Resilience

In the midst of the global pandemic, the lives of people around the world have been upended.  For those at the front lines of this crisis, the needs are acute and practical, from ventilators to protective gear.  And there is a pressing need for all people to follow health guidance and to look after those who are unable to meet basic needs, from food to medicine. 

As this crisis continues to unfold in the coming months, we will need to sustain our emotional reserves as well, which can easily become depleted under stress and trauma.  In short, we will need to practice resilience.  The works in this online exhibition—curated by students in the course ‘Art and the Sacred in Washington, DC.’—all speak to situations in which people have called upon spiritual strength to sustain themselves and others.  There is no single panacea that these images provide, but they do give us proof that people are capable of rising to meet almost impossible challenges with grace.     —Dr. Aaron Rosen, Professor of Religion & Visual Culture