Peace Talks Podcast

Makoto Fujimara

about

Makoto Fujimura is a leading contemporary artist whose work has been featured in galleries and museums around the world, including The Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, The Huntington Library in California, the Tikotin Museum in Israel, Belvedere Museum in Vienna, C3M North Bund Art Museum in Shanghai, and Pola Museum in Japan. His process-driven, refractive “slow art” has been described by David Brooks of the New York Times as “a small rebellion against the quickening of time.”

Fujimura is the author of four books: Art+Faith: A Theology of Making, Silence and Beauty, Refractions, and Culture Care. He is also the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2023 Kuyper Prize for Excellence in Reformed Theology and Public Life and the American Academy of Religion’s 2014 “Religion and the Arts” award. From 2003 to 2009, he served as a Presidential appointee to the National Council on the Arts. He has received notable recognition as a speaker, with one address selected by NPR as among the 200 “Best Commencement Addresses Ever” and by CNN as one of the top 16 “Greatest Commencement Speeches of All Time.” He is a recipient of four Doctor of Arts Honorary Degrees from Belhaven University, Biola University, Cairn University, and Roanoke College.

Quotable

“We really have to find not only a nonviolent way of fighting against oppression, but a beautiful way. I feel like that is part of what we need to use our imagination toward. And if faith means anything these days, it would be to have courage to stand in your convictions. And to create something that didn’t exist before. So we need artists and musicians and politicians and everyone to participate in that path.”

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