Art Is: A Journey into the Light: What an Artist Sees

Join us in Miller Hall as guest speaker Makoto Fujimura gives a talk and converses with Professor Christian Wiman about the process of writing his new book Art Is: A Journey into the Light from his studio in Princeton.

Free and open to the public.

This event is sponsored by the Yale Institute of Sacred Music Literature & Spirituality Program.

Contact: Katya Vetrov

View the new book's information on the Yale University Press site

Speaker bio:

Makoto Fujimura is a leading contemporary artist whose work has been featured in galleries and museums around the world, including The Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, The Huntington Library, the Tikotin Museum, Belvedere Museum, C3M North Bund Art Museum, and Pola Museum. His process-driven, refractive “slow art” has been described by David Brooks of The New York Times as “a small rebellion against the quickening of time.” Fujimura is the author of five books: Art Is: A Journey into the Light (Yale University Press, 2025), Art+Faith: A Theology of Making, Silence and Beauty, Refractions, and Culture Care. He is also the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2023 Kuyper Prize for Excellence in Reformed Theology and Public Life and the American Academy of Religion’s 2014 Religion and the Arts award. From 2003 to 2009, he served as a Presidential appointee to the National Council on the Arts. He is a celebrated speaker and advocate for the arts. Fujimura has received five Honorary Doctor of Arts degrees.

Respondent bio:

Christian Wiman is the Clement-Muehl Professor of Communication Arts at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music and Yale Divinity School. He is the author, editor, or translator of fifteen books including, most recently, Zero at the Bone: Fifty Entries Against Despair. His upcoming collection of letters with Miroslav Volf, Glimmerings, will be published in January 2026.