Workshop: Highway to Heaven Cultural Collaborations
The exhibit Highway to Heaven Richmond's Multi-faith Community explores the vast array of faiths, religions and spiritual practices that peacefully co-exist in the City of Richmond, British Columbia Canada.
This exhibition was utilized as a metaphor and inspiration for an art program developed for the Richmond Museum in conjunction with the Children's Art Festival. The program explored the theme of cultural diversity by bringing together arts, heritage and culture.
Firstly, children were guided through the exhibition and were introduced to the concept of cultural diversity. They were encouraged to discuss the exhibit themes: No. 5 Road Highway to Heaven, Immigration and Diversity, Community service, Education, Ceremonies, The Ebco Group of Companies.
Throughout the interactive tour children learned about the historical, cultural and religious aspects of places of worship, objects, images and symbols they encountered. Children were encouraged to share their own personal experiences, beliefs and knowledge to the group.
This exhibition was utilized as a metaphor and inspiration for an art program developed for the Richmond Museum in conjunction with the Children's Art Festival. The program explored the theme of cultural diversity by bringing together arts, heritage and culture.
Firstly, children were guided through the exhibition and were introduced to the concept of cultural diversity. They were encouraged to discuss the exhibit themes: No. 5 Road Highway to Heaven, Immigration and Diversity, Community service, Education, Ceremonies, The Ebco Group of Companies.
Throughout the interactive tour children learned about the historical, cultural and religious aspects of places of worship, objects, images and symbols they encountered. Children were encouraged to share their own personal experiences, beliefs and knowledge to the group.
Secondly, children were encouraged to draw their own personal symbols that best reflected their own cultural and/or spiritual beliefs. Another possibility was to explore the connections between cultures such as illustrated in this sketch depicting "Spiritual Light". Thirdly, children worked in groups and combined their imagery to create a collaborative collage. The children were prompted to question and consider what happens when individual identities are merged into a larger multi-cultural community. What cultural boundaries are crossed?
