Tibetan monks bring message of peace to Cache Arts Festival
The third annual Cache Valley Arts Festival will kick off with the arrival of the Tibetan Monks from the Drepung Loseling Monastery, and will include free arts activities and musical performances at the Cache Valley Center for the Arts. The festival is this week, from Sept. 17 through 20.
“We are trying to make it an exciting weekend,” said Julie Hollist, marketing director for the CVCA. “It will be a hub for arts experiences in downtown Logan.”
The monks will construct a mandala sand painting in the Bullen Center. Admission is free. The group also performed Sacred Music Sacred Dance for World Healing on Thursday and will again on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in the Ellen Eccles Theatre. Tickets are $20, $16, and $10, but students with a current ID can receive an additional 25 percent off ticket prices.
According to a press release, in order to construct the mandala, millions of grains of sand are painstakingly placed on a flat platform over a period of days. When finished, the mandala is destroyed to symbolize the impermanence of all that exists, and the colored sands are swept up and poured into a nearby river or stream where the waters carry the healing energies throughout the world.
The monks and the mandala will be featured from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday as part of the Cache Valley Gallery Walk in historic downtown Logan.
The show itself has three purposes: to make a contribution to world healing and the peace movement through sacred art; to generate a greater awareness of the endangered Tibetan civilization; and to raise support for the refugee community in India, according to the release.
Saturday’s festivities will showcase more than 250 performers and include free hands-on arts activities from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Ellen Eccles Theatre, Bullen Center and Thatcher-Young Mansion.
Free performances include Cache Youth Symphony, USU Symphony featuring the Fry Street Quartet, Margarita Mendiola’s 4-H Dancers, Center Stage Ballroom, LaShars Dance Image, Pauni Polynesian performers, Valley Dance Ensemble, Dance Source, Center Stage Celtic Dancers, Shadow Ridge, Cinnamon Creek Singers, Sassafras, The Better Half and Musica Reservata.
“This is a nice bonus for struggling students,” Hollist said of the free concerts. “Cache Valley is a hotbed for the arts, and this is a way to show off the performing artists who live here.”
Throughout the afternoon, Alliance for the Varied Arts will provide free opportunities for visitors to try pottery, drawing and painting or creating their own sand mandala. The Unicorn Theatre children’s theater group will also present “Jack and the Beanstalk” at noon and 2 p.m. Tickets for this show are $2.
For more information about the Cache Valley Arts Festival, its schedule of events or for tickets to the Tibetan Monks, call 752-0026, visit the Ellen Eccles Theatre Box Office at 43 S. Main St. or visit the CVCA’s Web site at www.ellenecclestheatre.org.
-jwsterz@cc.usu.edu