The Project
Spirit of Tibet was a series of collaborative public art and education events in association with the Dalai Lama's visit to Minnesota. Spirit of Tibet was initiated and coordinated by Wendy Morris with Jack Becker, Artistic Director of FORECAST, serving as project director. For project history click on

The Inquiry
How can public art be used to prepare Minnesotans for the first Twin Cities visit of the Dalai Lama and to raise support for the Minnesotan Tibetan community, the second largest Tibetan community in the United States? How can temporary public art enhance the venues for the Dalai Lama’s visit?

A Challenge
Following the Dalai Lama's public teaching on compassion, 4000 people poured onto the plaza outside the auditorium where they were greeted by the shrill voice of a belligerent street preacher. The preacher and his followers harassed the largely Tibetan crowd, yelling epithets like, “The Dalai Lama is Satan!”

In confusion and hurt, Tibetans shouted back, “Why are you doing this?” Hurt quickly escalated to outrage and they angrily hurled coins at the preacher, “Is THIS what you want?!?!”

Intuitively drawing upon all my years of movement improvisation, I watched myself walk forward into the heart of the conflict. Just as a Tibetan man raised his arm about to strike the preacher I stepped into the space between them. With calmness and authority, I said, “No,” while I placed my hands on the Tibetan man's shoulders and gently turned him, redirecting the momentum of his body into a graceful spiral away from the preacher. He walked back to his people.

I turned to the preacher and said, “There are thousands of people out here on this plaza who are not listening to you and there is one person who is. Which is more important?” My words were not a ploy or manipulation. I was genuinely willing to hear what this man had to say because that is what the situation called for.

Within a few minutes the preacher and his entourage sat down with me for a conversation. We talked about the trauma in the preacher's life that had led him to this place. We talked about Jesus. We talked about the trauma in the life of the Tibetan community that had led them to this place, too. And we talked about the impact on others when zeal is not balanced with compassion.

The preacher turned to his followers and said, “I'm taking a teaching from this woman. I don't know if she's a witch or a homo, but I'm taking a teaching from her.”

One of his followers, reflecting on the preacher's earlier behavior on the plaza, began to cry softly, “Jesus taught love and that wasn't love.” For the remainder of the Dalai Lama's visit, the Christian fundamentalist evangelicals adopted a palpably more respectful tone towards the Tibetan community. For more about this click on Interpersonal Communication Skills in Community Art: An Introduction to the Awareness Wheel.

What I Learned

• Throughout this project a field of generosity was created at the mention of the Dalai Lama’s name. We repeatedly heard people say, “Please let me know if I can help in any way.” Despite the large scale of this project (estimated impact on 60,000 people), it had an effortless flow. Generosity begets generosity and kindness begets kindness.
  
  
• Some conditions that foster trust in partnerships became clear at the start of the project. Early in the preparations for the Dalai Lama’s visit, the members of the Steering Committee responsible for planning the Visit already felt burned by people trying to exploit the event for their own purposes. The Committee was understandably protective of the Tibetan community. It took eight attempts before members of the Steering Committee finally agreed to meet with Jack and me to discuss our interest in creating a public art program related to the Visit. I believe four factors contributed to building a foundation of trust with wary Committee members: 1) Jack and I had strong reputations as cultural organizers which preceded us; 2) we brought a genuine willingness to abandon the project if our ideas were not a welcome addition to the Visit; 3) we cared about aligning our program with the Tibetan American Foundation of Minnesota’s overall goals for the Visit; and 4) we came with our own resources of time, money (via an anonymous donor), and ideas. Trust was built through a paradoxical combination of persistence and a genuine willingness to let our individual agendas repeatedly fall away.
  
  
• One of my most satisfying tasks was designing ways for people to contribute to Spirit of Tibet that were appropriate for them. For example, administrators in a government agency wanted to support our project but were concerned about separation of church and state issues (because in addition to being a head of state, the Dalai Lama is also a religious figure). Instead of providing money directly to the project, we created indirect ways for them to help us by providing database information and donating materials. An out-of-town volunteer collected e-mail addresses of teachers around the state who wanted to be involved in our Peace Flag Project. I never met this woman, but she served as a vital link. People wanted to offer something of themselves to the project, and my job was to offer them a pathway.
  
  
  
• By looking at the big picture and recognizing patterns and points of intersection we were able to choose actions that maximized our efforts. For example, seven months before the Dalai Lama’s visit I scanned the Twin Cities arts and education horizon for activities that might relate to the Visit. I compiled the results and partnered with a state agency to distribute the calendar to educators statewide. This action linked activities that would have otherwise been isolated events. I pointed out to In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theater that their annual May Day Parade was scheduled for two days before the Dalai Lama’s visit. One large result of that small action was a Tibetan themed parade and ceremony witnessed by 25,000 people prior to the Dalai Lama’s visit. The Minneapolis Institute of Arts was planning a family event where hundreds of prayer flags were being made. When we brought together prayer flags made for the Heart of the Beast May Day Parade community workshops, prayer flags made at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and our Peace Flags from schools around the state, the final installation included over a thousand flags hand-made by Minnesotans. The Dalai Lama requested that we hang some flags over his private security entrance so he could see them before his talk. When I hold the big picture in mind, I can glimpse the potential results of even a small individual action. By holding the big picture, a small individual action can have a greater and more conscious impact. Tending to the context of a small individual action is a potent way to make the most of limited resources.
  
  
• My daughter, Izzy, was two years old at the time of the “Damma-Lala’s” visit. Because of the Tibetan community’s inclusive attitude towards children, it was easier than usual to blend my life as a mother and my life as a cultural organizer. Izzy was directly involved in many aspects of the project. When we finished hanging the peace flags, she proudly announced to no one in particular, “I got the newspapers!” (which were used to prepare the flags). She had a connection to the “important” work of grown-ups and she valued her own contribution. I’m not sure what I learned, I just know it was important to both Izzy and myself that we shared this experience together.
  
  
• In the spirit of stating the obvious, collaborations are based upon relationships. Jack and I each brought to the project a fluid base of personal connections in our communities. This rich network of relationships made it possible to successfully undertake a project of very large scope within a short timeline. How we treat people over time really counts.

Resolutions
The motivations that drive my work influence what I create, regardless of whether I am conscious of those motivations or not. With awareness I am more likely to nurture the motivations I really want to reflect in my life and my work. This project was conceived during a brainstorming session with leaders from Twin Cities Buddhist organizations about how local Buddhist communities might contribute to the Dalai Lama’s Visit. The moment I voiced the idea of a public art program for the Visit was one of those rare moments when my mind is tickled with delight. In the following year as I worked on the project, I reflected back on that moment hundreds of times, especially during challenges. It was easy to trust in this project because it blossomed from a moment that was unusually free of personal ambition. It gave me great confidence to know that the initial seed for the project was a seed of generosity. A project that I initiate out of greed or self-aggrandizement inevitably causes me a lot more trouble than a project that has its seed in a delighted and generous heart and mind. I resolved to pay closer attention to the initial impulse for the work I undertake, because the state of my own heart and mind at the conception of a project creates a strong undercurrent that influences the project as it takes form.

I am happiest when dancing is happening, so I dance in every project I do. Sometimes the dancing is apparent, as in the yak puppet dances I choreographed with Marcy elementary school students. Other times the dancing is less visible: to prepare peace flags I hosted a series of rhythm and blues dance parties where volunteers foot-stomped hundreds of fabric squares with an ink image of a Tibetan wind horse. These flags were distributed to schools around the state as a catalyst for conversations about peace. Students represented their conversations on their flags with paint, appliqué, crayons or quilting, and teachers returned the finished flags as gifts to the Tibetan American Foundation. As we installed the flags for the Dalai Lama’s visit, I saw the residue of our dances as well as the residue of hundreds of conversations about peace. For me, community-engaged artmaking happens at the intersection between what brings me aesthetic joy and the needs of the communities I engage with. Because dancing brings me both happiness and authenticity, I resolved to make dancing more central to my next project, Urban Web - People Places Connections.