Events - care

In honor of Sister Corita Kent Day, join us in the library for a Curator's tour of the exhibition Sister Corita from A-Z. 

Corita Kent was an artist with an innovative approach to design and education. By the 1960s, her vibrant serigraphs were drawing international acclaim. Corita’s work reflected her concerns about poverty, racism, and war, and her messages of peace and social justice continue to resonate with audiences today. 

Event details...

Join us for a DSPT Art Forum organized by student Nathalia Bell and co-sponsored by the Center for the Arts & Religion.

Artists will present their creative practice accompanied by a brief talk relating to philosophy, theology, and aesthetics followed by a Q&A. 

Artist talks by Justyn Michael Zolli (visual art), Nathalia Bell (moving image), Br. John Paul Puschautz (visual art), and Joshua Peck (literature).

Join us in the GTU Library for a tour and talk with the student artists of Reconnecting: Celebrating the art of GTU students and alums. This exhibition marks the re-opening of the GTU library and the re-invigoration of the GTU academic community following pandemic separation and loss.

Come to learn more about the work of participating student and alum scholar-artists and enjoy gathering together again in the recently reopened library....

The Madrasa-Midrasha Program at the Graduate Theological Union is excited to present an evening of interactive Hebrew and Arabic calligraphy featuring Peretz Wolf-Prusan and Arash Shirinbab moderated by Carol Bier.

The first meeting of the Creatives' Cove student group this Fall semester is happening IN PERSON on the 3rd floor of the GTU's Hewlett Building!

Enjoy a preview of works by CARe friends at the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble!

Sky Macklay - Canon Cadenza Cadence Cluster - World Premiere

This commission has been made possible by the Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Program, with generous funding provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Sarah Westwood - Things You Don't Yet Know You Feel

2020 Left Coast Chamber Ensemble Composition Contest Winner

The Musicians: Nikki...

In conjuncture with CARe’s Doug Adams Gallery Online exhibition, Draw me after you: a visual Song of Songs, join Dr. Arthur Holder for an exploration of the arts, love, and death.

The biblical Song of Songs has often been interpreted as poetry about divine love. It is also unquestionably and universally human because its luminous celebration of love is constantly tinged with the shadow of death and defeat. Nowhere is this more evident than in...

Mark your calendars as we will be celebrating our graduates at 4 pm on Saturday, May 7 at First Congregational Church of Berkeley, with an in-person commencement ceremony for the first time since 2019!

Lines embody in their very formation past memory, present action, and future potential. Lines move, grow meander, wander, search, and make connections between diverse elements. Think of maps, the thread of Ariadne, paths through the forest, constellations, borderlines, timelines, and the lines in the palm of your hand -- lines form part of our daily lives and environment, delineating both time and space. Join us for a lively discussion of the...

Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke said, “Live the questions.” Join Nate Klug and Sarah Gridley for an hour of sharing poems and conversation, as they consider the unique spiritual questions, and ways of questioning, that poetry can open up.

Sarah Gridley is the author of four books of poetry: Weather Eye Open (California), Green Is the Orator (California), Loom (Omnidawn), and Insofar (New Issues). She is in her second year of a master’s in...

In conjuncture with CARe’s Doug Adams Gallery Online exhibition, Draw me after you: a visual Song of Songs, join student Olivia Tabert (Master of Arts in Theological Studies, San Francisco Theological Seminary, University of Redlands) and three other artists for a panel discussion on the intersections of religion, sensuality, and art.

Olivia Tabert’s work explores the value and sacrality of the erotic found in the Song of Songs. Our panel...

Join CARe on Zoom to celebrate the opening of the very first Doug Adams Gallery Online exhibition, Draw me after you: a visual Song of Songs.

Bring a beverage of your choice to raise a toast to the start of a new semester!

Draw me after you: a visual Song of Songs is a virtual exhibition of artwork inspired by The Song of Songs, the third and final megilah (scroll) in the Ketuvim, or "Writings," of the Hebrew Bible. With work by artists Hedi...

Join CARe for a very special two-part event series with artists Gabriella Willenz and Julia Vogl. 

The Eve & Adam Project is a one-hour experimental, three-part audio-play. It deconstructs one of the most powerful myths of all times, the story of the first woman and man, focusing on the gender roles, hierarchy and power dynamics that the story of creation lays out. Myths are created to explain a range of observed phenomena. At the same time,...

Benjamin Heller is a cross disciplinary artist, blurring the traditional boundaries of media to uncover newfound vitality in their intersections. Drawing from a diverse background and training in visual arts, photography, dance, and physical improvisation, his works are rooted in the movement of the body and the creation of intimate environments that can be entered, opening a space for discovery via the body, senses, and the imagination. 

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Join us for this special Madrasa-Midrasha Program event co-sponsired with the Center for the Arts & Religion. The event will feature presentations by Liat Berdugo (University of San Francisco) and Pantea Karimi (Santa Clara University), moderated by Carol Bier (Center for Islamis Studies, GTU).

Join CARe in celebrating the release of Dr. Kathryn Barush's newly published book, Imaging Pilgrimage: Art as Embodied Experience.

While place-based pilgrimage is an embodied practice, can it be experienced in its fullness through built environments, assemblages of souvenirs, and music? Imaging Pilgrimage explores contemporary art that is created after a pilgrimage and intended to act as a catalyst for the embodied experience of others. Each...

Dr. Kathryn Barush explores the idea of installation art as an embodied experience of pilgrimage.

From the earliest centuries to today, humans have mapped one sacred landscape onto another to engender an experience of closeness to their ancestors, to their homeland, or to the divine. It is a practice that crosses cultures and time – from the Jain mandalas linked to far-away Mount Meeru to seven-circuit labyrinths in turf and stone. Such kinetic...

CARe’s Post Doctoral Fellow in East Asian Art & Religion, Dr. Dessi Vendova, will be giving our first event of the semester -- a presentation of her recent work on the life of the Buddha.

Visual representations of the Buddha Shakyamuni’s extended biography have a ubiquitous presence at early Buddhist sites such as stupas and rock-cut cave temples and played an important part in the spread of Buddhism. This phenomenon started in India, and...

Save the Date! Berkeley School of Theology Doctor of Ministry student Rev. Dionne Carter will be leading our last Art Break of the semester! Rev. Carter will discuss her own art practice and how it has been shaped by her academic research and study.

Rev. Dionne Carter is a Painter, Storyteller, Published Illustrator, Poet and Liturgical Dancer. Her prophetic art speaks on behalf of a divine call for love, life, and liberation. She is a native...

“I find out everything I believe through writing,” the poet Alice Notley said.

For National Poetry Month, join poet-pastors Elizabeth Robinson and Nate Klug for a reading and discussion at the intersection of poetry and belief. They’ll share some work by poets they admire, and talk about how poetic innovation might foster spiritual discovery, and vice versa.

Elizabeth Robinson is the pastor of Orinda Community Church (UCC), and the author of...

To celebrate International Women's Day, CARe is partnering with Women's Studies in Religon and the newly created Center for Climate Justice and Faith at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary to talk about gender justice and climate justice through the lens of the arts.

Please join us on Zoom where renowned poet and public intellectual Dr. Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs will offer a reading of her own poetry, and then guide us in poetry writing...

Part of a series of virtual workshops offered by CARe covering a wide variety of themes in the arts and religion. Each topic is covered by two 2-hour-long workshops. Open to students and community members alike, each workshop pair carries a $100 fee. CARe workshops are open to all - no experience in any of the fields necessary! GTU students, please note that these are not credit-earning workshops.

Hybrid animals, humanoid figures and...

Join CARe on Zoom to kick off the start of 2021 with an Artist Panel Discussion!

Artists Ora Clay, Elizabeth Jimenez Montelongo, and Shirin Khalatbari will be discussing their work, which has recently been displayed in CARe's exhibition Art Window. This exhibition showcases the work of BIPOC, Bay Area-based artists, whose work deals with the theme of social justice.

Please email care@gtu.edu to RSVP for this free event!

This event is co-...

As we near the close of the Fall semester, amid the tensions of the COVID pandemic, Women’s Studies in Religion invites the GTU community to a communal gathering for encouragement, empowerment, and ritual healing. We witness global tensions, yet we choose harmony.

Interreligious meditative expressions celebrate our diversity and creative spirituality. Join us with diverse voices guiding breathing exercises, spoken word, chants, prayers,...

Please email care@gtu.edu to RSVP

CARe welcomes Dr. Kathryn Barush of the GTU, Dr. Tazim Kassam of Syracuse University, and Dr. Vijaya Nagarajan of the University of San Francisco for a panel discussion exploring the intersection of aesthetics and interreligious dialogue and experience.

This event is run in conjuncture with CARe's Fall online exhibition, Drawing the Soul Toward Truth: Hindu and Muslim Sacred Geometry. This exhibition explores...

Join us on Thursday, November 12 outside the Doug Adams Gallery for an opening celebration with local artist Elizabeth Jiménez Montelongo.

Jiménez Montelongo's impasto textured oil paintings of Mexika (Aztec) dancers exude energy and power to celebrate the continued existence of indigenous dance that could not be suppressed. Her work is inspired by Bay Area Mexika dancers who continue the traditions of indigenous Mexican dance into the 21st...

Join CARe on Zoom for an art break with Gideon M. M'Imwonyo-Mbui (GTU PhD student, Theology and Ethics)!

Gideon will be discussing his art practice, which includes knitting, singing, and using his talents to brighten and enrich other people's lives.

We invite you to bring your own creative endeavors to share, and to come ready to discuss how the arts can heal and provide solace during uncertain and frightening times. 

Please RSVP to care@gtu....

Join us on Zoom for a conversation with Dr. Devin Zuber and Rev. Nate Klug on their latest publications:

• A Language of Things: Emanuel Swedenborg and the American Environmental Imagination, Dr. Devin Zuber

• Hosts and Guests: Poems, Rev. Nate Klug

We're excited to announce our Fall exhibition, Drawing the Soul Toward Truth: Hindu and Muslim Sacred Geometry, opening next Thursday, September 10!

Guest curated by GTU PhD Student Rachelle Syed, this online exhibition showcases the work of Hindu and Muslim artists from around the world.

Please join us at 3PM on Thursday, September 10 on Zoom for an opening celebration! Hear from the curator, get a tour of the exhibition, and meet some of the...

In this online event, Dr. Elizabeth S. Peña, Director of the Center for the Arts & Religion at the GTU, presents her perspective on these days of uncertainty. You can find both a video reflection and blog from her on our website after noon PST on May 8, 2020.

Join CARe online for a much-needed art break!

Dr. Thomas Cattoi (Jesuit School of Theology, Santa Clara University) will discuss bodies that heal, by looking at a 20th century Tibetan image of the medicine Buddha (Bhaisajyaguru) and an Orthodox icon of the transfiguration by Theophane the Greek (1340-1410).

Tune in on Zoom to hear more about these two pieces, and for a lively discussion about the similarities within both.

Please RSVP for this...

Celebrate Poetry Month virtually with Poet and Pastor Rev. Nate Klug! Take a break from the news, and join our community poetry reading.

Featuring the work of six Bay Area choreographers, After/Life: Danced Reflections is an embodied response to the artwork currently on display as part of CARe's Spring exhibition, AFTER/LIFE. The large-scale paintings by Ed Aulerich-Sugai and textile burial garments by Mark Mitchell reflect rituals for dealing with death and remembrance, particularly in the wake of the HIV/AIDS crisis. Through a series of solo dances in the gallery, each...

CARe's Brown Bag Lunch Series lives on in virtual format!

Please join us on Zoom for informal presentations by recent CARe Grant recipients, followed by lively discussion.

Our April talk will be given by 2019 Spring CARe Grant recipient Zipei Tang (PhD, GTU), who used her grant funds to travel to Maharashtra, India this summer. Her project is titled "Art-Making as Yogic Praxis and Empowerment of Women: Research on the Padukas Tribal Women’s...

Unfortunately, this event has been canceled 

Every Third Thursday of the month, gather in the lobby of BAMPFA to receive complimentary museum admission and to hear a short talk on a current exhibition given by a member of the GTU community. Our March talk is given by Rev. Gideon M. M'Imwonyo-Mbui (GTU PhD student, Theology and Ethics), on the exhibition Rosie Lee Tompkins: A Retrospective. 

Rosie Lee Tompkins (1936–2006) is widely considered...

Every Third Thursday of the month, gather in the lobby of the Berkeley Art Museum and Film Archive to receive complimentary museum admission and to hear a short talk on a current exhibition or piece of art by GTU faculty, students, and friends.

February's talk is given by Rev. Monica Joy Cross (PSR), Pastor at First Christian Church Disciples of Christ, and a Transgender Activist, Educator and Writer. Rev. Cross will be responding to Edie Fake'...

Please join CARe for the opening of our Spring 2020 exhibition, AFTER/LIFE. The artist Mark Mitchell will be in attendance, and there will be refreshments and live music to enjoy!

Rituals for dealing with death and remembrance reflect a wide spread of beliefs. AFTER/LIFE presents two such expressions in the contemporary arts community. The lives of artists Ed Aulerich-Sugai and Mark Mitchell, both affected by HIV/AIDS, reverberated in radical...

What was Messiaen’s inspiration? How does his composition relate to the “end of time”? How does this masterpiece fit in its cultural and historical context?

Composed in 1940 while Messiaen was held captive at Stalag VIIIA, a prisoner-of-war camp in Görlitz, Germany, Quartet for the End of Time is scored for clarinet (in B-flat), violin, cello, and piano. The piece was first performed in 1941, by Messiaen's fellow inmates at the camp. The...

Every Third Thursday of the month, gather in the lobby of the Berkeley Art Museum and Film Archive to receive complimentary museum admission and to hear a short lecture on a current exhibition by GTU staff, faculty and students.

December’s talk is given by Dr. Thomas Cattoi (JST) on the exhibition Divine Women, Divine Wisdom, which displays art from South Asia and the Himalayan region that celebrates the beauty, fecundity, wisdom, power, and...

Join CARe for a special Brown Bag Lunch reading and discussion on art and spiritual practice with author Deborah Haynes!

Deborah is joining us from the University of Colorado Boulder, where she is a Professor Emerita in the Department of Art and Art History.

Her book, Beginning Again: Reflections on Arts as Spiritual Practice is a personal statement, born from experience as an artist, writer, teacher, and Buddhist practitioner. Deborah writes...

CARe's Brown Bag Lunch Series features presentations by recent CARe/GTU grant recipients, students, faculty, and staff. These are informal presentations, so please bring your sack lunch! Free & open to the public.

Our November talk will be given by Roslyn Sholin, entitled The Museum of You is Open, What’s on Display? Roslyn is a creative director, budding archivist, historian and curator. This talk explores her exhibition My Attic, Your Story:...

Every Third Thursday of the month, gather in the lobby of the Berkeley Art Museum and Film Archive to receive complimentary museum admission and to hear a short lecture on a current exhibition by GTU staff, faculty and students.

Our first talk of the semester will be led by Rev. Keyona Saquile Lazenby (Pacific School of Religion) on the exhibition "The San Quentin Project: Nigel Poor and the Men of San Quentin State Prison". Keyona, the founder...

The Center for the Arts & Religion is once again partnering with Cal Performances to bring the GTU a fantastic opportuntity to get involved with the performing arts. This October, don't miss the opportunity to see Sankai Juku's seminal Meguri: Teeming Sea, Tranquil Land and take part in discussion and workshops on the art of butoh dance. This performance is free of charge to all attendees of the pre-performance Workshop and Discussion. Please...

The Center for the Arts & Religion is once again partnering with Cal Performances to bring the GTU a fantastic opportuntity to get involved with the performing arts. This October, don't miss the opportunity to see Sankai Juku's seminal Meguri: Teeming Sea, Tranquil Land and take part in discussion and workshops on the art of butoh dance.

This movement workshop for all ages and abilities will be led by Shinichi Iova-Koga of inkBoat, a physical...

Please join us for a lecture from Nathan Timpano on images of kabbalist gestures in Viennese Expressionist art.

The GTU is proud to present Berkeley’s first sacred world music festival, ResoNation: Sacred Sounds Beyond Borders. The weekend event includes a Saturday evening concert featuring a cast of internationally known artists, and a Sunday afternoon community music day with participatory workshops.  

CARe is delighted to announce an evening of poetry and discussion with Irish poet and theologian Pádraig Ó Tuama.

Working fluently on the page and with groups of people, Pádraig is a skilled speaker, teacher and group worker. His work has won acclaim in circles of poetry, politics, religion, psychotherapy and conflict analysis.

The evening will include a reading of select poems responding to the theme of sacred texts, as illustrated in CARe's...

CARe's Brown Bag Lunch Series features presentations by recent CARe/GTU grant recipients, students, faculty, and staff. These are informal presentations, so please bring your sack lunch! Free & open to the public.

In our first Brown Bag Lunch of the semester, Jesuit School of Theology MA student Briana Deutsch will talk to us about her recent work on the Guatemalan Dia de los Muertos and Ephemeral Art as Grieving.

Join us in the gallery for an Artist Talk with the five artists displaying in The Bay Area MFA Show 2! 

This moderated panel discussion will explore each of the artist's work and their experience with and relationship to spirituality and the divine. There will be an opportunity for questions after the panel.

Free and open to the public! Refreshments provided.