The Monks of Drepung Loseling Monastery will construct a Mandala Sand Painting in the Pavilion on Dublin's Coffman Park Oct. 10-14 as part of the multicultural B.R.E.A.D! Festival.
What constitutes something as art? How can you bring a community together in celebration of its differences? These are the questions the Dublin Arts Council hopes to answer with its third annual B.R.E.A.D! Festival on Oct. 14 in Coffman Park.
Breaking Bread
With goals to Bake, Reconnect, Educate, make Art and celebrate Diversity, the B.R.E.A.D! Festival continues to grow and evolve each year, and not without community input. The community’s enthusiasm for the festival is actually the driving force behind the event’s planning committee.
The Aharen Honryu Keisen Wa No Kai Okinawan Dance group performs at the 2017 B.R.E.A.D! Festival.
“We met and assembled a group of community stakeholders,” says Dublin Arts Council Executive Director David Guion. “Our mantra is that we do things with the community, as opposed to for the community, so that was a critical component.”
Though there are many new things to be excited about this year, the essential components to the festival, like the variety of ethnic food trucks and the global marketplace, will return once again.
“Each year we’ve had a featured artist and we’ve always looked for unique opportunities to bring those artistic components to the festival,” says DAC Director of Engagement Janet Cooper. “For this year, I think the most exciting new visual art component would obviously be The Mystical Arts of Tibet featuring the monks of Drepung Loseling Monastery.”
The monks will construct a mandala sand painting over the course of five days with an opening ceremony on Oct. 10 at noon in the Coffman Park Pavilion. Community members are invited to watch the meditative process in the days leading up to the festival, and festivalgoers will even have the chance to contribute to a separate community sand painting.
The monks will also bring some of their extra tools and train a local artist to sand paint. Hilary Frambes, a visual artist who has been involved with the festival from the beginning, will learn and share the practice of sand painting with festivalgoers.
“Frambes will be trained by the monks and the community will have an opportunity then to handle all of those authentic tools and to participate in the creation of (a sand painting) during the festival,” says Cooper. “So that’s a new, engaging way to really make the visual arts component meaningful and educational and creative.”
Back for More
Once again, the B.R.E.A.D! Festival will host several community groups, all of which are dedicated to celebrating the customs and traditions of different cultures and ethnicities.
Among others, the Glimpses of India and the SAYU (Japanese tea ceremony) booths return to engage festivalgoers with traditional ceremonies and practices. Visit the Glimpses of India booth to see how traditional Indian flatbread is made and observe the ancient and intricate art form of henna tattoos. Stop by SAYU’s booth for a chance to observe and participate in a traditional Japanese tea ceremony, as well as sample the tea and sweet treats.
Another returning crowd favorite, the B.R.E.A.D! World Tour challenge is a quiz that festivalgoers can take once they have visited all of the community booths.
“We reached out to all of those community booths in advance last year and said, ‘What one thing would you want someone to take away about your culture, or what message do you think is most important?’” says Cooper. “We turned all of those (answers) into sort of a quiz, so people could, either digitally or on paper, do a world tour, learn, answer these questions and then get a little item when they leave.”
The prize this year? Participants will receive a mixing bowl representing the many cultures coming together in one community, much like the many ingredients that must come together to make breads from all over the world.
There’s No Fun Without Funding
The Dublin Arts Council is able to host events like the B.R.E.A.D! Festival thanks to the support it receives from the City of Dublin. Each year, the council applies for a hotel/motel tax grant from the City. This year, DAC received a waiver of City services and a grant of $23,000 as seed money for the festival.
But it’s not just the City of Dublin who has taken notice of the festival’s impact. The National Endowment for the Arts also awarded DAC a $10,000 Art Works grant.
“It’s something that we’ve been shooting for for a long time and it’s highly unusual to receive a grant from the National Endowment. But what it does is it leverages support,” says Guion. “Often times people say it’s like the Good Housekeeping seal of approval. You know that you’ve checked all of the boxes, you’re adhering to all of the criteria that the arts should adhere to in terms of production, development and quality of performance. So, we are really happy to receive that. It’s a big deal for us.”
Jenny Wise is an associate editor. Feedback welcome at jwise@cityscenemediagroup.com.
