Opening reception:
"Mapping Sacred Ground"
Inaugural Exhibition at the Doug Adams Gallery at the Badè Museum
Pacific School of Religion
1798 Scenic Avenue, Berkeley

This inaugural invitational show features the work of eight artists, including Lawrence Labianca, Janice Nakashima, Mie Preckler, and Michael Rauner. The exhibition tackles notions of territory, boundary and mapping of sacred space, and includes photographs, paintings, drawings, etchings and sculptural works.

Learn more about this exhibition and related events >

Film Screening and and Panel Discussion:
"Trouble the Water" with actor/producer/activist Danny Glover
Screening: The Sanctuary, Ecumenical Center of Berkeley, 1798 Scenic Ave.
Reception to follow: Starr King School for the Ministry, 2441 Le Conte Ave., Berkeley, 8:00 - 9:00pm

Academy Award-nominated "Trouble the Water" tells a story of one extraordinary family's survival of the flooding of New Orleans after Katrina, and their journey into a new life. Time Magazine's Richard Corliss called it "[A]n endlessly moving, artlessly magnificent tribute to people the government didn't think worth saving." Directed and produced by Fahrenheit 9/11 producers Tia Lessin and Carl Deal and executive produced by Danny Glover, "Trouble the Water" won the 2008 Sundance Grand Jury Prize and was named one of the top ten films of 2008 by critics at Entertainment Weekly, Los Angeles Times and the New Yorker.

Introduced and moderated by Rev. Dr. Gabriella Lettini and MASC students.

Panelists:
Danny Glover is an actor, director, writer, producer, and an activist from the San Francsico Bay Area. He has been politically active in many forms, including support of immigrant rights, unions, education, AIDS, and the arts, as well as support of anti-discrimination and environmental legislation. Mr. Glover is a board member of the Vanguard Public Foundation, The Algebra Project, The Black AIDS Institute, Walden House, and Something Positive Dance Group, among others. He was an Executive Producer of the film.

Rev. Dwight Webster is the founding Pastor of Christian Unity Baptist Church in New Orleans, LA, and a Ph.D. candidate at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA. He and his wife Trudell Webster have four sons, three of which attend college. Their youngest attends school in Oakland, CA, where the family resides in diaspora in the wake of hurricane Katrina. Rev. Webster, together with Civil Rights veterans C.T. Vivian and David Jehnsen, formed Churches Supporting Churches, an adopt-a-church program for post-Katrina pastor/church and community long-term recovery in New Orleans. He is the co-founder of the Jeremiah Group, a broad-based, faith-based ecumenical organization, affiliated with the Industrial Areas Foundation, that "seeks the welfare of the city" of New Orleans

Moderator: Gabriella Lettini, Ph.D., Aurelia Henry Reinhardt Director of Studies in Public Ministry, Associate Professor of Theological Ethics, Starr King School for the Ministry - Graduate Theological Union.

This program is co-sponsored by Star King School for the Ministry, Center for the Arts, Religion and Education, and the Certificate in Women’s Studies in Religion, all affiliated with the Graduate Theological Union.
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"Trouble the Water" takes you inside Hurricane Katrina in a way never before seen on screen. It's a redemptive tale of two self-described street hustlers who become heroes-two unforgettable people who survive the storm and then seize a chance for a new beginning.The film opens the day before the storm makes landfall-twenty-four year old aspiring rap artist Kimberly Rivers Roberts is turning her new video camera on herself and her 9th Ward neighbors trapped in the city. "It's going to be a day to remember," Kim declares. With no means to leave the city and equipped with just a few supplies and her hi 8 camera, she and her husband Scott tape their harrowing ordeal as the storm rages, the nearby levee breaches, and floodwaters fill their home and their community. Seamlessly weaving 15 minutes of this home movie footage shot the day before and the day of the storm, with archival news segments and verite footage shot over two years, directors Tia Lessin and Carl Deal document a journey of remarkable people surviving not only failed levees, bungling bureaucrats and armed soldiers, but also their own past.
Directed and produced by Tia Lessin and Carl Deal and Executive Produced by Joslyn Barnes and Danny Glover of Louverture Films, edited and co-produced by T. Woody Richman, with addiitonal editing by Mary Lampson, Trouble the Water features an original musical score by Neil Davidge and Robert Del Naja of Massive Attack, and the music of Dr. John, Mary Mary, Citizen Cope, TK Soul, John Lee Hooker, and the Free Agents Brass Band and introduces the music of Black Kold Madina.

"Trouble the Water" has been supported by grants from the Sundance Institute, the Open Society Institute, and is a project of Creative Capital.

Conference:
"Visual Literacy and Faith-Based Education"
Easton Hall at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, GTU
2451 Scenic Avenue, Berkeley
Event website: http://www.stmarys-ca.edu/visual-literacy

Sponsored by Saint Mary’s College of California (Moraga, CA) and the Center for the Arts, Religion, and Education (CARE) at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA

This two-day event provides scholars and artists an opportunity to present their work and interact with peers. The conference facilitates exchange of innovative practice, presentation of research results, and discussion of works in progress. We hope to address some of the following questions: How does visual literacy support ecumenical education? What is the role of visual literacy in faith-based education? What is the role of visual literacy as a pedagogical strategy outside of the arts disciplines?

This inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary conference seeks to examine and explore issues surrounding visual literacy in regard to faith-based colleges and universities. Perspectives from fields such as education, fine arts, literature, philosophy, psychology, critical theory and theology will be highlighted. For more detailed information, please visite the event website http://www.stmarys-ca.edu/visual-literacy

Gallery Talk:
“Mapping Sacred Ground”
Doug Adams Gallery at the Badè Museum
Pacific School of Religion
1798 Scenic Avenue, Berkeley

Badè Director Aaron Brody, museum registrar Karen Krosloswitz and author Erik Davis discuss “mapping” as reflected in ancient archaeological sites, spontaneous roadside memorials, and psycogeographies of California’s sacred spaces, both constructed and organic.

Speaker biographies:

Dr. Aaron Brody is the Robert and Kathryn Riddell Associate Professor of Bible and Archaeology and the Director of the Badè Museum at PSR. Brody holds a Ph.D. and M.A. from Harvard University, and a B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley. He taught at the University of Georgia, Boston University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before coming to PSR and the GTU in 2002. Brody's field work has been conducted primarily at Bronze and Iron Age sites on the Mediterranean coast of Israel, and he has participated in projects in the Negev and Akko Plain and with the Ohlone-Muwekma at sites in northern California. His primary research interests include archaeological interpretations of the society and economy of ancient Canaan, Phoenicia, and Israel, archaeology and the study of religions, and deep water archaeology. Recently his research and publications have been focused on household archaeology, metallurgy, and interregional trade at Tell en-Nasbeh, the ancient site that forms the principal holdings of the Badè Museum.

Karen Kroslowitz is the author of “Spontaneous Memorials: Forums for Dialog and Discourse,” which appeared in Museums & Social Issues: A Journal of Reflective Discourse. Karen holds a Master of Arts in Museum Studies from John F. Kennedy University, where her graduate thesis, “Socially Responsible Collecting from Spontaneous Memorials,” earned her the Gail Anderson Award. Presently, Karen is the Registrar for the Computer History Museum and also worked in collections management and exhibit development at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, the Wing Luke Asian Museum in Seattle and the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas.

Eric Davis is a San Francisco-based writer and culture critic. He is the author of TechGnosis: Myth, Magic and Mysticism in the Age of Information, as well as a short critical volume on Led Zeppelin IV. Davis contributes to scores of magazines, and his essays have been included in over a dozen books. He won a Maggie Award for his San Francisco magazine profile of the Internet entrepreneur and UFO contactee Joe Firmage, while the New Yorker has recognized his expertise in the works of the California science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. You can learn more about his work at www.erikdavis.org.

Annual Dillenberger Lecture:
"The Image of the Wounded Body of Christ and the Modern Social Conscience"
Dinner Board Room, Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, Graduate Theological Union
2400 Ridge Road, Berkeley

Terrence E. Dempsey, S.J., Ph.D.
Fr. Terrence E. Dempsey, S.J., is a Jesuit priest and the Founding Director of the Museum of Contemporary Religious Art (MOCRA) at Saint Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri. MOCRA is the world’s first interfaith museum of contemporary art. Fr. Dempsey holds a Master’s in English and a Master’s in Art History from Saint Louis University; and a Master’s of Divinity from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley. In 1991, he received his doctorate in art history and religion at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley in conjunction with the University of California at Berkeley, while studying under the direction of Jane Daggett Dillenberger and John Dillenberger of the Graduate Theological Union and Peter Selz of the University of California.

In 1995, Fr. Dempsey was named the first holder of the May O’Rourke Jay Endowed Teaching Chair in Art History and Theology at Saint Louis University, a position he still holds. In 1997, he was awarded the distinguished alumnus of the year award by the Graduate Theological Union, and in 1999, he was named outstanding teacher of the year in the College of Arts and Sciences at Saint Louis University.

Fr. Dempsey has curated over fifty five exhibitions, including thirty-six exhibitions for MOCRA. These exhibitions have received significant critical acclaim and positive public response. Through his efforts, MOCRA has earned the respect of some of the best artists, museum and gallery professionals, and theologians in America, and increasingly, the international community. Fr. Dempsey is also the author of numerous articles and a frequent lecturer. His international lecture venues include Oxford University, the Irish Theological Society in Dublin, and the Art and Church Enquiry (ACE) meeting in Strasbourg, France. In February 2006, Fr. Dempsey was an invited guest on the “News Hour with Jim Lehrer.”

Workshop:
“Tweet if U ♥ Jesus – Capturing the Promise of Social Media for Faith-Based Community Building, Communications, and Leadership"
Media Lab, Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, Graduate Theological Union
2400 Ridge Road, Berkeley

With Elizabeth Drescher, PhD.

This 3-hour workshop will introduce leaders in ministry to the basics of using new social networking sites such as Facebook®, Twitter®, and YouTube® to build community, better understand the interests and needs of believers and seekers, and more effectively communicate the vision and values of faith-based organizations to both local and distributed constituents. Participants will learn how new social media has changed the practice of organizational communication from a broadcasting or preaching/proclaiming approach to one anchored in content sharing and creative collaboration. The workshop will provide opportunities for participants to work with social media tools such as blog platforms, Twitter® pages, and Facebook® profiles and group pages. The workshop will conclude with a model for developing and implementing an integrated social media plan that supports the mission of participants’ organizations.

Elizabeth Drescher, PhD is Director of the Center for Anglican Learning & Leadership (CALL) and Assistant Professor of Christian Spiritualitiesat Church Divinity School of the Pacific (CDSP) in Berkeley, CA. CDSP is the seminary serving Province VIII of the Episcopal Church, and CALL is its distributed education program unit.

Panel Discussion:
“Art and Human Rights - Ethical and Theological Reflections on Fernando Botero: The Abu Ghraib Series”
Museum Theater, Berkeley Art Museum, 2621 Durant, Berkeley

What are the ethical and even theological implications of Fernando Botero’s Abu Ghraib series? Laurel Fletcher, Clinical Professor of Law, and Director, International Human Rights Law Clinic, UC Berkeley, will introduce and moderate a panel of scholars from the Graduate Theological Union who will consider the artwork from this important perspective. Points of departure include changes and continuities in human rights practice, and representations of abuse across time and place

Speakers include: William O’Neill, Associate Professor of Social Ethics, JSTB; Rebecca Gordon, PhD, GTU and Instructor of Ethics, University of San Francissco; Pamela Blotner, artist, educator and curator; Munir Jiwa, Director, Center for Islamic Studies, GTU.

Moderated by Laurel Fletcher, Clinical Professor of Law; Director, International Human Rights Law Clinic, UC Berkeley.
Presented by the Center for the Arts, Religion and Education, an affiliate of the Graduate Theological Union. Co-sponsored by the Berkeley Art Museum and the Human Rights Center, UC Berkeley.

Speaker biographies:

Pamela Blotner is an artist, educator and curator who has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for the last fifteen years. In her Berkeley studio she creates sculptures and drawings that reflect on humankind’s relationship to nature, belief, science, and calamity. In her writing and travels she examines the survival strategies used by artists, the works they create in response to violence or war, and the power of art to serve as a touchstone that shapes a culture and ensures its continued survival.

Over the last 25 years, much of Blotner’s work has been informed by her experiences as an Illustrator/Mission Specialist on missions for Human Rights Watch, Physicians for Human Rights, and the UC Berkeley Human Rights Center. She has worked with or written about war survivors and artists in Guatemala, Iraqi Kurdistan, Bosnia, Croatia, Cambodia, and Burma.

Pamela Blotner has taught throughout the Bay Area and created the Sculpture program at the University of San Francisco. For the past 12 years she has been member of the faculty of Pixar University at Pixar Animation Studios. She also serves on the Advisory Board of the of the Artist’s Rescue Mission in Houston, TX. In January of 2010 Blotner will become the Inaugural Artist-In -Residence of the Center for Art, Religion and Education of the Graduate Theological Union.

Laurel Fletcher is active in the areas of transitional justice and humanitarian law, as well as globalization and migration. As director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic, she utilizes an interdisciplinary, problem-based approach to human rights research, advocacy, and policy. She has conducted empirical studies of the human rights impacts of Hurricane Katrina and the 2004 tsunami, forced labor in the United States, forced migration from the Dominican Republic, and the relationship between justice, accountability, and reconciliation in Bosnia. The Fulbright Commission invited Fletcher to lecture in Sri Lanka regarding her work on the provision of HIV treatment as a human rights obligation. In November, 2008, Fletcher and co-author Eric Stover released "Guantanamo and Its Aftermath: U.S. Detention and Interrogation Practices and Their Impact on Former Detainees." The report presents the findings of a path-breaking, two-year study that used cutting edge methodology to illuminate the experiences and perspectives for former detainees themselves, including the long-term impact of their treatment by the United States.

Fletcher's other publications include "Latino Workers and Human Rights in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina," in the /Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law/ (2007) (co-author); "From Indifference to Engagement: Bystanders and International Criminal Justice," in the "Michigan Journal of International Law" (2005); "After the Tsunami: Human Rights Vulnerabilities of Vulnerable Populations" (2005) (co-author); and "A World Unto Itself? The Application of International Justice in the Former Yugoslavia," in "My Neighbor, My Enemy: Justice and Community in the Aftermath of Mass Atrocity" (co-author) (Eric Stover & Harvey Weinstein eds., Cambridge Univ. Press) (2004).

Rebecca Gordon received her Ph.D. in Ethics and Social Theory from the Graduate Theological Union in 2009. Her dissertation focuses on the use of torture by the United States since the attacks of 9/11. She's also a veteran of various movements for peace and social justice, including those in solidarity with the peoples of Central America and for women's liberation and racial justice in this country. In 1984 she spent six months in the war zones of Nicaragua, recording her time there in the book Letters from Nicaragua. Rebecca is a member of the War Times/Tiempo de Guerras organizing group and presently teaches Ethics at the University of San Francisco.

Munir Jiwa is the founding director of the Center for Islamic Studies and Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies at the Graduate Theological Union. He holds a Ph.D. and M.Phil. in Anthropology from Columbia University and an M.T.S. in World Religions from Harvard Divinity School. His research interests include Islam and Muslims in the West, media, aesthetics, religious pluralism and identity. Since 1995 he has worked with Religions for Peace on interfaith programs in Bosnia, Japan, the Middle East, and West Africa. He also worked with the Ford Foundation-funded “Muslims in NYC Project” at Columbia University from 1998-2004. He is currently revising a manuscript for publication tentatively entitled: Imaging Islam, Mediating Muslims: Aesthetics, Politics and Religion.

William O'Neill, S.J. is a professor of social ethics at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley and a visiting professor of ethics at the Jesuit School of Theology, "Hekima" in Nairobi. His writings address questions of human rights, ethics and hermeneutical theory, social reconciliation and conflict resolution, and refugee policy. He has worked with refugees in Tanzania and Malawi; done research on humana rights in South Africa and Rwanda. He received a Newcombe Fellowship, a Lilly Theological Research Grant, and held the Jesuit Chair, Georgetown University (2003-2004). He has served on the Editorial Board of The Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, and serves on the Board of the Society of Christian Ethics and of the journal, Theological Studies.

"New Way Media Festival"
Awards Ceremony: Digital Artworks Related to Worship, Education, and Mission Social Action
Olivet University
250 Fourth Street, San Francisco
The purpose of this festival is to exhibit original works of art with special reference to new media and explore their relationship to faith and contemporary culture. This event is open primarily to the community of artists, religious leaders, and educators in the San Francisco Bay Area. This event will include an awards ceremony with gala refreshments at 4:30. David Randolph is the event host, and David Magdalene is the director.