Luminous: Conversations On Sacred Arts

Pamela Smart is fascinated by how art works on us, on the totality of our selves. That means she is interested in aesthetics, anthropology, and art history. All of these come together in her studies of the Rothko Chapel, a space that has had a visceral effect on countless visitors seeking stillness.

Dr Hernandez, Mescalero and Warm Springs Apache, is involved in establishing and preserving community archives, as well consulting with museums and community nonprofits. Her experience, in her life, faith, and work, yields profound and rare insights.

Bissera Pentcheva is one of the rare art historians who reaches across disciplines: visual art, architecture, sound. This allows her to speak all the more meaningfully about art as it is actually experienced, by human beings in totality of the sensory world. We talk about her award-winning work with the vocal ensemble Cappella Romana, as well as her recent projects that study sculpture within the play of flickering candlelight.

Laurie Anderson is a living legend in the world of the arts. Her career, spanning from the late 1970’s right up to the present day, has resulted in a vast oeuvre of meaningful and impactful art across a wide array of media. Fascinating, brilliant, and ever attuned to the spiritual (she has been increasingly involving her Buddhism in her work) she represents the essence of what we hope for with the Luminous series: substantive but free conversation around the arts and the sacred.

Adrienne Williams Boyarin writes on religious material in medieval poetry, but she’s also been at the forefront of the important conversation on bringing religion back into the study of the humanities. Her expertise in literature and her commitment to exploring Jewish Christian relationships within it, her interest in the written lives of the saints and in the relationship between religion and academia—make for Luminous conversation.

Mark Shapiro is a major figure in the New York classical music scene, as music director of Cantori New York as well as several other award-winning ensembles—all of which extend his impact to the national and global scale. Apart from the precision of his work, he is known for his thoughtful and trailblazing programs, his repertoire drawing on sometimes hidden gems of great beauty. Add to this his fluency in a wide diversity of topics and interests.

Jamey and Lee Bozeman formed the new wave band Luxury decades before they became Fr. James and Fr. David, Orthodox Christian priests. The band’s journey is told in a must-see documentary, but this conversation teases out some of its implied themes of art and the sacred: how they navigate life in the studio and the concert venue—and at the altar.

Tõnu Kõrvits has for some decades been a rising star among Estonian composers—one can now say that the star is decisively risen, and shines with the ethereal light of his lush and compelling work. Another episode recorded in the field—this time in the heart of Tallinn, Estonia.

Kaupo Kikkas is one of the most compelling photographers working today. Centering on portrait as well as fine art photography, with predilections for the American Southwest, the Amazon rain forest, and Lapland, as well as for musicians and their instruments. He is deeply reflective, and highly articulate about his craft and his vision.

David Bentley Hart began his storied career as theologian and public intellectual with a book called The Beauty of the Infinite, a game-changing and definitive foray into theological aesthetics. His most recent little masterpiece is Roland in Moonlight, a reverie about his philosophical mentor, who also happens to be his dog Roland. We have a lot to talk about.