Travelers to Nepal and Tibet often acquire traditional Buddhist artwork with which to embellish homes and offices alike, hearkening back to the Western concept of art for art's sake. In the Himalayas, religious art plays a broader role in daily life as both a record of, and a guide for contemplative experience. Dr. Dina Bangdel, Associate Professor of Art History at Virginia Commonwealth University, has traveled extensively through Nepal and Tibet conducting field interviews with the oftentimes anonymous artists who create these traditional works. She explores ways in which art serves as a religious tool while at the same time remaining an intrinsic part of the underlying ritual. A specialist in South Asian, Indian and Himalayan art, Dr.Bangdel will share her insights in a lecture entitled "Encountering the Sacred: Ritual in Himalayan Art" to be presented at the Nevada Museum of Art on June 29th.

Myths and Mountains (www.MythsAndMountains.com), an award-winning adventure travel company, is proud to host this event and serves as a stellar example of a similar constellation of form and function. Not content to merely facilitate international trips focusing on regional art, culture and society, as a proud corporate supporter of READ Global (www.readglobal.org), Myths and Mountains provides financial and in-kind support to READ so that it can build community library and resource centers in Nepal, India and Bhutan and seed businesses to fully sustain and support the READ Centers. The centers not only provide educational materials, but provide literacy training, women's and girl's empowerment, microcredit, health/HIV and other activities. Proceeds from Dr. Bangdel's presentation and from the online auction will be used to sustain this mission.

You can support READ Global directly by coming to hear Dr. Bangdel speak, or from the comfort of your home, by bidding online for exciting auction items like a 12-day trip for two to the Solu region of Nepal, ethnic jewelry from India and West Africa, and tribal clothing from Nepal and Thailand. Online bidding opens on May 21, 2011 at www.biddingforgood.com/READGlobal. Join us on Wednesday, June 29, at the Nevada Museum of Art, 160 W. Liberty Street in downtown Reno. Doors open at 5:30 pm with the opportunity to meet Dr. Bangdel while enjoying cocktails followed by a behind the scenes tour of the collection with the museum's Executive Director David Walker. Dr. Bangdel's lecture begins at 6:30 pm, followed by an exclusive dinner at 8:30 pm hosted in a private home. Tickets for the lecture are $15 per person in advance, $20 at the door. Tickets for cocktails and the lecture are $125 per person or $250 per person for cocktails, lecture and dinner.

Contact Allie Almario at (775) 832.5454 or allie@mythsandmountains.com to make a reservation. Additional information about this event can be found at www.readevent.org.

READ Global

READ Global

READ Global pioneered the concept of sustainability as an international development organization dedicated to combining education and private enterprise to make rural communities viable places to learn, build, and prosper. A recipient of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s prestigious Access to Learning Award, the organization has helped establish forty nine Community Library and Resource Centers paired with for-profit enterprises throughout Nepal and India that serve over a half million people annually. Building on its proven record of 100% sustainable success, READ Global is expanding to three new countries, including Bhutan, by 2011

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