On today's ST, we speak with Christina Burke, Curator of Native American and Non-Western Art at the Philbrook Museum of Art here in Tulsa. Burke assembled an exhibit which opened at the museum earlier this month, and which is on view through June 3rd, called "Seeking the Sacred: Religious Ritual in Native American Art." It's a show that mainly draws on Philbrook's world-famous collection of 20th-century Native American paintings. (There's a handful of special objects displayed in this exhibit, too.) As Burke, who's also a cultural anthropologist with degrees from the University of Rochester and Indiana University, points out on our program today, this show draws attention --- in ways beautiful, various, and memorable --- to the universality of humankind's sacred beliefs and religious rituals. The exhibit also documents the contemporary as well as the ancient experiences of Native Americans from a number of different tribes and regions. (For more information, please visit philbrook.org.) Also on our program, commentator Barry Friedman is likewise thinking about certain rites and practices; his piece --- a portrait of his aging (and sometimes ailing) father --- is called "Death: A Rehearsal."
"Seeking the Sacred" at the Philbrook Museum of Art
