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International Artist Day – October 25

We celebrate International Artist Day on October 25. Art as a creative human expression encapsulates myriad things. It portrays the beauty of life or a bitter reality. It records history, revolutions, rebellions, and sometimes is a means to escape them. In short, there is no history or culture without art. This day celebrates all forms of art — paintings, sculpture, photography, architecture, music, and more. Through this celebration we show our respect for the passion and creativity in all artists. As art provide you with a medium of speech let us also see the work of those artists who study, research and criticize artists to showcase their art of words, here is a list of top art journalist.

HISTORY OF INTERNATIONAL ARTIST DAY

In the summer of 1961 President Kennedy made an effort to settle a salary dispute between the Metropolitan Opera and the American Federation of Musicians. He succeeded. Kennedy’s actions signaled his passion for the arts. Congress, in the mid 60s, designated the National Cultural Center, launched in 1958, as a “living memorial” to President Kennedy and authorized $23 million to begin construction. It’s now simply known as the Kennedy Center.

The following year President Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts & the Humanities Act, which created the National Endowment for the Arts. 

By 1970 focus on the arts increasingly spread to television and cinema. Mobil Oil committed more than $1 million to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for presentation of Masterpiece Theatre on PBS — and for 5 million copies of new Sesame Street magazine to be given free to preschool children in low-income neighborhoods. This was the largest gift to CPB from the business community to date.

A decade later President Reagan, himself a former actor appointed a Presidential Task Force on the Arts & Humanities to review the purposes of the National Endowments; broaden private support; engage more non-government professionals, private groups & individuals; & recommend ways to strengthen the overall structure of both agencies.

Still another president would show his support as well. Bill Clinton, in his 1997 State of the Union Address, asked Congress to maintain support for the arts — and urged citizens to make the year 2000 a national celebration “so that we can remain the world’s beacon not only of liberty but of creativity, long after the fireworks have faded.”

Recently the Museum of Modern Art in New York City reopened after a $400 million renovation — adding over 40,000 square feet for galleries (including two at the street-level)— inside the new West 53rd St. tower. They are free to the public.

 

Source: Text & Image: https://nationaltoday.com/international-artist-day/

 

13th Sunday of Year A – 2020

“Small is beautiful” – people like to repeat it.
And it is true.
A small drop of dew on a bud is a thing of beauty.

Small things are beautiful and they are important.
This is the thought that came to my mind as I read the last verse of this Sunday’s gospel (Mt.10:37-42).
Jesus tells us:

 “If anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple,
truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.”
 
A cup of water amounts to nothing, some would say.
It costs nothing really, apart from the effort to care and to give!…
Yet, for someone thirsty, really thirsty, it can mean so much.

At times, we think that, to please God, we need to do extraordinary things.
We believe that only hard and painful actions will draw his attention.
We suppose that our humble efforts, our daily struggle, will go unnoticed by him, so great.

This way of thinking, this kind of belief, need correction.
Yes, “small is beautiful” in the eyes of God.
He ‘proved’ this in coming to us as… a tiny baby, so small…

So, trying as best we can, in small ways, to please God is pleasing to him –
even if it is only the gift of a cup of water!
A smile, a kind word, a listening ear, a helping hand, will do too!

Note: Another reflection is available on a different theme in French at: https://image-i-nations.com/13e-dimanche-de-lannee-a-2020/

 

Source: image: blazdesign.com   asoundvideo.com

 

2nd Sunday of Lent, C

za.fotolia.com mirror b.Recently, a TV programme was speaking of a survey among a large sample of women. The findings were quite amazing. The report showed that in the group of women who had been part of the survey, every one of them, yes, every single one of them, would have liked to change something in their appearance. Given the opportunity – and the money – each woman would have wished her appearance to be different. They were not afflicted with serious birth defects, or ugly scars, or any disfiguring attribute, yet they would have liked to see themselves, and to be seen, in a different way.

fotosearch.com cosmeticsIs it any wonder that it has been published that “The revenue of the U.S. cosmetic industry is estimated to amount to about 62.46 billion U.S. dollars in 2016” (Statista, The Statistics Portal)? I had to read this more than once to let the meaning of the words sink in my mind!

Beautifying oneself, it seems that this is what everyone wants to achieve. And… this is what the gospel (Lk.9:28-36) and the text of the 2nd reading (Ph.3:20 – 4: 1) are about on this 2nd Sunday of Lent (Year C). Beautifying oneself… with a difference – the difference being that it is the Lord who will be doing the ‘beautifying’. Paul assures the Philippians – and it is valid for us as well: “The Lord Jesus Christ will transfigure these wretched bodies of ours into copies of his glorious body.”

transfiguration, www.christianquotes.info

The gospel gives us a glimpse of Jesus glorious body. Our own bodies will have a share in this glory, a beauty no longer depending on meticulous operations to add this and remove that element of our appearance. Really? Really! Because the beauty will emerge from within. It will have been slowly ‘fashion’ by the Great Artist – the Spirit. We will no longer be subjected to suffering and pain, no longer submitted to beauty tips, face lifts, and the likes.

It happens that we speak words, we make statements, without much thinking. The words come to our lips without our minds giving much thought to them. This may be the case for what we say every time we recite the Creed. Sentence after sentence is pronounced, and we come to the words: “I believe in the resurrection of the body…” Do we? Absolutely? Without reservation or doubt? If so, the most wonderful beautifying is already in the making!

Source: Images: zafotolia.com   fotosearch.com   www.christianquotes.info