What is the Berkeley Art & Interreligious Pilgrimage Project?
The Berkeley Art & Interreligious Pilgrimage Project (BAIPP) is a continuously-evolving initiative launched in 2022 that features pilgrimage routes curated by socially-engaged contemporary artists and scholars; it also serves as a hub of West Coast pilgrimage scholarship and resources. We are interdisciplinary and collaborative, with an advisory board comprised of professionals from a diversity of religious backgrounds, ethnicities, and areas of expertise; in academia, health care, and the arts. BAIPP seeks to link sacred landscapes the world over to neighborhoods, gardens, and backyards as a dynamic way to connect as a global community, and as a catalyst for spiritual healing and physical recovery.
BAIPP offers the unique opportunity to engage the senses through the relics and rituals of ancient and modern practice, and the beauty of the natural world, whether it is experienced virtually or through the feeling of your feet walking on sacred ground, and whether it is a journey of some distance or in your own neighborhood.
We believe the practice of pilgrimage can transform, connect, heal, and bring joy. Taking an intentional journey—for many, a sacred journey—is an experience that has been shared across cultures and beliefs throughout history and celebrated in art, poetry, song, and story.
Begin A Pilgrimage
At any stage of one’s life journey, pilgrimage deepens our
connections with nature, community, culture, the divine, and
ourselves. We invite you to embark on your own journey by
exploring any or all of our featured routes here!
LCCE x BAIPP: Prelude to a Winter Wandering
Postcard Pilgrimages: A Guide to Accompanying People Who Are Incarcerated
Peregrinajes Postales: Una Guía para Acompañar a Personas que Están Encarceladas
St. Francis in San Francisco: A Pilgrimage Through the Public Art of Beniamino Bufano
A Musical Labyrinth
Angel Island Pilgrimage: A Reflection on Roots, Migration, Detention, & Border Control
A Pilgrimage of Care, Healing, and Service to the Gubbio Foot Clinic
Glastonbury Way Pilgrimage
Retracing the Ashura Eve Vigil
Hare Krishna! A San Francisco Śrīla Prabhupāda Pilgrimage
Water Drawing / Rituals of Return: A Pilgrimage for Sukkot
Tracings and Forms: Mapping Montalvo
From Molecule to Spirit: A guide to pilgrimages of healing for folks dealing with cancer and other long-term illness
Pilgrimage at the Baha’i World Center
Traversing Tamalpais: Tracing Sacrality from the Coastal Miwoks to the Beatnik Buddhists
About The BAIPP
Our Mission
BAIPP is the West Coast’s only dedicated center for the study and practice of pilgrimage across religious traditions and its cultural influences. Our goal is to foster unity, understanding, and respect for the many shared and sacred spaces in our local community and abroad by providing the resources, guidance, and practical tools needed to facilitate meaningful interreligious and interdisciplinary exploration of pilgrimage. We aim to foster accessible opportunities for exchange, connection, healing, and transformation, from the most intrepid scholars and explorers to first-time pilgrims taking their first journey.
Our Team
The BAIPP team is comprised of an interdisciplinary, interfaith gathering of experienced pilgrims and the foremost experts in the art, history, and culture of pilgrimage. Team members include academic professionals, artists, clergy, and practitioners from a range of belief traditions, and other visionaries who are passionate about the intersection between the study and practice of pilgrimage, particularly between the physical and spiritual act of pilgrimage and the material and intangible artifacts that the tradition of pilgrimage inspires.
