Gallery Opening for Dances with the Divine

Come enjoy a gallery opening for the Candace Low photography exhibit Dances with the Divine, which will be on display in Hartford International University's chapel from March 19 through May 15. Enjoy refreshments and hear Candace talk about her work.

This event is supported by the Center for Transformative Spirituality at Hartford International University for Religion and Peace. The event is accessible and will include a sign language interpreter. Registration is appreciated.

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Artist Statement

Dance has accompanied religious ceremonies and sacred rites since the birth of human civilizations. Dance is an important part of rituals, celebrations, and entertainment. The Torah, the Psalms, other parts of the Bible, and other scriptures reference dance as celebration, worship, social dance with friends, lovers dance, metaphors, and personal expression with the Divine. Dance tells a story. In Dances with the Divine, Candace Low uses the reference to dance and dance steps to explain her personal journey and connections with the Divine in her life.

Dances with the Divine is an album of photos and reflections that explores Candace's journey of learning to live with mental illness, disabilities and finding a path to wholeness of the spirit through the art of photography as a contemplative practice. Each time she looks through the lens, she frames a moment in time, and within that moment, she discovers holiness. The camera is a portal to the practice of receiving, sacred seeing, and the art of beholding. Life is a dance, and the Divine is her dance partner.

About the Artist

Candace Low is a Hartford University for Religion and Peace graduate with a focus on spirituality and worship. She is a member of the Southern New England UCC Disability Ministries Team, a social justice team that promotes accessibility to all, inclusion of people with disabilities and the dismantling of ableism. Candace began using photography as a contemplative practice during COVID after a diagnosis of mental illness. She is a survivor of an acquired brain injury which caused multiple disabilities including deafness and practices the art of receiving and sacred seeing to change the way we see the world including disability.