'Art of Sound' meditation session set at Albany Museum of Art

Mar. 12—ALBANY — The opportunity to enhance an art experience will be available on March 26 with "The Art of Sound: The Way of Life." The sound meditation session that encourages participants to "reflect, reset and realign" starts at 10 a.m. at the Albany Museum of Art.

Amanda Borghi, certified sound healing facilitator and owner of Inherent Sound, will guide participants on a meditative journey with soothing tones from instruments in the welcoming environment of the Haley Gallery, where Ray Pierotti's exhibition "The Way of Life" is showing.

"While we have conducted 'The Art of Sound' in the Haley Gallery before, this session is especially appropriate since Ray Pierotti's work is based on the creation of visual representations of sounds," AMA Director of Education and Public Programming Annie Vanoteghem said. "There will be a lot of positive synergy between Ray's artworks and Amanda's sounds that will make this a unique, rejuvenating experience."

Borghi describes "The Art of Sound" session as a "unique sound meditation that will combine your breath, the vibration of your voice, and intentional focus on art to produce a meditation experience that will inspire your creative alignment and connection to self."

She said she will guide participants on their meditation journey by utilizing instruments that create sounds, vibrations and frequencies that resonate and align with each of their chakras.

"The 'Way of Life' exhibition displays art created and inspired by our chakras," Borghi said. "Chakra translates to 'wheel' and is understood to be the energetic centers in our body associated with bundles of nerves, major organs, and areas of our energetic body that affect our emotional and physical well-being.

"During this session, participants will be invited into a vocal meditation that will guide us to focus on each individual chakra in an effort to observe each energetic space and use breath, sound and vibration to align and reset each chakra. The artwork will act as our visual focus and anchor during the experience."

The setting will be the exhibition of artworks by Pierotti, a Shellman artist who holds master of music degrees in musicology and musical composition from the University of Utah. He uses a device called a CymaScope to create Cymaglyphs, which are stopped-time images of given sounds as viewed in a CymaScope. In his suite of mixed-media paintings titled "Sound Intervals" that is part of his "The Way of Life" exhibition, Pierotti has composed intervals of "visual music" with their associated colors and shapes.

The doors for "The Art of Sound: The Way of Life" open at 9:30 a.m. so that participants can set up in the gallery for the session, which begins promptly at 10 a.m. The AMA opens to the public at 10 a.m. on Saturdays, but the Haley Gallery will be reserved exclusively for this session. The Haley Gallery will be accessible to other museum guests once the program, which will last about an hour, is completed.

Participants are asked to dress comfortably. There is no experience required to participate in "The Art of Sound," and no movement is required.

"During this unique practice, participants will be invited to sit on the floor, as well as to lie down," Borghi said. "Please bring a mat, pillows, blankets, and any other supports that will contribute to your comfort. It is also recommended to bring an eye mask and a journal if you keep one. If you are unable to be comfortable on the floor, you are welcome to bring a folding chair or a chair can be provided."

The session may be experienced on multiple levels. At the most basic, the participant will be invited to relax and detach from daily stressors and experience a deep rest. At a dynamic level, the sound immersion encourages the participant to experience healing and support in their individual emotions, the processing of emotions, and experiences tied to them.

Participants also will learn the importance of self-care and creating a practice and habit of meditation. They will leave with knowledge and techniques on how to identify their emotional and physical state and respond via breathing and meditation techniques to support themselves.

"Meditation is not an escape," Borghi said, "but rather a return to who we are. Meditation is not created to check out, but rather to check in, check on and give ourselves the attention we deserve. You deserve ease. You deserve rest. You deserve balance."

Being a human, she noted, "has always come with challenges. Most would agree that today's world, more than ever, creates dynamics and what often feel like barriers to tapping into ease, balance and vital self-care.

"Self-care is not selfish but rather sacred and necessary," she added. "When we take time to reflect, reset and realign our mind, body and spirit, we set ourselves up to better step forward in our world and within ourselves. When we take time to listen to our inner world, we are better able to interact with the outer. When we heal ourselves, we heal those around us, and this is needed now more than ever."

The cost to participate in "The Art of Sound: The Way of Life" is $30 for Albany Museum of Art members and $35 for non-members. A link to the secure online registration site may be found at www.albanymuseum.com/art-of-sound.

Those interested in The Art of Sound may also be interested in another program that will take place the preceding evening. The bimonthly Yoga in the Gallery session, led by 229 Yoga, will be conducted in the Haley Gallery at 5:30 p.m. on March 25.

Yoga in the Gallery is free to AMA members, and $10 for non-members. No registration is required. Participants should dress comfortably and bring a yoga mat to the session.

The Albany Museum of Art is located at 311 Meadowlark Drive, adjacent to Albany State University's West Campus.