Sacred Spaces Work & Projects
To quote my mission, I wish to develop museum exhibits and spaces that allow visitors to engage dynamically with a museum’s collection in a manner that goes beyond intellectual learning. This kind of experience I wish to facilitate through "sacred spaces," not necessarily of a religious nature, but rather of a spiritual dimension that allows for a sort of transcendence from a mundane reality, a space that brings awareness to aspects of life typically not perceived. Here are some key selections of some of the work I have done.
For my Museums, Health, and Wellbeing course, my research paper argued for the benefits of allowing visitors to experience the museum as "sacred" or "transcendent" instead of being afraid of these non-secular elements. While the institution might need to remain secular, a visitor's experience and the objects do not need to be forcibly cleansed of any spiritual experiences and roles. The image to the left is a photo I took of one such place, the Nalanda Mahavihara site. Please click on the photo to see the full paper.
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Sacred Spaces for Health and Wellbeing in Museums
As I had previous experience with Tibetan Art, and majored in Art History for my Bachelor's, I took an Art History course on Tibetan Art from one of the only specialists in the world on Tibetan Art, Professor Uranchimeg Tsultem. In this course, I presented my final research project on the importance of having Tibetan artifacts, particularly those of a religious nature, to be in a recreation of their original physical context. Please click on the photo of the Green Tara I took to see this paper.
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Tibetan Art & Recreated Context
Sacred Spaces in Museums and Societal Benefits
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For my Religion and Philanthropy course, taken at the Lilly School of Philanthropy, I combined the benefits of spirituality and religion for the "American Experiment" with the roles museums provide in the USA to argue for museums as new, less religiously tied sources of such benefits when used to provide experienced based learning of the reverential.