A one-of-a-kind experience of shared sacred space on the West Coast
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.
What is the Berkeley Art & Interreligious Pilgrimage Project
The practice of pilgrimage can transform, connect, and heal. 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. The Berkeley Art and Interreligious Pilgrimage Project is an invitation to create and experience art-infused pilgrimages in the Bay Area and beyond. It seeks to link sacred landscapes the world over to neighborhoods, gardens, and backyards as a way to connect with each other and our ancestors and as a catalyst for spiritual healing and even 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.
Features/Benefits
The West Coast is an ideal location to study and practice the experience of the pilgrimage, with the resources and the routes essential to deeper understanding. BAIPP connects you with dynamic scholarship and programming around the historical, cultural, and creative expressions of pilgrimage—including exhibitions of art and artifacts from around the world and across time. In the ancient world, these material items may have been the only exposure one culture would have with another. Today, BAIPP facilitates intercultural and interfaith exchange through not only the study of pilgrimage, but through real-world practice, tracing the many beautiful historic pathways that crisscross the region.
BAIPP is committed to facilitating the study and experience of pilgrimage for curious explorers wherever they are located. Pilgrimage resources range from immersive multimedia that allow those who are limited in mobility or ability to travel to connect with the art and landscapes that accompany spiritual pilgrimage and to access virtual maps that allow pilgrims to follow the routes of famed historic and new pilgrimage routes in their own communities. Imagine being able to journey along St. Kevin’s way, or visit Mecca, or meditate at the Chalice Well in Glastonbury wherever you are. BAIPP can give access to pilgrimage here and far, at home or away.
Why Pilgrimage?
Pilgrimage is essential to many communities, faiths and belief systems, and the shared experience can foster communitas and connection between cultures. More than just a long walk, a pilgrimage taken with intention can connect us with the natural world around us, providing an appreciation of our shared space and the care that it needs. In addition to ecological and social health, the act of walking also elevates our physical, mental, and spiritual wellness on a personal level. Even for those unable to take a pilgrimage physically, the practice of intentional, guided visualization has been shown to provide mental, physical, and spiritual benefits. BAIPP is dedicated to promoting and facilitating engagement with pilgrimage at every level.
Our Team
Dr. Kathryn Barush
Director
Michael Drell
Advisory Board Member
Dr. Anh Tran, SJ
Advisory Board Member
Ken Schoon
Student Advisor
Dr. Hung Pham, SJ
Advisory Board Member
Gisela Insuaste
Advisory Board Member
Dr. Yohana Junker
Advisory Board Member
Dr. Mahjabeen Dhala
Advisory Board Member
Dr. Devin Zuber
Advisory Board Member
Tom Poynor
Advisory Board Member
Dr. Aaron Rosen
Advisory Board Member
Emily Pothast
Student Advisor
Dr. Laura M. Dunn
Advisory Board Member
Dr. Cogen Bohanec
Advisory Board Member
David S. Zucker, MD, PhD, FAAPMR
Advisory Board Member
Kari Elam
Research Associate, Project Development
Dr. Michelle Oing
Advisory Board Member
Pablo Vazquez
Research Associate, Web Implementation Specialist
