The Mandala Project.

I teach art at the Essex Campus Program (ECP), an alternative high school for at-risk students. After receiving an "Arts for EveryKid Minigrant," I planned a series of events, including trips, guest speakers and lessons based on the concept of the mandala. The goals were to introduce mandalas and other geometric patterns of spiritual and artistic significance; to include the development of an inter-disciplinary curriculum; to introduce the geometry of circular design generation (math); to understand the mandala as a way to organize thought (creative writing); to learn how to make mandalas and what they mean in different cultures.

The Significance of the Mandala

Our first trip was to the Newark Museum where Curator of Asian Art Valrae Reynolds gave us a tour of the collections of Tibetan art and Nepalese mandalas. We looked at a mandala made of jewels and precious metals, created by a wealthy person as an offering. Reynolds spoke about the parts of the mandala and their significance. As we looked at a painted mandala, Reynolds spoke about the importance of visualization, meditation and contemplation in the use of mandalas. She said the mandala is used as a guide to visualization and is memorized. The rings are seen three-dimensionally, as tiers in an edifice. The painted mandala, though its colors appeared worn after so many years, still proved a compelling focus. Its red concentric circles guided the eyes to the central space, inhabited by the deities of the mandala.

Learning about Other Cultures

We watched a brief video of a computer animated mandala, showing it in three-dimensions, the way it is visualized in meditation. A second video documented the installation of the Buddhist shrine. We learned that the Buddha is modeled according to ideal proportions and is cast using the lost wax technique. It is stuffed with ritual offerings, including prayers and jewelry. Compelling footage of Tibetan monks at prayer, moving their hands slowly as they chanted, and the background vocal of the low, rumbling Tibetan chant captured the students, attention.

Both videos were produced by the Samaya Foundation whose founder and director, Barry Bryant, visited as a guest speaker. The foundation is devoted to the education and documentation of Tibetan culture in the West through cultural offerings performed at museums, in videos and in educational programs. Bryant, who has worked closely with the Dalai Lama for twenty years, was a fascinating speaker, introducing us to the experience of an ancient spiritual practice, the Kalachakra Sand Mandala Initiation.

Symbolism in Culture

Another group of students visited the Jersey City Museum to see an installation by Ben Jones. The artist, a professor of art at Jersey City State College, was there to speak to us about his work. The name of his installation was Shango/Chango. It was inspired by the Yoruba religion and Jones, many trips to Nigeria. The installation included a wide variety of culturally diverse symbols including the mandala.

An interdisciplinary activity of the Mandala Project at our school was a lesson taught by the school's English teacher. The students read an article and answered questions about mandalas and symbols. In my art classes, the students learned how to make mandalas, using a protractor, compass and ruler.

Showing initiative

The day after Bryant came to speak at our school, Jarrett, one of my students' asked if he could begin working on a mandala. I had not planned to start the studio project for several weeks. However, Jarrett's interest was sincere and the class size was small enough to allow each student to work independently. I gave Jarrett a compass, protractor and ruler, and showed him different designs from resources I had assembled.

Jarrett was absorbed in this project for weeks and made several mandalas. He inscribed his design with the name of a youth organization in which he had participated the previous year. Jarrett chose colors to symbolize different spiritual qualities. It was gratifying to realize how much he had learned and integrated from Bryant's lecture.

Learning through Cultural

Exposure

Several other students created mandalas later in the year and also showed great care and an intuitive understanding of the meaning of these designs. Dan'l, a busy young woman with a two-year-old son, completed much of the work at home, on days when she had to miss school. She brought home the materials and borrowed tools fox the project, returning with a meticulously rendered design.

Mahmood was not interested in creating an exact mandala. Instead, he painted a large image on paper of a central eye with radiating spirals, reminiscent of arms or snakes.

By the end of the year, most of the students were familiar with the word mandala and had experienced a wide range of cultural exposures. The project on mandalas was completed in the context of an art program covering a much broader range of subjects.

The Mandala Project was made possible by a New Jersey State Council on the Arts Grant. One of the goals of the grant is to share the project with another teachers. For more information about the curriculum and resources used, contact the author at the Essex Campus Program, 650 Nassau Street, Orange, New Jersey 07050. Or, contact the Alliance for Art Education, One Park Place, Bloomfield, New Jersey 07003.

Resources

Bryant, B. Wheel of Time.. The Kalachakra Sand Mandala. New York: Harper Collins, 1990. _____. The Wheel of Time Sand Mandala Calendar. New York: Samaya Press, 1995. Cornell, J. Mandala: Luminous Symbols for Healing. Wheaton, IL: Quest Books, 1994. Dahlke, R. Mandalas of the World.. A Meditation and Painting Guide. New York: Sterling Publishing, 1992. Field, M., and M. Golubitsky. Symmetry in Chaos: A Search for Pattern in Mathematics, Art and Nature. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. Jung, C. Man and His Symbols. New York: Aldus Books, 1964. Lawlor, R. Sacred Geometry. New York: Crossroad Publishing, Mohammadi, A. The Mandala: A Map of the Inner Realm. Darshan Magazine. Vol. 82. 19-22. Mookerjee, A. Tantra Art: Its Philosophy and Physics. New Delhi: Ravi Kumar, 1971. (Distributed by Random House, New York). Olschak, B. C., and G. T. Wangual. Mystic Art of Ancient Tibet. New York: McGraw Hill, 1973. Tibet: The Living Tradition. Thirty-five minute video. Samaya Foundation, New York, 1990.

Anne Savitri Drillick is an art teacher at the Essex Campus Program in Orange, New Jersey.