in a crib, his mother, and (stepfather) Joseph. Since that first creation in 1223, Nativity scenes have become a Western cultural tradition that are widely accepted by other faiths as part of the Christmas season. Listed below are the other religions art news stories of the past week from our interfaith world. The stories are grouped by the five largest faith traditions, with an additional category for other/interfaith.

BUDDHIST ART:

• Colorado Museum Exhibit Features Art by Tibetan Priests (The Coloradoan)

HINDU ART:

• Conflicting Identities Inspire Art of Anurendra Jegadeva (The Hindu)
• Satirical T-Shirts anger "Some" Hindus (IOL News)
• INSPIRE ME! Artist, Teresa Mas (AOA News)

ISLAMIC ART:

• Islamic Art Welcomed at Utah's Mormon University Museum of Art (Eleven News)
• Hey Brooklyn Museum, Show Some Islamic Art! (Courier Life's Brooklyn Daily)
• Op-ed: Will Artists & Christians Leave Egypt? (Al Arabiya News)
• Contemporary History of Islam and the Arts in Egypt (Ahram Online)

JEWISH ART:

• Bainbridge Island, WA's Jewish Congregation Honors History with Art (Kitsap Sun)
• Illuminated Hebrew Bible on Display in NYC this Holiday Season (The Jewish Week)
• Author Maurice Sendak Selects Menorahs for Jewish Museum Show (Digital News Associates)
• Jewish Artist Starts Service to Support His Artist Peers (Baltimore Sun)

CHRISTIAN ART:

• Bethel College in Kansas Looks at Role of Arts in Worship (Bethel College News)
• Video of Week: LIT by Gerda Liebmann (AOA News)
• Liebmann's LIT on Display for the Holidays in New Jersey (AOA News)
• Artist Louis Beck Learns it is Never too Late to Follow a Dream (Guardian Angels)
• India's Pioneer of Christian Arts, Angelo da Fonseca Finally Gets His Due (Times of India)
• Transition to Christianity: Art of Late Antiquity, Third to Seventh Century AD (The Art Newspaper)
• Intimidation: Atheists Demand Texas Nativity Scene be Torn Down Immediately (The Blaze)
• Vatican's Gaudi Exhibition Proves Popular (Catholic News Agency)
• Theater Review: "Jesus Christ Superstar" Broadway Bound via San Diego (San Diego County News)
• Johnny Depp Ignores Family Coalition Claim He "Will Burn in Hell" (ABC NEWS)

OTHER RELATED ART:

• Art review: 'Contested Visions in the Spanish Colonial World,' LACMA (Los Angeles Times)
• Surfing Madonna to Finally Get a Permanent Home (San Diego 10 News)

Get your daily dose of Alpha Omega Arts on Facebook and/or Twitter, or just come back each day. There's always something new to talk about in today's interfaith world of art.