BATTERY PARK CITY — This arts festival promises to be sublime.
The Transcendent Arts of Tibet and India — a host of music, dance and other performances taking over Brookfield Place's Winter Garden atrium — connects art and South Asian spirituality, organizers said.
The free two-week festival, starting April 4, will feature a week of rituals and performances by Tibetan monks from the Drepung Loseling Monastery.
Throughout the week, visitors to the glass-encased atrium can watch the monks painstakingly create a mandala sand painting — a traditional art form in which millions of colored grains of sand are put together to make an intricate, but ephemeral piece of art.
At the closing ceremony, a portion of the sand art will be deconstructed and given to the audience, while the rest is carried out and tossed into the New York Harbor "as a metaphor of the impermanence of life," organizers said in a statement.
Along with the mandala sand, monks in full, colorful traditional costume will have daily performances of sacred music, dance and song, including their multiphonic chanting known as zokkay.
During the second week of the festival, the focus will be on India, featuring daily music and dance performances. Styles include an exploration of Bharatanatyam, an ancient dance form that grew in the temples of South India, organizers said.
Courtesy of Art Brookfield
Classical music performances from North India, featuring traditional instruments, will also be part of the week's events.
For a full listing of the daily events, head to Brookfield's website.
