In response to this time of great instability, the Rubin Museum of Art has created a series of digital initiatives to help its global community feel inspired, connected, and uplifted.
Today the Museum launched The Rubin Daily Offering, a new video program featuring art, ideas, and practices inspired by the Rubin Museum's collection to help achieve greater balance. Thursday through Monday at noon on the Rubin Museum's Instagram IGTV feed, practitioners, artists, teachers, and experts alike share 10 minutes of insights and tools that can help open a window into our inner worlds so we can better navigate the outer one. Each week a new speaker joins a Rubin staff member who introduces an artwork, which in turn serves as the inspiration for the offering.
In week one, celebrated meditation teacher and author Sharon Salzberg guides viewers through a grounding mindfulness practice inspired by the revered Tibetan Buddhist deity Tara, featured prominently in the Rubin Museum's collection. In the following weeks, speakers include Tibetan doctor Tawni Tidwell; mindfulness teacher
Kate Johnson; innovative thinker, philosopher, educator, and polymath monk the Venerable Tenzin Priyadarshi; musicians from the Brooklyn Raga Massive collective, and more.
Last week the Rubin also shared a digital Care Package with art and mind-body practices reflected in Buddhist visual culture to help shift perspectives, manage emotions, and cultivate compassion. The care package features blog posts with techniques for quieting the mind for both adults and families, meditation practices from the Museum's weekly Mindfulness Meditation podcast, articles about embracing change, and information about relevant artworks in the collection.
A prominent feature of the Care Package is a 2-hour stream of the Museum's Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room, which sits at the heart of the Rubin Museum's galleries. This new video brings the Shrine Room into people's homes so they can experience the installation's sites and meditative chants from anywhere via YouTube.
"At the Rubin Museum, we've always believed in the power of Himalayan art to be a source of inner strength and wisdom, and a tool for shifting perspective. This art has been used for centuries to teach individuals how to navigate their lives, especially during difficult times," says Executive Director Jorrit Britschgi. "In this moment of crisis, not only do these digital offerings provide a way for our communities to experience the Rubin from home, but they give an introduction to the transformative power of Himalayan art, ideas, and practices. I hope that these experiences will help bring compassion, inspiration, and ease to all - a little bit of relief is exactly what we need."
