The purpose of this program is to introduce the living masters of traditional arts. We are visiting Istanbul, a center of traditional artistic life, at a fortuitous moment – the traditional arts are undergoing a renaissance, after decades of dormancy following the end of the Ottoman Empire. The old arts are being rediscovered, thanks to the perseverance of individual master artists, who carried the full weight of their artistic traditions until they could finally be passed on to receptive new generations. Consequently, an aesthetic efflorescence, manifested in multiple interconnected art forms, is underway.

Meetings with Masters introduces participants to this exciting art world. Art and tradition do not live in a vacuum, but within the framework of a civilization. The center of two former world empires (Byzantine & Ottoman), Istanbul is home to some of the most remarkable arts in the world. The creative energies of artistic genius supported for hundreds of years by discerning imperial patronage produced an aesthetically charged environment. The book arts, such as calligraphy (khatt), marbling (ebru), illumination (tazhib), bookbinding (jild-i kitab)), music, and architecture all complemented one another. Each, in its own manner, combines geometrical strictness with melodious rhythm – the two poles between which art evolves and which it succeeds in reconciling in various ways and styles. The overall environment created by the combination of architecture, calligraphy and music forges a mentality. It effects an equilibrium that is helpful for spiritual life.

By way of immersion into Istanbul’s traditional aesthetic world, this is a great opportunity to study calligraphy (khatt), marbling (ebru) and Islamic Geometry with living masters, and observe carefully the arts of illumination (tazhib), bookbinding (jild-i kitab), architecture and Ottoman sacred music – surroundings which by their beauty recall our heavenly origin and thereby also awaken our hope.

The most carefully curated and intensive aesthetic-spiritual surroundings are Istanbul’s mosques and tekkes or sufi lodges, some of which we will visit during this journey. Within them, calligraphy and its adjacent arts of ebru and tazhib, together with music and architecture, all combine to create a medium which rejoins the function of interiorizing contemplation – the aesthetic phenomenon becomes a receptacle that attracts a spiritual presence.