Public art with religious themes or inspiration often represents, promotes, or challenges the concerns, values, characteristics, and/or history of the community in which this art is situated. This dissertation explores the contribution of public religious art to generating dialogue about social issues, in particular homelessness. It builds on scholarship indicating that publicly engaged art is a catalyst for promoting mutual understanding among diverse stakeholders with differing worldviews and joins an ongoing scholarly debate about the place of religion in a secular democratic society. As a case study, I use Timothy Schmalz’s bronze sculpture entitled Homeless Jesus, as an example of public art intended to generate public awareness about social marginalization and homelessness.
Situated within the critical paradigm, this dissertation uses a case study methodology to explore the ways faith-based organizations and secular media elicit and use meanings through the representation of sculpture in public and mediated spaces. To gain multiple vantage points for examining the meanings and uses of Homeless Jesus, this case study draws on interviews with faith leaders at organizations who have a replica or are located near the replica in Hamilton, Ontario (n=12), online news articles that reference it (n=85), and photos of replicas in six urban locations. Data analysis proceeded through three stages: an iconography, a narrative inquiry, and a thematic analysis. This case study culminates in insights on the relationship between public religious art and public dialogues on social issues, such as homelessness. Findings indicate that public religious art is a mode in which faith-based organizations seek to contribute to public dialogues about social issues in a manner that is accessible and acceptable to those with differing worldviews. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Public art with religious themes or inspiration can represent, promote, or challenge the concerns, values, identity, and/or history of the communities in which it is situated. Using Timothy Schmalz’s bronze sculpture entitled Homeless Jesus, as an example of public religious art intended to generate awareness about homelessness, this dissertation explores the contribution of public religious art to public dialogues about social issues. To understand how faith-based organizations and secular media interpret and use Homeless Jesus, I analyze photos of replicas, online news articles that reference it, and interviews with faith leaders at organizations that have a replica or are located near the replica in Hamilton, Ontario. Findings indicate that faith-based organizations use art to contribute to public dialogues in a manner they hope is accessible to and respectful of those with differing worldviews.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/26307 |
| Date | January 2021 |
| Creators | Wynia Baluk, Kaitlin |
| Contributors | Gillett, James, Health and Aging |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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