Artist Paul Ré established a peace prize in 2007 for UNM affiliates, including students, who work toward conflict prevention and are at the creative forefronts of their fields.
"Persons in any field of endeavor can contribute to peace in the world," Ré said. "I really want to emphasize that strongly because having peace in the world is not going to be the result of specialists who do it."
Contests like these are usually for artists who must be nominated by others, but Ré likes to do things differently. People can nominate themselves through the Jonson Gallery, and they don't have to be artists. He's looking for nominations for the Paul Bartlett Ré Peace Prize before August 31. The winner gets a $4,000 stipend and some of Ré's art. The prize also includes a signed copy of Ré's book The Dance of the Pencil, which highlights 20 years of his graphite drawings.
To read more about eligibility, visit the Jonson Gallery Web site at Unm.edu/~jonsong. You can also fill out the nomination form there.
In 2007, William Gross, the former dean of engineering at UNM, won honorable mention for a course he taught on ethical and humane environmental engineering.
"He trained many people to do his field in a much more humanistic and environmentally friendly way," Ré said. "And there are his students who have gone on to found various companies or organizations in quite a variety of countries around the world, so he's had a lot of influence."
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Ré called the prize a logical continuation of his decades of work demonstrating how serene and elevating art can act as a model for living. His sculptures and drawings are visual mantras, he said, and he's gotten positive responses to his work since he began exhibiting in San Francisco decades ago.
"By looking at them a lot, as you do in a mantra where you're concentrating on the sound - when you concentrate on these visually, it slowly permeates your consciousness," he said. "Over time, it became very clear that my work was bridging art and science, the world of the blind and sighted and East and West. Among those years, I had trained to be a monk in the yogic tradition."
One of his most successful shows was a traveling exhibit of touchable art for the blind and sighted.
"That has had 18 shows in North America, and a lot of adventure with it," he said.
Ré was named a Da Vinci Laureate through the International Biographical Center in Cambridge, England, for his art-driven peace efforts worldwide. He's one of 13 in the world to receive this honor.
He has willed all his art archives and estate to the Jonson Gallery.
Paul Ré Bartlett Peace Prize
Unm.edu/~jonsong
