In 2004, some of the world’s most respected artists from 30 countries were invited by the Committee of 100 for Tibet and The Dalai Lama Foundation to consider the Dalai Lama. Their only instruction was to create a work of art inspired by his life and principles. The result was The Missing Peace: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama, a collective tapestry resonating with the Dalai Lama's vision and values.
A traveling exhibition of these works is being shown in major museums around the world. The exhibition includes thought-provoking works from eighty-eight innovative artists, spanning photography, painting, textiles, animation, sculpture, video, and installation pieces. Eighty-eight ways to think about, talk about, and cultivate peace.
In June 2006, The Missing Peace exhibition was launched at the Fowler Museum of UCLA in Los Angeles where it garnered “Best Museum Exhibit of 2006” from the Ventura County Times. It then travelled on to the Loyola University Museum of Art in Chicago and the Rubin Museum of Art in New York. Each venue tallied record attendance. Over the coming years, we expect the exhibition to touch millions of people, call them to positive action and help raise the visibility of the Tibetan issue in a global humanitarian context.
The educational programs created by The Dalai Lama Foundation and The Missing Peace companion book have extended our reach into schools, libraries and homes. The Missing Peace website provides you with a good introduction including a virtual tour of the exhibition as installed at the Fowler Museum. We hope you will be able to join us at an upcoming exhibition!
Status and Plans
Since the launch of The Missing Peace exhibition in 2006, almost 100,000 people have come into contact with the project. The exhibition was very well received in December 2007 at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. Over 2,000 people attended the opening event featuring multi-cultural music and dance performances. The gallery’s programming attracted people of all ages; films, lectures and student group activities reached many others.
In May 2008, members of The Missing Peace project team visited Dharamsala, India to meet with the Dalai Lama. He was delighted with our report on the project and gave us his blessing and guidance for events and activities being planned for 2009.
The next destination is Tokyo, October 2008 in a unique complex of buildings in the heart of the city called Hillside Terrace. The exhibition will then tour several cities in Europe through June 2011. The first stop will be at Madrid's Canal Museum opening in early February 2009.
The Missing Peace in a Box: Work is underway to give 25 sets of fourteen beautiful large-sized reproductions of The Missing Peace art work together with the project’s educational curricula to schools, prisons and venues in several countries by year's end. Ten organizations including ones located in Kalmykia, Russia and New Delhi, India are already planning to incorporate it into their educational programs. Recipients are invited, in turn, to ship on the "Box" to another suitable organization, thereby reaching large numbers of people in areas where the full exhibition could not otherwise be seen.
Missing Peace Music Project: this follow-on project was launched in 2008 with a visit to Dharamsala in May and Philadelphia in July by musicians who will participate in a concert in 2009. A CD and film will be created for public distribution.
Over 5,000 people have taken the virtual tour of the exhibition. Hundreds of teachers, students and parents have downloaded the educational poster activities and curricula designed for middle school and high school students. The Missing Peace website also includes recent press reviews and a list of the project’s Compassion in Action awardees. This award is given to persons or organizations that exemplify the spirit of compassionate action in the communities where The Missing Peace exhibition has been shown. Tony Hoeber and Darlene Markovich presented a Compassion in Action award to Warden Art Beeler at Butner Federal Prison Hospital Facility on May 28, 2007.
The Missing Peace exhibition website >>
