AUGUST 2021
August 2021
In this month’s newsletter, we share about our upcoming August event for Creating Peace Reading Circle with special guest Rev. Sarah Bowen, and briefly preview some of our fall programs featured in Compassion Arts Festival 2021.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Creating Peace Reading Circle
Join us Friday August 27th at 7pmEST for a Creating Peace Reading Circle talk and reading with animal chaplain, educator, and spirituality writer Sarah Bowen , author of “Spiritual Rebel.” A fierce advocate for all creatures, Sarah teaches interspecies mindfulness practices, works with humans around animal grief/loss , advocates for exploited and endangered species, and provides wildlife struck by cars a “sacred sendoff.” She is a cofounder of the interspecies faith community Compassion Consortium and a faculty member at One Spirit Interfaith Seminary. Sarah writes regularly on animal/human relationships for Spirituality & Health Magazine and co-hosts the Big Universe podcast on Unity Online Radio. www.modernreverend.com
Creating Peace Reading Circle is a Compassion Arts gathering on zoom that is presented on the fourth Friday of every month, in partnership with Unity of Central Mass for their Friday Night Spiritual Practice program. The book discussion circle shares writings on animals and nature, and stories of healing and transformation for a more compassionate and just world for all.
To sign up for this event please email info@compassionarts.org to receive the zoom link information.
For more information visit compassionarts.org/news-events
THE FIFTH TRUST
Curated by Janell O’Rourke and Jane O’Hara
A Virtual Exhibition
Linnea Ryshke Embers 30”x15” pastel+acrylic on wood panel
Linda Brant
Lee Deigaard
Patrica Denys
Alise Eastgate
Kathryn Eddy
Karen Fiorito
Erica Gajewski
Suzy González
Isa Leshko
Jane O’Hara
Janell O’Rourke
Colleen Plumb
Linnea Ryshke
L.A. Watson
Gretchen Woodman
THE FIFTH TRUST
Compassion Arts is excited to announce that we will be hosting a virtual group art exhibition for our 2021 Compassion Arts Festival this fall. The exhibit, which opens Thursday November 18th and runs through January 2022, is curated by Compassion Arts program presenters and artists Jane O’Hara and Janell O’Rourke, and features the work of fifteen women artists for animals.
A poignant and powerful contemplation through the visual arts on animals, nature, and our relationship with the life we share the planet with, The Fifth Trust virtual exhibit reflects on the tenet “Be Wise Stewards of Life on the Earth”, inspired by the book The Ten Trusts: What We Must Do To Care For The Animals We Love by Jane Goodall and Marc Bekoff.
About the Curators
Janell O’Rourke
Janell O’Rourke is an interdisciplinary artist who works in the field of critical animal studies. Her studio practice is deeply shaped through drawing, often using intentionally low tech materials and techniques. Through art making, she explores the mechanisms of unwarranted prejudices that objectify other animals and our relationships with them. O’Rourke is a founding member of the artist coalition ArtAnimalAffect. She is a co-curator for What Does Art Add?: figuring the more-than-human world, based on the book Artist/Animal by Steve Baker, at City Without Walls in Newark NJ, and The Sexual Politics of Meat exhibition based on Carol J. Adams' book by the same name, at The Animal Museum. www.janellorourke.com
Jane O'Hara
Jane O’Hara is a painter and curator living in Providence RI. Her curatorial projects exist alongside her studio practice with focus on issues relating to animals’ disparate experience in society. Using surrealism, she creates a narrative in her work to point out how the animal condition poses a duality - animals raised in captivity at odds with the casting of human traits on our pampered pets. Previous curatorial efforts include her exhibition Beasts of Burden with 14 artists using the animal as inspiration, first in Boston, then NYC during the Culture & Animals and Compassion Arts Festival. O’Hara embraced the world of virtual exhibitions with her Forget Me Not exhibition for the 2020 Compassion Arts Festival, and co-curates The Fifth Trust with artist curator Janell O’Rourke for the 2021 CAF. www.janeohara.com
Egrets In Fog © Chris Taylor
PARTNERED PROGRAMS IN NOVEMBER
LEARNING FROM ANIMALS
Photo from The Last Pig film by Allison Argo
Compassion Arts Festival is honored to be partnering with In Defense of Animals in a new program LEARNING FROM ANIMALS coming in November. This speaker roundtable will be hosted by Lisa Levinson with guests Marc Bekoff, Allison Argo, Shaleen Shah and Sarah Bowen, to share on the Third Trust tenet (from The Ten Trusts by Jane Goodall & Marc Bekoff) “Open Our Minds, In Humility, to Animals and Learn from Them.” The speakers will reflect on their experiences and insights in animal advocacy, and explore how we can learn from animals through opening our minds and doing no harm. LEARNING FROM ANIMALS will be streamed at www.compassionartsfestival.org on Tuesday, November 18th at 7pm EST.
Photo of Tito at Luvin’ Arms Sanctuary
In Defense of Animals is an international animal protection organization defending animals, people, and the environment for over 38 years. Its mission is to defend animals from abuses and exploitation and to foster peace for all life through education programs and campaigns for raising awareness and changing laws, as well as through sanctuaries and animal rescue facilities for helping animals directly.
Lisa Levinson is the director of In Defense of Animals’ Sustainable Activism Campaign, which offers emotional and spiritual support for animal activists via a helpline, support groups, and online events. A devoted animal advocate, she also coordinates Vegan Spirituality retreats and facilitates workshops, is a webinar host and the co-founder of Public Eye: Artists for Animals.
Marc Bekoff is an animal advocate and well-known author of numerous highly acclaimed books on animal studies, animal behavior, animals’ emotions, human-animal interactions, animal protection and compassionate conservation. He is Professor Emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado, an Ambassador for the International Roots and Shoots program, and co-chair of the Ethics Committee of the Jane Gooodall Institute. His work has been featured in many documentaries and programs for NPR, National Geographic, PBS, documentaries, news shows, as well as in essays and articles.
Allison Argo is an animal advocate and the founder of Argo Films. A multiple Emmy Award winning director, writer, producer, editor, and filmmaker of documentaries for deepening understanding and respect for animals, her films have been broadcast on PBS and National Geographic for 25 years. Her intimate portraits of abused and endangered animals have been a voice for animals, reaching audiences with their stories worldwide.
Sarah Bowen: *see her bio at top of this newsletter at Creating Peace Reading Circle*
Shaleene Shah is co-founder of Luvin Arms Animal Sanctuary near Denver, Colorado, with his wife Shilpi and young boys Aarav and Avi. The sanctuary provides a safe haven for rescued animals while spreading the values of Nonviolence and Compassion. These unlikely sanctuary founders and dedicated Jains grew up in India before moving to the United States. Since founding the sanctuary in 2015, Shaleen and Shilpi have grown Luvin Arms substantially, already having saved over 800 animal lives and welcoming thousands of visitors every year. Along with Luvin Arms, the Shah’s have also created the Open Sanctuary Project (OpenSanctuary.org )a digital library and non-profit organization that freely publishes hundreds of resources on how to start, manage and grow an animal sanctuary.
NEW THANKS-LIVING
Vegans of New England will launch a co-partnered project on Nov. 24th called a New Thanks-Living, for Compassion Arts Festival 2021. Created by Compassion Arts, New England Veg Fest and CompassionFest, the Vegans of New England initiative and New Thanks-Living virtual event, will offer resources, connection, and a celebration of vegan living for uplifting plant-based community.
The project’s first event, New Thanks-Living, is a virtual gathering that seeks to redefine the traditional Thanksgiving model by creating a day of gratitude in action. From the roots of a “holiday” history based in centuries old racism, genocide, speciesism and animal cruelty, New Thanks-Living seeks to honor the seeds of mourning by strengthening the soil of transformation and nourishing a vision of respect for all life.
Hosted by Marlene Narrow of Vegan Nation radio, the virtual Thanks-Living will feature guests, cooking demos, sanctuaries, music, art and stories of hope and inspiration, in creating a new narrative for holistic nonviolence, in the work towards a more compassionate and just world for all (humans and animals alike).
Painting by Linda G Fisher
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