Sacred Arts Festival

Our Sacred Arts Festival happens in April, and explores religious life through art and artifacts and brings together a variety of beliefs and religious expressions of faith. The 2012 Sacred Arts Festival will be Sunday, April 22, from 1:00 to:00 5pm.

Sacred Arts Festival activities may include the creation of a Tibetan Buddhist Sand Mandala, stone carvering, and live demonstrations of a replica Gutenberg-era printing press. Mosaics and stained glass blowing and painting demonstrations, while live sacred music and family activities round out the event.

For more information about the next Sacred Arts Festival, contact us at info@glencairnmuseum.org or 267-502-2600.

VIEW photos from the Sacred Arts Festival.

2011 Sacred Arts Festival Press Release

Tibetan scholar seen in Scorsese’s Kundun creating sand painting. 5-day creation of Tibetan sand mandala at Glencairn Museum concludes with activity-filled Sacred Arts Festival April 10.

Glencairn Museum in Bryn Athyn will offer a rare opportunity to see the creation and ritual dismantling of a traditional Tibetan Buddhist sand mandala over a five-day period, April 6-10, concluding with a Sacred Arts Festival featuring a live trombone choir, stained glass-painting, stone-carving and printing press demonstrations and hands-on family activities.

The Sacred Arts Festival April 10 at Glencairn, 1001 Cathedral Rd., will explore religious life through art and artifacts and brings together a variety of beliefs and religious expressions of faith, said Joralyn Echols, Glencairn’s outreach and public relations coordinator. "How often," she asked, "does a Christian Moravian trombone choir perform alongside a Tibetan Buddhist sand mandala?"

A Buddhist tradition involving the use of colored sand to form a painting, the mandala will be created over five days, beginning Wednesday, April 6 and ending around 4 p.m., Sunday, April 10 during the festival, which runs from 1 to 5 p.m. The public may observe construction of the mandala from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 6, 7 and 8 and from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. April 9. Times are subject to change, so Glencairn suggests visitors call the museum at 267-502-2600 to confirm the schedule.

The sand mandala will be created and dismantled by the Venerable Losang Samten, a renowned Tibetan scholar and the first Buddhist given permission by His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama, to build a sand mandala in the West. Spiritual leader of the Tibetan Buddhist Center of Philadelphia, Samten was religious technical advisor, sand mandala supervisor, and an actor in director Martin Scorsese’s film "Kundun."

Samten’s planned design for this visit to Glencairn is a peace mandala called the "Kalachakra." A mandala is a circular representation of spiritual truths made from colored sand. It is intended to uplift everyone who sees it and to bless the environment. This Buddhist ritual concludes with the dismantling of the mandala, which is done in a special ceremony involving chanting, collecting the used sand and pouring it into a creek-fed pond on Glencairn’s property.

"The sand is poured into the water so its healing powers can be spread around the world," said Echols. Visitors are invited to accompany Samtem Samten during his walk to the water’s edge for the ceremony.

Prior to the dismantling, which will begin around 4 p.m., the Moravian Trombone Choir from Bethlehem will perform in its first appearance at Glencairn. The first documented performance of a Moravian trombone choir took place early in the 18th century in Herrnhut Germany, and the tradition quickly spread to Moravian settlements in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and North Carolina, according to Glencairn Curator Ed Gyllenhaal. Historically, the choirs would call the congregation to worship, announce deaths to the community, and perform at burial services and the Easter sunrise service. Many trombone choirs continue to be active in Moravian congregations today, Gyllenhaal said.     

Among the offerings at this year’s Sacred Arts Festival are stained glass-painting workshops by noted stained glass architectural artist J. Kenneth Leap of the Stained Glass Center at WheatonArts in Millville, N.J; stone carving by a Bryn Athyn Cathedral artist; performances by the Moravian Trombone Choir, as well as a chance to learn about the history of printed Bibles in the museum exhibition, "From Gutenberg to Kindle: The Art of Bible Making." Visitors will see demonstrations of printing on a working Gutenberg-era replica press, and may participate in hands-on activities including making a small-scale mandala and a prayer flag.

"This is a great opportunity to compare and contrast religious objects and practices, and appreciate the universal religious community," said Echols.

The Tibetan Buddhist sand mandala event runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 6, 7 and 8, and from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. April 9 and 10. Admission is free, but donations are welcome. The Sacred Arts Festival runs from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. April 10. Admission is $5; $3 for seniors and students with ID; free for children four and under. Admission to the first floor of the museum is free. Glencairn visitors also may stop by the Castle Café and gift shop, view an orientation video and take a cell phone audio tour of the nine-story Romanesque-style castle that houses the museum, part of the Bryn Athyn Historical District, a National Historic Landmark.