Photo courtesy of The Wellbeing Project
Photo courtesy of The Wellbeing Project
Last week one thousand well-being professionals and changemakers from around the world convened in Ljubljana, Slovenia for the fourth annual global Hearth Summit—an award-winning three-day gathering that aims to advance a hopeful vision of individual, collective, and ecological well-being for all.
At the summit, the Rubin conducted the first ever Mandala Lab Workshop, based on the Museum’s traveling Mandala Lab installation, which was facilitated by the Rubin’s Mandala Lab curator Tim McHenry. The traveling Mandala Lab was first commissioned by The Wellbeing Project for their inaugural summit in 2022 in Bilbao, later traveling to London and Milan.
Photo courtesy of The Wellbeing Project
Inspired by a Tibetan Buddhist teaching, the Rubin teamed up with a distinguished Slovenian artist (Matej Andraž Vogrinčič), a scientist (Urban Kordeš), and a philosopher (Nina Petek) to guide over 70 attendees through the five sections of the Mandala Lab: Pride, Attachment, Envy, Anger, and Ignorance. Similar to the installation experience, participants were encouraged to use their senses to guide them through a transformative journey, empowering them to perceive themselves with greater clarity and ethical purpose.
“The big difference between presenting the Mandala Lab as an installation and conducting a workshop is that the participants get to experience the teachings inherent in the practice as a group,” said Tim McHenry. “The Mandala Lab charts a journey from the frail ego-centricity of pride to the cohesive collaborative behavior of envy. To interact with strangers and be directly witness to their reactions as counterpoints to your own is a rich experience.”
Photo courtesy of The Wellbeing Project
In Sanskrit, Mandala means “circle” and such a circle was formed at the Mandala Lab Workshop. Coming into the room as strangers, those who attended rarely left the workshop alone. One attendee reflected, “I felt safe, held in a warm space of comfort, from which so much goodness blossomed in every possible sense.” As a result it felt like those who formed that circle left a little more comfortable residing in the unknown.
The Rubin plans to continue the Mandala Lab European tour in the future. To learn more about the Mandala Lab and its upcoming locations, visit rubinmuseum.org/mandala-lab.
Interested in having the Mandala Lab Workshop in your community? Please get in touch: [email protected].
Tim McHenry is a founding Rubin staff member and was in charge of programs at the Museum for its first 20 years. He specializes in art-contextual experiences that break the traditional mold, presenting audiences with what the Huffington Post has called “some of the most original and inspired programs on the arts and consciousness in New York City.”
McHenry’s public programs have explored the wider implications of the Rubin’s objects and collection of Himalayan art through music, film, performance, immersive engagement, and intimate conversation. He is the curator of the Mandala Lab, now on view in a free-standing version that has traveled to Bilbao, London, and Milan.
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