In addition to featuring original artist-made urns and vessels in all media that are beautifully made and evocative, the goal of Ashes to Art | scattered is to include:
An increased number of unique vessels and personal memorial objects that will make the task of scattering ashes a gracious, meaningful, and comfortable experience for survivors. According to funeral industry surveys, 40% of people choosing cremation for themselves would like their remains scattered. Most choose scattering over water, but scattering in forests, fields and gardens are appealing choices as well.
Concepts that engage biodegradable processes.
Urns and vessels that incorporate and expand upon diverse rituals or meditative practices such as prayer wheels and butsudan, and reliquaries that include jewelry and petite vessels to hold mementos.
Imagine inviting a world of artists and designers to your party–one that requires them to prepare a unique empty vessel that honors a life well-loved–and they all show up. “This is likely to be our most fascinating group of entries yet,” says Maureen Lomasney, who has been organizing each Ashes to Art competition and exhibition with the help of friends and volunteers since 2001. “I have seen the broadest range of styles, media and sources of inspiration imaginable. Thanks to a buzz we’ve found among architects, woodworkers, ceramists and glass artists, and heard in other art, design and craft circles around the world, we can’t wait to see what comes in and from where in the world it arrives.”
NEW Sponsorship Opportunities invite corporate, association and individual support at many levels, including a “name your own award category” option
Few Sponsorship Opportunities are as unique as the ones offered by Ashes to Art exhibitions. It takes nerve, or experience, to publicly support a subject that unites the realms of art, commerce, and death. We are all urged to plan for long-term care, draw up wills, estate and succession plans, complete advance health care directives, and perhaps name alma maters in our trusts. These necessities require us to think about death, but until recently there’s been precious little beauty associated with the process–no relief from the dreary thought of our own demise, except the satisfaction gained from wrapping up those details.
The emergence of a new funerary art movement is, however, cause for celebration–just as funerals are increasingly seen not only as an important communal means to mourn and remember, but to celebrate life. Ashes to Art exhibitions presented by FUNERIA LLC have been recognized within the funeral industry and among culture and trend spotters as leading this movement since 2001.
Leaders enjoy keeping the same company. In an object-driven culture, Ashes to Art sponsors, award underwriters, and contributors at all levels have the capacity to effect a genuine change in the character of the objects by which we will be known for generations and perhaps millennia. Whatever level or form your support takes, it will be acknowledged and deeply appreciated by its recipients. For details on how to contribute, please read the Sponsorship Prospectus, call Shelley at 888 289 1966 (US toll free) or 707 829 1966, or email sponsors@funeria.com.
Currently showing at Art Honors Life | The Gallery at FUNERIA
More than 100 unique artist-made urns, vessels and reliquaries by previous Ashes to Art finalists, award winners, and artists that FUNERIA has invited to join its Portfolio Collection are currently featured at FUNERIA’s Graton gallery in Sonoma County. These works will remain through mid-August and all are available for sale. Images of vessels in the gallery that are unavailable on our website, as well as full descriptions and prices, can be provided quickly via email by request.
If you’re unable to visit the gallery and to experience Sonoma County’s incredible natural beauty (often compared by travel writers to Tuscany and Provence) and visitors amenities that include world class wine and food, luxurious spas, live music and theater, fine art galleries and sculpture gardens, please call or email regarding your interest or need for work in a specific media, style, size, or by a specific artist.
If you have questions, you are welcome to contact us at arthonorslife@funeria.com or call 888 829 1966 (US Toll Free) or 707 829 1966 (Local)
4th International Ashes to Art
FUNERIA LLC
PO Box 221
Graton, CA 95444-0221
About FUNERIA®
FUNERIA is a unique arts agency and exhibitions organizer that promotes and sells original contemporary artist-made urns, vessels, reliquaries and personal memorial objects through retail and wholesale channels worldwide. Since presenting the first international Ashes to Art exhibition in 2001, FUNERIA has been redefining the aesthetics and role of cremation urns and personal memorial art to suit contemporary tastes that more accurately reflect our culture and time. In 2007, the opening of Art Honors Life | The Gallery at FUNERIA was heralded as “the nation’s first art gallery dedicated to cremation urns and personal memorial art” (”In Death as In Life: A Personalized Space” by Patricia Leigh Brown, The New York Times, 1/18/07)
Filed under: Green Burial | Tagged: Art, Cremation, Dignity, Post Death, Urn
