Exhibition Dates: May 9 – September 7, 2024

Opening Reception: Thursday, May 16, 6 – 8 pm (in coordination with Gallery Night Providence <>https://www.gallerynight.org/). Light refreshments will be served.

Details

For this theme show, 22 Art in the Atrium member artists are exhibiting artwork related to the UUA Principles.

Also, Grades 7 and 8 students are exhibiting their photography along with member artists. During their Spiritual Pathways’ program this year, students were introduced to the eight UUA principles in a curriculum called “All 8 Youth Art Workshop.” Each week the youth, their teachers, and a visiting First U artist discussed one of the principles, examined how they could express their feelings and thinking artistically about the principle and used photography as their medium. After creating a photograph, the students collectively explored each individual’s interpretations.

We hope this exhibit will create a lively conversation around the values that guide us.

About the UU Principles

First Unitarian Church of Providence, along with all other UU congregations, affirm and promote seven UUA principles, which are held as strong values and moral guides. As Rev. Barbara Wells ten Hove explains, “The Principles are not dogma or doctrine, but rather a guide for those of us who choose to join and participate in Unitarian Universalist religious communities.”

Here are the Seven UUA Principles

1st Principle: The inherent worth and dignity of every person;

2nd Principle: Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;

3rd Principle: Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;

4th Principle: A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;

5th Principle: The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;

6th Principle: The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;

7th Principle: Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

There is a movement advocating for the adoption of an 8th anti-racist principle

<https://www.8thprincipleuu.org/>

“We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote: journeying toward spiritual wholeness by working to build a diverse multicultural Beloved Community by our actions that accountably dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions.