WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Williams College Museum of Art will host Lama Tashi Norbu, one of the artists featured in the current exhibition "Across Shared Waters: Contemporary Artists In Dialogue with Tibetan Art" from the Jack Shear Collection, for three programs from April 25-27, culminating in a live tattooing session at WCMA.

 

Tashi Norbu will lead drop-in meditation sessions in the galleries from 5 to 6 p.m. on Tuesday, April 25, and Wednesday, April 26.

 

On Thursday, April 27, the artist will tattoo a participant from the community, basing the design on Tibetan astrology and the recipient's own personal Buddhist mantra. During this live performance, local musicians will improvise alongside Tashi Norbu as he chants the mantra and tattoos the recipient. The galleries will remain open until 5:30 p.m, when the program begins. 

 

This project is supported by Alexis Rosasco, a local artist and owner of AR Designs Fine Art & Tattoo shop in North Adams.

 

"Lama Tashi Norbu's week-long residency at WCMA will be an extraordinary opportunity for students and visitors to get to know the artist and experience his incredibly wide-ranging practice," said Lisa Dorin, WCMA's Deputy Director for Curatorial Engagement. "His live tattoo performance will definitely be a first for us. We can't wait to find out who will be the lucky recipient." 

 

According to a press release:

 

Lama Tashi Norbu was born in Bhutan. He received his education at the schools of the Dalai Lama, where he became a traditional Thangka painter and ordained as a monk. He is educated in European western fine arts in Belgium and The Netherlands. Lama Tashi became an accomplished artist who never lost his spiritual Buddhist upbringing. After numerous world travels, where his art was exhibited in prestigious world museums and galleries, he founded the Museum of Contemporary Tibetan Art in the Netherlands, which is the only museum in the world dedicated to Tibetan art and is recognized by the Dutch government and registered as one of the National Museums of the Netherlands.

 

Lama Tashi now combines art, meditation, and Buddhist teachings, and he creates Tibetan Sand Mandalas on his many world tours. Lama Tashi is also playing with some of the greatest musicians of the world, such as Earth, Wind and Fire, and he has performed in prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall in New York City.