Insight is a completely new style of interfaith
training programme developed by Art
Beyond Belief with funding from the Sir
Halley Stewart Trust. The aim of Insight is
to challenge preconceptions – of other faiths
and cultures, of other people – and also of
yourself – your faith and your culture.
Who has responsibility for attitudes to a faith? Should
we care what other people think of our faith? Should
we be prepared to make compromises, and if so, in
what areas? Is there dialogue without compromise?
What happens when the going gets tough? Do we
settle for comfortable, box-ticking interfaith, or do we
aim for something more meaningful and potent?

Insight is delivered in an engaging and challenging
way, using innovative computer-based techniques
to provoke thought, stimulate discussion in small
groups. and encourage self-exploration. The programme
is based on techniques developed during Art Monitor, a
programme we created and delivered to a large number
of groups over the past two years with life-changing
results. It also calls on our experiences during Faith
Junction – a programme during which ordinary people of
faith interviewed each other on matters important to
them and their faith. No previous computer knowledge is
required in order to take part.

The eight modules are:

‘The Dignity of Difference’ What happens when
the common ground runs out? Where do we stand?
What constitutes interfaith? Is coexistence
enough? What future challenges should we be facing?
Fear of the unknown What are the real barriers
to a hate-free world? How can we break them down?
The human condition Are we all only human?
Are we as compassionate as we like to think we are?
Dangerous religion Is all religion dangerous? How
can we handle confrontation and combat extremism?
Taking offence Is offence given or taken? Where
does freedom of speech end and offence begin?
Attitudes towards religion How much can we
generalise about other faiths? And about our own?
Media and interfaith Does media play a part in
interfaith relations? Should media provoke or inform?

For more details or to book, contact David Sparrow
telephone 07412 974454 david@art-beyond-belief.com

Art Beyond Belief originally developed Kaleidoscope as part of our Art Monitor programme in 2008. Since then, Kaleidoscope has taken on a life of its own, and some exceptional work has been produced as a result.
For more information about Kaleidoscope or any of our programmes, please contact Emel Soylu 07956 022197 emel@art-beyond-belief.com

Throughout the year, a toolkit has been available to groups or individuals wanting to explore the influences that society has on faith groups – and also the influences that faith groups have on society.

The Toolkit comprises starting points, exercises and topics for discussion, and includes all the relevant templates needed. Please feel free to download  and use! We would love to hear your results, thoughts and feedback – please contact Andrea Sparrow, Art Beyond Belief, 1st floor, Church Street, Slough, SL1 1SZ.

Download the Festival Toolkit

During the first weekend in June 2010, I was privileged to show Art Beyond Belief’s Via Dolorosa project to the Swedish Church at their Världens fest, a festival of mission, and much, much more. I had no idea the Svenska Kyrkan was so involved in so much of the cares of the world. The event was held in the city of Växjö, in the south of Sweden.The highlight of the weekend was a meal for 1700+ people, and it was here that I sat with Bengt and Birgitta Sibbmark. I had to apologise for my lack of Swedish (coming, as I do from the UK), but this was taken in good part by B+B who spoke excellent English. I learned so much that evening, with gracious answers to every question (and I had many) but with good humour too, so there was never any thought that I had never met them before. Brilliant. All the food for that sumptuous feast came from the area of Växjö, and it was superb. I have visited Sweden before, but to Gothenburg or Stockholm (my first visit was to Gothenburg in 1969). Going inland was a new experience for me. I travelled by train from the airport at Copenhagen, so got to see a lot of the countryside which was a revelation to me. My presentation was of an interfaith look at the Christian Stations of the Cross, which involves artists of eight different faiths, who interpret (or relate to) fifteen different events on Christ’s journey from the Roman Governor’s residence to the place of execution outside the city walls of Jerusalem. This project is in multimedia form, and we have called it the Via Dolorosa, after that street in Jerusalem.The presentation was received well, and there was a lot of interest in using it to develop other initiatives locally, something I would be delighted to get involved in.On my last day, I visited the glass museum in Växjö, which had some fantastic examples of glass based art. But that’s another story …

Last year, Art Beyond Belief ran a successful Festival of Dialogue in Slough. This year we are organizing further events across the Thames Valley in conjunction with SEEFF. There will be a number of round table discussions organized across the area, followed by a conference in Slough on 22nd May.

During the events, we will be looking further at some of the preconceptions that various groups have of others, and attempting to identify ways in which these destructive patterns can be dismantled and replaced with positive communication and understanding.

Could you, or your interfaith group, run a local discussion event?

- a toolkit including background information will be provided

Sign up now for the conference or to attend a local discussion event

There will be a limited amount of exhibition space available at the conference too

To book, or for more information, please contact us at Art Beyond Belief,
email andrea@art-beyond-belief.com. Telephone 07958 320686

Rucksack is a programme  working with children and young people with Asperger’s Syndrome and their siblings to explore family life and relationships. Rucksack is an innovative programme that helps provide a vocabulary for self expression and understanding through innovative use of computer-based art and graphics. Details from David Sparrow on 07412 974454 or email david@art-beyond-belief.com