Franklin College will host “Sacred Steps: Interfaith Understanding through Dance” as part of the 2024 Spirit & Place Festival. The evening will begin with a reception on Thursday, Nov. 7 at 6:30 p.m. in the Old Main rotunda. Dance performances featuring Style Dance Academy, Natyalaya School of Arts and Iibada Dance Company will begin at 7 p.m. in the Clarence E. and Inez R. Custer Theatre, followed by a brief conversation about dance, spirituality and gratitude. Admission is free for all ages, but registration is required at bit.ly/Sacred_Steps due to limited space.
“The Interfaith Through the Arts series provides students and the community an opportunity to learn about how other people experience faith and religion, not simply through lecture, but through sharing art and culture,” said Rev. Hannah Adams Ingram, Ph.D., director of religious life and chaplain at Franklin College. “When we engage with others, we learn more about ourselves, too.”
About Interfaith Understanding Through the Arts: In 2020, Franklin College hosted its first annual Interfaith Understanding Through the Arts event during the Spirit & Place Festival. The initiative is the inspiration of Franklin College Professor Emeritus David Carlson, Ph.D., and Adams Ingram, both of whom have long been drawn to interfaith dialogue and understanding. Carlson and Adams Ingram are active with the Center for Interfaith Cooperation based in Indianapolis and have represented Franklin College at various interfaith celebratory events and educational workshops, including the annual Festival of Faiths.
The initiative was originally funded through a grant from the Allen Whitehill Clowes Charitable Foundation. The goal is to bridge understanding of the world’s religions by highlighting the differences and similarities of various faith traditions through artistic expressions rooted in the arts and humanities. Artistic mediums showcased during previous events have included storytelling, poetry, music and the culinary arts.
About Spirit & Place: Spirit & Place is housed on the campus of Indiana University Indianapolis and puts the liberal arts into action through the power of the arts, humanities and religion. Year-long projects and events utilize these three “civic tools” to bring people together in a spirit of adventurous civility and collaboration. The signature offering, the Spirit & Place Festival, is a multi-day festival of events independently created and hosted by the community with support from Spirit & Place. Spirit & Place provides a yearly theme, staff coaching on collaborative possibilities and event design, and promotional support. A team of community reviewers select festival events after an application process.
This year’s theme – GRATITUDE – invites guests to explore how our communities and organizations could be different if we foregrounded gratitude. Festival programming events are designed to explore where gratitude emanates, how it is expressed, the function it serves in public and spiritual life, and the ways in which human creativity has blossomed and shined when expressing it.
For more information, contact the Franklin College Office of Communications at (317) 738-8185.