"Mystical Images of Tibet," an art exhibition that complements an upcoming performance of "The Mystical Arts of Tibet: Sacred Music/Sacred Dance" opens Sept. 6 at Coastal Carolina University's Rebecca Randall Bryan Art Gallery and will continue through Oct. 19. The exhibit is free and open to the public.

The opening reception for the exhibit, an introduction to the visually rich traditions of Tibetan Buddhism through sculpture and photographs, is Thursday, Sept. 6 from 5 to 7 p.m. at the gallery in the Thomas W. and Robin W. Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts.

As part of this exhibit, a special Art for Lunch lecture, featuring CCU professor Ronald Green talking on Buddhist iconography, is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 20 from noon to 12:45 p.m. It is also free and open to the community.

" What appeals to me about these sculptures is their balance of formal and expressive qualities," says Bryan Gallery Director Cynthia Farnell. "From the delicate gestures of the mudras (symbolic hand gestures) to the bountiful iconography of the Bodhisattvas (deities), this is an art that, visually, is a near perfect marriage of content and form."

Tibetan bronze sculptures from the 16th through 20th centuries C.E., are on loan from the Nelson and Joan Cousins Hartman Collection of Tibetan Bronzes at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art at Auburn University, Ala. Photographs of the Tibetan landscape and people are on loan from the Mystical Arts of Tibet in Atlanta, Ga.

"The Mystical Arts of Tibet: Sacred Music, Sacred Dance" performance is Friday, Oct. 19 at 7:30 p.m. at Wheelwright Auditorium. Call the Box Office at 349-2502 for ticket information and reservations.

(Note: For more Tibet-related events, contact the Franklin G. Burroughs-Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum at 238-2510 or visit the museum online at http://www.myrtlebeachartmuseum.org.)