GOAL:

The Five Faiths Project is a multiyear initiative with the goal of using the Ackland Art Museum's collection of religious art as a starting point for helping people explore five of the world's great religions – Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism.

COMPONENTS:

Photography workshops – Nationally known photographer Wendy Ewald worked with children and youth in five faith communities to help them capture images of their traditions and heritage on film. The photographs have been assembled into a traveling exhibit called Visions of Faith: Photographs by Wendy Ewald and Children and can be viewed on this web site.

Storytelling workshop – Nationally known storyteller Louise Omoto Kessel worked with adults in five faith communities to gather and present stories from their faith traditions. These workshops culminated in several multifaith public performances. Several of the stories were recorded and are being assembled into a teaching tool. One of the stories is can be heard on this web site. (QuickTime3 plug-in required.)

Visions of Faith exhibit and catalogue – The photographs by young members of faith communities has been assembled into a traveling exhibit and catalogue. The exhibit pairs photographs and objects from the Ackland’s extensive religious art collection.

Teaching posters – A series of teaching posters have been developed for distribution to public schools. A poster for each faith displays images from the Ackland’s collection and tips on ways to use this with the curriculum.

An educational web site – This site is the first phase of a interactive web presence for the Five Faiths Project. This site disseminates a portion of the efforts of the project. From this site you can see student photographs and images from the Ackland’s collection of religious art, and hear the Buddhist story "The Elephant."

THE FUTURE:

This web site presents a limited amount of material related to project. The Ackland Art Museum is pursuing additional funding to greatly expand the site.