This year we celebrated our first open doors event, 9 years after beginning our events and classes in our new premises in Rathmines back in May 2014.

The idea of the weekend was to show some facets of what New Acropolis is and what Philosophy for Living means in day to day life. For this event we chose the theme of “Art & Philosophy”.

Art has long been a means to express and perceive universal values of beauty and harmony by finding an expression to unite opposites, like light and darkness, sounds and silences or movement and stillness.

And the artist, like the philosopher, finds a way to make the invisible visible or perceivable, whether in paintings, sculptures, music, dance, poetry and so much more. Art is a facet of philosophy as to express beauty outside, we need to find and uncover it within.

We had mini-exhibitions of philosophical interpretations of famous eastern and western paintings and interesting facts about the area in which we are, Rathmines Dublin. Beaming faces of all ages emerged from the practical workshops of singing and body percussion, while beautiful flowers were spread around the rooms after the enjoyable and centering workshop on Ikebana – The Japanese Art of Flower arranging. We had engaging and interactive round table question and answers sessions under the title: ‘Ask a Philosopher’ where people dared to ask some of their most thought about questions. Practical advice was offered on topics such as ‘how to develop moral strength’, ‘how can we have a more just world’, ‘how can I resolve the conflict between my thoughts and feelings’ and or ‘how to prepare for and deal with death’.

We also unveiled our brand new ‘Wheel of Virtue’, where visitors could spin the wheel and obtain a virtue, selecting also a small origami folded star with a related quote as inspiration. We would like to thank all who attended and participated in the event and are already in the early stages of planning the next one.