University Chaplaincy Celebration

Inauguration Week

October 4, 2023 at 7:00pm, Goddard Chapel

All are welcome for a festive, multifaith gathering to welcome President Kumar into the Tufts community. Through music and dance, spoken reflections, and a collaborative art installation, students and chaplains will lift up our shared values of pax et lux, hospitality, spiritual and intellectual exploration, and service. Please join us as we celebrate the legacy of religious and philosophical life at Tufts, rooted in our Universalist heritage and alive across our diverse and vibrant communities. During the gathering, we will invite attendees to write their words of welcome or blessing for our new president on a paper oak leaf, which will be added to a special art installation created at this event which is inspired by the historic, stained glass oak leaves on one of the primary windows at Goddard Chapel (pictured below).

If you are not able to join us in person, please consider sharing a word of encouragement or blessing for President Kumar by completing this form.  Your words will be included in the art installation that is created during this special event. Please email the University Chaplaincy with any questions. 

About the artist

Nancy Marks is a public health advocate, community organizer, and visual artist with extensive experience using art to heal individuals and to advance advocacy and educational objectives. In 2014, she launched The Intimacy of Memory, an initiative exploring grief and loss through art. In 2016, she co-founded The Opioid Project: Changing Perceptions through Art and Storytelling which seeks to highlight the complex social narrative of addiction, while giving space and ‘voice’ to all those connected to the opioid epidemic. Nancy also leads art-making sessions (Memory Cafes) for people living with dementia. At Tufts, Nancy has led such initiatives as replacing white ceiling tiles with art in the pediatric clinic at TUSDM and in Medford, she partnered with the Chaplaincy to create a public art project to commemorate a year of upheaval due to both COVID-19 and racial injustice.

As a painter/mixed-media artist, her current work falls under the moniker, “Urban Abstraction’. Her enduring interest in the power of place can be traced back to her childhood days roaming the streets of New York.  Nancy currently lives in Boston, Massachusetts and is TISCH/TUSDM Community Service Coordinator. You can find more about her on her website.