Opening Ceremony for “Art Festival Out East” Exhibition at Fo Guang Shan

The opening ceremony for “Art Festival out East” was held on 1st March at the temple, where 20 sculptures from 17 different local artists were unveiled for the Auckland public. This exhibition was organised by the Howick Uxbridge Creative Centre.

On the day, the ceremony was attended by Venerable Abbess Manshin, Jami-Lee Ross, Local Botany MP; Tony Morgan, Howick Uxbridge Creative Centre Manager; Curator Emma Topping, Dolly Tsai, BLIA (North Island) President, Vice President Bo Cheng Huang, BLIA Directors, other special guests and over 100 members of the public.

During his opening speech, Tony Morgan welcomed the attending audiences and thanked Fo Guang Yuan Art Gallery for providing long term support for their work. From this tight co-operation, there were obvious achievements in term of culture and art for the local community.
Then the Abbess spoke about one of Fo Guang Shan’s slogans, which is “Propagate Buddhism through Culture”. It is hoped that the temple can provide a stage for artists to show off their best talent and allow the public to elevate their taste in aesthetics. For many years Fo Guang Yuan Art Gallery 1 has hoped to hold a special outdoor exhibition and now this wish has finally came true for this special cultural exchange.

This was followed by words from Dolly Tsai, where she said that all art pieces present came to be due to each artist’s wisdom and compassion. When the audience contemplates the meaning of each work under the temple’s tranquil atmosphere, the process will surely lead to self-elevation.

Finally Jami-Lee Ross also shared his experience of being touched by the temple’s pure environment and being touched by BLIA’s spirit of dedication. He thanked Venerable Abbess Manshin’s leadership on guiding the temple congregation to contribute so much toward Buddhism and society. These long term co-operations with Howick Uxbridge have really created many opportunities for local artists to unleash their creativity. He also thanked the Uxbridge staff for their diligent contributions and expressed he will do his best to assist the art centre with future endeavors. This will allow culture and art to become better in touch with the local community and purify each person’s heart.