The Host Committee of Dalai Lama Chicago 2011 will sponsor an artist to provide a 4 to 6 week workshop for members of community and faith organizations throughout Chicago-land to build and create a sculptural object(s) to be incorporated into the staging of the Dalai Lama’s Public Talk on July 17. 

These sculptures will be unique interpretations of the symbolic images for each of the world religions i.e. star of David (Judaism); wheel of dharma (Buddhism). To encourage interfaith dialogue, faith groups will interpret and make symbols other than their own.  In addition, volunteers from Dalai Lama Chicago 2011 will join the artist/teacher to discuss interfaith concepts from the Dalai Lama’s 2010 book, Toward a True Kinship of Faiths, with workshop members. Workshop members will have the opportunity to participate in the Public Talk program and will be provided with complimentary tickets to the event.  When brought together on the stage with the Dalai Lama for his Public Talk, the finished sculptures will symbolically represent the coming together of the world’s faiths. The interfaith collaboration is conceived and implemented by Jim Lasko of Redmoon Theater. It will also be professionally documented on video.

In addition, each sculpture will incorporate a live sapling or plant that will capture the Dalai Lama’s metaphor of a tree watered by many different sources. The tree resembles the human soul while the water represents the different spiritual traditions that can sustain and nurture it. These saplings can then be planted to create a permanent community or interfaith garden in Chicago.