MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – International photographer, artist and poet Marla Mossman has been on a journey of peace and cultural appreciation for more than 20 years. On Monday, March 15 she will share parts of that journey with the West Virginia University community.
Mossman will present “Peace Caravan – Journey Along the Silk Road: Afghanistan” as part of WVU’s 2010 David C. Hardesty, Jr. Festival of Ideas. She will speak at 7:30 p.m. in room 202 of Brooks Hall.
Born in Detroit and raised and educated in Canada, Mossman has traveled extensively documenting the human condition.
Avidly interested in promoting arts and education, she co-established non-profit art organizations – MMARTS in London and Art Soup in Santa Barbara, Calif. – both of which developed permanent exhibition spaces for local artists. She is the co-founder of ImagineAsia, a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide education and healthcare to rural Asian communities.
Her most current endeavor, the Peace Caravan Project, follows the journey of one woman from Jerusalem to China along the Silk Road, documenting the places of historical and religious significance mentioned in the Bible, Torah, Koran and Vedas.
Mossman has been to the Silk Road region four times, most recently to the Middle East where she departed from Istanbul, Turkey and traveled overland through Syria and Jordan to Jerusalem documenting the Mediterranean terminus of the ancient trade route and desert origins of the three great religions.
In 2005, she traveled to Afghanistan working with the ministers from the Department of Transportation and the Department of Education in Kabul and Bamiyan Province. She was the first foreigner and woman to visit Waras, a remote part of central Afghanistan on horseback, with donkey and mules.
On an earlier trip to northern India, Mossman hiked and backpacked to an altitude of 18,000 feet in the Himalayas to obtain her photographs. She has traveled extensively in Europe and the United Kingdom, Peru, Turkey, Thailand, Nepal and Indonesia, and has backpacked not only the Himalayas, but also the Inca Trail and the High Sierras.
Mossman’s presentation is cosponsored by the Nath Lecture Series. A book signing will follow her presentation.
Mossman will be the fourth speaker at WVU’s 2010 David C. Hardesty Jr. Festival of Ideas. The lecture series is scheduled to feature nine events and seven outstanding professionals. The series will continue through April.
The series is supported in part by the David C. Hardesty Jr. Festival of Ideas Endowment, which was established in 2007 by the WVU Foundation, a private, nonprofit corporation that generates, receives and administers private gifts from individuals and organizations for the benefit of WVU.
To view the complete 2010 Festival of Ideas schedule, visit http://festivalofideas.wvu.edu .
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