Professor of music and director of choral activities Angela Broeker helped conduct the mandala creating event. Broeker said she made the red, orange and black mandala to commemorate her dog who passed away recently. (Carlee Hackl/TommieMedia)
Purple paper and sequins clutter the table where students work. The Sacred Arts Festival is free and open to the public and includes an art exhibit in O’Shaughnessy Educational Center that will remain open until May 15. (Carlee Hackl/TommieMedia)
Students work on a variety of unique designs. “My sister actually lives in Morocco so she paints them a lot,” said junior Isabel Braga-Henebry. “It’s kind of her stress reliever that she does.” (Carlee Hackl/TommieMedia)
Students crowd around tables set up on the second floor of the Anderson Student Center where the event took place Tuesday afternoon. Among other crafts, Broeker and friend Carol Tomers brought out sequins and St. Thomas purple paper for students to create projects. (Carlee Hackl/TommieMedia)
Broeker laid out mandala designs for students to look at. She makes mandalas when she’s stressed out because they help clear her mind. (Carlee Hackl/TommieMedia)
An array of color covers the tables. Broeker said the center of a mandala represents the center of the person who made it, and as the design expands it begins to represent how that person is connected to other people in his or her life. (Carlee Hackl/TommieMedia)
One of Broeker’s mandalas sits on the table as inspiration for students creating their own. Mandalas have been used as contemplative and meditative objects in the Buddhist tradition for centuries. (Carlee Hackl/TommieMedia)
St. Thomas students, alumni and professors came together to de-stress at a mandala-making event Tuesday afternoon.
The event was part of St. Thomas’ 36th annual Sacred Arts Festival, which spans 30 days and focuses on contemplation in music, dance, literature, film and visual arts.
“The theme is one that many religious traditions celebrate and advocate,” Angela Broeker, festival committee member and professor of music and director of choral activities, said. “It’s a way for us to interact with the world in a deeper way… All of us need to slow down and get unplugged and re-centered.”
The festival was created to provide an opportunity to celebrate what is sacred through the arts.
Broeker facilitated the mandala-making event with Carol Tomers, who got her masters degree at St. Thomas and has been an art teacher in the Twin Cities for many years. Broeker said the mandalas come from a tradition of contemplation.
“Theologically and spiritually, some people believe that it’s representing the center of the universe and its expansion outside,” she said. “Others believe that the center of the mandala represents the center of each of us and how we are connected.”
St. Thomas junior Isabel Braga-Henebry attended the event and agreed that creating this type of art is relaxing.
“It’s just really calming, and the whole point of mandalas is kind of like a meditative practice,” Braga-Henebry said. “I really enjoy that aspect of it.”
Participants created the circular mandalas with paper and adhesive jewels, though that isn’t the only available medium. According to Broeker, some cultures make mandalas out of colored sand, and Braga-Henebry knows her sister uses paint.
“My sister actually lives in Morocco, so she paints them a lot. It’s kind of her stress reliever that she does,” she said.
Check the St. Thomas events schedule for upcoming Sacred Arts events this month.
Marissa Groechel can be reached at groe5630@stthomas.edu.