A List
1/18/99

ART INSPIRED BY 'VISIONARY PLANTS' EXHIBITED AT SLU GALLERY

CANTON - An exhibition of art inspired and influenced by "visionary 
plants" integral to cultures and religions around the world will be 
displayed in St. Lawrence University's Richard F. Brush Art Gallery.
	"Visions That The Plants Gave Us" will be on exhibition from 
January 25 through March 13, and is presented in conjunction with a 
year-long study project at St. Lawrence of healing across cultures. 
Several educational programs will be offered to complement the exhibition 
in February, including a lecture on February 8 at 7 p.m. by the curator, 
Luis Eduardo Luna, senior lecturer in Spanish at the Swedish School of 
Economics and associate professor of anthropology at the Universidade 
Federal de Santa Catarina in Florianopolis, Brazil.
	A native of the Colombian Amazon region, Luna is a Guggenheim 
Fellow and Fellow of the Linnaean Society of London; the author of 
Vegetalismo: Shamanism Among the Mestizo Population of the Peruvian 
Amazon; and co-author, with Pablo Amaringo, of Ayahuasca Visions: The 
Religious Iconography of a Peruvian Shaman.
	The exhibition includes the work of contemporary artists who 
are either members of indigenous Amerindian groups or have had close 
contact with them, and have been influenced by their experiences with 
"visionary plants," such as peyote cactus. Many Amerindian cultures 
consider these plants to be sources of "deep and mysterious knowledge, 
instruments of the divine, fountains of beauty and inspiration, as well 
as a means to maintain cultural integrity," according to Luna.
	During the 1998-99 academic year, several new and existing courses, 
a faculty reading group and cultural and educational programs - including 
the upcoming St. Lawrence University Festival of the Arts - are exploring 
a variety of views on health, healing, disease and illness. It is part of 
a larger four-year faculty and curriculum development project in intercultural 
studies funded by the Christian Johnson Endeavor Foundation; the gallery 
exhibition is supported by the Hap and Betty Barnes Endowment.
	The gallery welcomes individuals and groups for guided tours. For 
more information, call 315-229-5174, or visit their web site, at 
www.stlawu.edu/gallery.
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