Parable of the Broken Plates: Shared Grief and Hope in Art and Faith Communities

Workshop Presentation
William Catling  

Workshop participants are invited to experience a hands-on encounter with art as a vehicle for personal and communal healing. The concept of integrating art into our various educational, faith and communal gatherings has its roots in the earliest recordings of humanity; In caves and on rocks, in settings for corporate worship, public squares, enacted rituals, educational centers and other forms of communal life. It is through the deep interconnection of art and spirituality that society can find a way to heal from its multi-faceted problems. Donald Kuspit shares that “authentically spiritual art does not so much ‘communicate’ as ‘induce’ an attitude of communion and contemplation.” Both of these experiences have the power to bring about healthy change in society. The breaking of plates serves as a symbolic gesture representing the broken areas of life in our communities. These broken pieces are then put back together to tell a story of individual and communal grief and hope. The resulting mosaics create images that reveal the healing that can come through the making of art and for the viewers of the work.