 |
 |
|
JANUARY 2008
With time flying by so fast, February of this year will
mark the 18th year since the establishment of the Cultural Institute.
The span of 18 years can be thought of as the same as a baby being born
to becoming a college student. Our current Japanese language instructors
were still elementary school students at the time when the institute was
established. With the initial “trial and error” years behind
us, thanks to the efforts of all those who have helped out in the past,
the fruits of our labor have resulted in the name “Tenri”
becoming popularly widespread, particularly for its three primary purposes:
Japanese Language School, Gallery, and Concert Space. For the Japanese
Language School, an article entitled “10, 100, 1000” was published
seven years ago, with the figures representing the number of students
for its 10th commemorative year. Exactly 10 years after its establishment,
there were a total of 100 students enrolled in a session with a total
of 1000 students who had registered until then. These figures only represent
the adult classes, and today with the addition of children’s classes,
if we were to combine the figures, they would total “17, 170, 2070.”
Blessed with so many students, we are truly grateful. However, there are
also various problems that we are currently trying to work out with both
the adult and children’s classes. We would like to do our best to
resolve these issues through discussions and make the school a better
one moving forward. Regarding the gallery, thanks to the efforts of former
curator Mr. Shinagawa and current curator Thalia Vrachopoulos, Tenri Gallery
has definitely found a niche in the New York art scene. The exhibitions
use the beautiful space sparingly displaying only a few works at a time
to provide artists and art lovers a peaceful and enjoyable experience.
This year, as in years past, we have nine exhibitions scheduled and we
also have artists selected to exhibit for the next three years. Thankfully,
in recent months, works are starting to sell. Although the purpose of
the gallery is not to sell works per se, such sales greatly help with
operating costs, so this is a welcome development. The concerts were started
thanks to Albert Lotto, who brought his own grand piano 15 years ago and
started performances. And since we moved, the merits of our location (the
acoustics and the space) have spread by word of mouth. Recently, even
though we only have concerts on the weekends, we have over 90 concerts
a year. There are over ten groups that use our space several times a year
Greetings for the New Year By Rev. Toshihiko Okui Executive Director for
their performances. As a new project, with Albert Lotto and James Schlefer
as the main organizers, we have started a new chamber music concert series
under the name “Arts at Tenri.” With this series, we have
Western classical music and Japanese traditional music concerts scheduled
every month. As one of the concerts of this series, the Borromeo String
Quartet had a concert as a fundraiser for the construction of the New
York Center sanctuary. This year we would like to continue to do our best
to have those who come to our cultural institute say, “This is a
place that puts my heart at peace.” |
|
|||
|
Join our: *Music, Workshops & Events mailing list and/or *Fine Arts mailing list |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tenri Cultural Institute School of Japanese Language Gallery Performing Arts Tenrikyo Church Home |
|
|
|
|
Like us on Facebook!