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IN A WORLD gone completely mad, it is a relief and a wonder to know that there are peacekeeping organizations striving for the brotherhood of mankind at the most fundamental level of our existence: faith. More specifically, in today's climate of increasing religious prejudice, which has resulted in protracted anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim sentiment, the capacity of creative initiatives has proven time and again to be the most powerful means in which to bring cohesion and universal consciousness to all. As Leonard Bernstein, 20th-century composer, conductor and musician, famously declared, "Art cannot change events. But it can change people. It can affect people so that they are changed—they then act in a way that may affect the course of events ... by the way they behave, the way they think."
The work of CARAVAN—international peacekeeping nonprofit/NGO with the objective of building bridges through the arts between the creeds and cultures of the Middle East and West—is no stranger to The Culturium. Founded and curated by Paul-Gordon Chandler (Rev. Canon), their seminal exhibition focusing on the work of painters drawing inspiration from Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet is one of the most popular pieces on the site.
CARAVAN'S latest presentation is one of their most pertinent to date: three celebrated Middle Eastern contemporary visual artists from the religious traditions of Islam, Christianity and Judaism (Sinan Hussein, Qais Al Sindy and Shai Azoulay) were invited to interpret artistically five important lessons taken from the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and the Holy Qur’an, featuring the life of Abraham, "father" of the three monotheistic faiths: Living as a Pilgrim; Welcoming the Stranger; Sacrificial Love; Compassion; Friend of God.
Entitled "ABRAHAM: Out of One, Many" (a pun on the Latin, "E pluribus unum" / "Out of many, one"), the exhibition explores the way in which the life of the great ancestral patriarch can act as an exemplary example of how to live harmoniously and respectfully with those from different cultural background and beliefs, in a time period wherein we are all descendants of a shared spiritual heritage.
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