Reflective Pilgrimages
Pilgrimage and Collective Art-Making for Cultural Healing
Community pilgrimages with creative reflection that connect women to the source of our healing.
Celina Martina & Carolyn Kolovitz will lead a group of Latina women, mostly immigrants, on two guided pilgrimages to sacred sites - such as the Watt Munisotaram Cambodian Buddhist temple in Hampton, MN, and Wakan Tipi in St. Paul - followed by art-making sessions of collective reflection in the studio of Maria Constanza De La O Carballo.
Eye of the Heart Center is pleased to announce we received $10,000 funding from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council for these reflective pilgrimages in 2023.
Misogyny is common world-wide. In Latin culture, the prominence of male-dominated Catholicism has contributed significantly to women’s oppression. The church often contributes to the socialization of women to submit to discriminatory roles, and pass oppressive patterns to the next generation. Patriarchal conditioning pushes women away from their innate source of healing—their own spirituality.
At each site participants will explore how gender, race, class, and other identity factors contribute to spiritual expressions, increasing participants’ capacity to reconcile our conflicting cultural norms with what is sacred: the actual source of our healing. Through artmaking we’ll reflect on our experiences and create our own sacred images. The project’s goals are to build community and support cultural healing through the arts.
Watt Munisotaram Cambodian
Buddhist Temple
Site Guide Tanagidan To Win leading programming at Wakan Tipi
This project builds on a pilgrimage led by Celina & Carolyn to a Guadalupe shrine, where women explored the complex layers of this significant Latina identity archetype. At the request of the participants, we sought funding to expand the project.
Because we believe this work heals individuals and their communities, we are running this program as a pilot with hopes of offering similar opportunities to other affinity groups.
For more information email us.
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
