Helping Artists Find Spiritual Direction in a Postmodern Landscape

Geoff Hall, author and film-maker in Bristol, UK, began his journey into the arts as a child, playing drums on a biscuit-tin.  From living-room band and 60’s pop songs, to aspiring songwriter, Hall’s journey took a sudden detour when his local church would only support him if he became a worship leader—minus the biscuit-tin!

“The thought of this shook me to the core. I didn’t want to play or write church music, but wanted to get ‘out there’ and be part of the rich conversation in the cultural domain.”

Inspired by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in the German resistance against the Nazis, and Jacques Ellul, of the French Resistance and a writer of great insight and spirituality, Hall’s heroes formed his credo: resistance is never futile!

Ten years ago, when an art student who attended his church told Hall that her college had warned her that faith was inappropriate for one of their students, Hall knew he had to respond.

“I focused on writing, but God let me know that I had to respond with more than prayer, by rolling up my sleeves and doing something.”

A monthly meeting was set up to provide encouragement and space for artists to share their work, presenting it before other artists in an open critique (discussing merit, technical problems, approach, etc.).  Cultural critique—of the current art scene, an artist or film director—helped artists discern belief systems, worldview, and the cultural direction of their work.

“The Group,” as it came to be known, grow to over 60 artists around Bristol and South West UK.  Although he didn’t know it at the time, Hall had just added a new facet to his career: mentor.

Hall focused on the spiritual, artistic and professional development of the artist.  Churches had little knowledge of or creatively-specific support for their artists.  Sometimes working within local institutions of spirituality and education, The Group found its niche outside the walls of the church, working with and supporting each other, building community, under Hall’s mentorship.

“In fact some members of The Group tell me that this is their church, not that I aspire to be a church leader!  However, I provide a non-judgmental, discerning critique and mentoring service.  The majority of artists with whom I work practice outside the institutional church.  These artists use a totally different language, because an artist who speaks in an ecclesiastical idiom becomes culturally dislocated from the world by that language.”

“In the Group we explored how faith informed our work, gave direction to it, and what our work conveyed about life. There is no divorce between spirituality and medium, nor spirituality and the life of the artist.”

The original focus on visual artists expanded to include word, image and performance arts.   In the late 80’s, when Hall moved to Bristol, he established a creative community, capitalizing on the talents of those associated with The Group.  He studied at Bristol Polytechnic, majoring in Art History, with a dissertation on ‘Iconoclastic Disorders of the 16th Century’.  In the 90’s, while working as a photographic curator, he received his MPhil degree at the University of Exeter.

In 2007, an exhibition entitled ‘Set All Free’ at the Grant Bradley Gallery (http://www.grantbradleygallery.co.uk/) included painting, sculpture, installation, ceramics, photography and poetry.  A gospel choir packed the place out at the Preview, to the astonishment of the proprietors.

Between 2007 and 2009, ‘The Tree House,’ a monthly café event, provided space for dance, fashion, film, performance poetry, live music, cultural critique, a philosopher’s corner, and talks on visual art.

A website went up in 2010, hosting a number of articles written over the last 15 years, including material penned while Hall was Arts Editor for a South African magazine, ‘The Big Picture’.  Hall plans to add to the library on the site, and release two free electronic editions of essays in 2012: ‘The Spiritual informs the Aesthetic’ and ‘Art to the Max’. (http://upptacka.com/)

ArtsMentoring.Co developed organically, helping artists find spiritual direction in a postmodern landscape.  Today, some 70 creatives of all genres meet together in South West England to inspire and encourage one another, and impact their society.

As Andy Rankin, of “RankinStones”  (www.flickr.com/photos/rankinstones), writes:

“Geoff has provided both structure and insights into exploring my journey as an artist. He is deeply knowledgeable about the process of creativity and the challenges of revealing oneself to the world. I find him authentic, joyful and a pleasure to work with. I leave our sessions more purposeful and connected.”

From Personal to Cultural Transformation

In addition to mentoring, Hall provides lectures on the arts and spirituality, and has written numerous articles on the arts along with a series of books on spiritual direction, “Spiritual Direction in a Postmodern Landscape.”

In this series, Hall visits the current cultural landscape in search of the spiritually-attuned artist.

“Much of contemporary art is focused on the material; on the ‘process’ or ‘concept’. There are a few, however, whose work is a search for something deeper. The Group is open to all, but we have a slant to it: Christian spirituality. Many artists are searching, and are not closed off to this.  With the Tree House, our ‘slant’ comes to life, and is embodied in the life and work of the artist.”

His second book, The Cultural Way of Being, moves from the personal to the communal, offering encouragement to those who want to know how their work can become culturally formative.  The book, rooted in 21st Century culture, seeks to help artists see the misdirected accent on relevance today, to “show how our work can change from being personally expressive to culturally transformative. Our aim should not be relevance, but credibility.  Relevance is fleeting, credibility endures.

“Part of being a contemporary artist is uprooting the humanistic view of the bohemian, reclusive individual and developing a form of Christian artistry which is culturally connected to community, as well as spiritually at work like pinches of salt or a batch of yeast in the (fallen) dough of life and art.

“Personal transformation leads to cultural transformation only if the artist is part of a spiritual community. I’ve explored this in ‘The Cultural Way of Being;’ it is a great foil to the current fixation in the West with the autonomous individual!  Through community we become culturally formative.”

The third book, ‘Translating the Invisible Wind’ has just been published, and can be ordered at http://upptacka.com/shop.

From Transformation to Restoration

Cultural restoration is based on a Kingdom which opposes the trend of Postmodernism’s despair, with its disaffected artist. In the current landscape of fractured lives, Hall’s heart is drawn to walking in community and authenticity with everyday life, creativity, and people.

“The deformed image of the self is part of the focus of the fourth book in the ‘Spiritual Direction’ series, “The Artist’s Autobiography.”  My publisher and I believe this will cause the most controversy, as it attempts to ‘clear the ground’ of synthetic Christian spirituality; i.e. Christian syncretism with Humanism, Nihilism, Gnosticism and Materialism.

“My experience of church has led me to concerns about worldview and language, and the retreat of Christian spirituality into a sub-culture. I’m not sure that what we have today is what Jesus had in mind. When I see the response to his institutional days, at Synagogue, I am confronted by the murderous intent of those who rejected his teaching. His move to the highways and byways showed a different kind of communication, the story of everyday life, the parable form. We tend to use the language of the synagogue in such public spaces and wonder why people don’t respond to our invitation.

“The language of Jeremiah’s calling may resonate with some artists: ‘Today I have appointed you over nations and kingdoms to UPROOT and TEAR DOWN, to DESTROY and OVERTHROW, to BUILD and to PLANT.” (Jer. 1v10) The picture of clearing the ground before restorative building and planting doesn’t just mean a different way of communicating, but a different way of living. The life of the artist may echo in some way the heart of Jeremiah’s calling and we need to get behind such people and support them, as the terrain is difficult…

“Good, powerful, subversive Christian artistry is the art of the subtext. Want to tear down a stronghold? Then build a tunnel, don’t build a siege machine!”

From Mentor to Filmmaker?

Hall sees part of his ongoing role in The Group as facilitating the connection between artist and culture : “…good art will create an imaginative response in the viewer (and listener) if it creates a place for them to dwell, to participate in the narrative. The rest is up to the Holy Spirit…”

Upcoming events include film projects (see Handy Cloud Productions www.HandyCloud.com, where “the spiritual informs the material”), more Tree House events, and possible synergies with other groups in the UK who are exploring reconciliation between arts and church.

Contact Geoff at geoffhall1957@live.co.uk , and visit his websites for more information on mentoring, The Group, cultural critique, lectures, books, and films.

Twitter: @ArtsMentoringCo

web: http://artsmentoring.co

blog: http://thegroup.artsmentoring.co

Writer: http://geoffhall.co.uk

Film Company: http://www.handycloud.com

Publishing: http://upptacka.com

Unorthodox blog: http://upptacka.net

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/123948337619696/

Film Production: https://www.facebook.com/MyNameIsSorrow

and http://mynameissorrow.com/ (for our human rights film project).

It all started with an open mic in Charlottesville, VA.

Host Ebony Walden looked out into the audience and saw a glimpse of the Kingdom of God: people of different races, cultures and socio-economic backgrounds in one place, supporting one another and sharing stories of hope, trial and triumph through words, poetry and song.

“It was an act of expressing our humanity,” writes Ebony.  “As creatures of the ultimate Creator, we were acting in His image through our creativity.”

This defining moment led to the creation of WordSmith Poetry in March 2009.   Walden began hosting events that affirmed and introduced a wide variety of artistic voices, including poets, spoken word performers, open mic enthusiasts, musicians and singers.  The purpose of these events was to inspire creativity, promote poetry, and catalyze spoken word in the Charlottesville Community by encouraging local artists to be heard through performance.

“My strong faith, love for community development, and passion for the arts has led me to organize and emcee various events, such as the WordSmith Poetry Jam, to encourage art, beauty and community change.  I encouraged Christian and non-Christian alike to cultivate and offer their gift of words, facilitating a number of different vehicles,  such as writing and performance workshops.”

Born and raised in New York, Walden received degrees from Georgetown University and the University of Virginia, and currently resides in Charlottesville.  A city planner by trade, she works to promote healthy and livable communities. Walden holds a certificate in urban youth ministry and has years of experience creating and coordinating learning activities with children and youth.  She has also partnered with local organizations to host and/or coordinate poetry segments at community events.  And as WordSmith began, Walden became one of the founding Board Members of the New City Arts Initiative (a regional group of IAM), which supports artists and fosters creativity in the Charlottesville community.

“Poetry to me is like God breathing life into being through his word, which created something out of nothing.  I wanted to encourage everyday people to take their thoughts, words, experiences and pain, create something beautiful, and share it with the world.  There is great healing and redemption that comes when we share our gifts, stories and uniqueness with one other.  In every event I hosted, I saw people create beauty out of the brokenness of their lives. I loved it.”

The WordSmith Poetry Jams, which included a featured poet, an open mic set, and a scheduled line up of local poets, spoken word artists and other performers, were an overwhelming success, sparking interest in performance poetry in the Charlottesville community.  Attendance ranged from 75-130 each month, a creative catalyst for performance poetry in the city.

Building on this success, Walden also performed and coordinated performances at schools, community events, church, and local television.  Inspired by the success of the Poetry Jams and the impact of the art form, Walden launched into a new endeavor: The Poetic Justice World Tour.

An international creative venture, The Poetic Justice World Tour involved extensive travel in 17countries over an eight-month period, writing poetry and volunteering at schools, orphanages, community centers, and arts organizations.

The journey harnessed the creative power of poetry to give voice to the world’s impoverished and disadvantaged communities, whose voices are often muted.   The project used poetry as a conduit to promote cultural awareness, inform a greater understanding of social justice on an international scale, and engender healthy dialogue around global issues related to poverty, racism, and gender discrimination.

“I wanted to…capture peoples’ stories and give them a voice through their creation of poetry, as well as my own.  I had been working to develop my skill as a poet, but I was also interested in finding new ways to use poetry to give a voice to those who are often forgotten. A love for diverse peoples and cultures gave me the vision to embark on an exciting adventure to travel the world, write poetry, and create poetry with the people and groups that I visited and volunteered with.  Teaching English and poetry in developing countries was an extension of my desire to have a positive impact on communities in need.”

To accomplish these purposes, Walden took a hiatus from Wordsmith Poetry (which continued under the direction of her friend, DJ and sound man, Double A 1 K), and volunteered with The International Volunteer Headquarters. In late spring 2010, Walden left for The Poetic Justice World Tour, a trip around the world.

During over four months of volunteering (teaching English and coordinating other educational activities), Walden traveled to developing countries in Latin America,   Africa, and Asia.  For the remaining months of the project, she also visited countries in Europe, Asia and Australia, as well as South Africa, writing poetry, performing, touring, and networking with international arts organizations to capture poetic voices through poetry workshops and events.

Throughout her travels, Ebony wrote poetry to document the unique culture and beauty of each country, as well as the challenges of poverty and social injustice.

In almost every country, Walden facilitated a signature poem: “Where I am From.”  This autobiographical piece gave participants an opportunity to explain their background by describing their homes, community, traditions, and family sayings. The poem demonstrated how poetry could be used to create a powerful mosaic of the world.

Returning at the end of January 2011, Walden hosted a multi-media event (photos, poetry and video presentation) that captured her experiences during the tour.  Her website, publications, and presentations provided a platform to increase cultural awareness, as well as bring greater exposure to and discussion of a number of social justice issues. Walden’s hope was that such dialogue would spur activism and encourage other artists to offer their skills for community development and social justice.  A second show is planned in the coming months.

How did this trip change Walden?

“I learned many lessons on life, love and faith from the Poetic Justice World Tour.  I learned how to see with the eyes of goodness.  I saw beauty in the broken places, and hope in the hard places.

“Secondly, I learned how resilient and creative people are.  From South America, to Africa, to Asia, and everywhere in between, people were always taking what little they had and creating works of art.  I saw guns turned into sculptures, plastic bags into handbags, and recycled newspaper into shopping bags.  People were always making and selling things they created.

“Ultimately, I think people were inspired to a greater level of humanity, transparency and creativity.  I did not write poetry before I started hosting events through WordSmith; as I discovered my own gift, I wanted to share it with the world. I am a greater bearer of God’s image because of this.

“The WordSmith Poetry Jams also added an element of diversity, creativity, life and energy to the Charlottesville community that did not exist before.”

What’s next for Walden?

The mission and vision remain the same: to use poetry as a creative tool to highlight the beauty of different cultures and generate awareness about social injustice issues globally.

But, as you might expect, a new passion has emerged.  As Walden was exposed to those who have been traumatized, she saw the potential of poetry to process pain, to begin recovery, and to create something beautiful from it.   While continuing to explore the power of arts in community transformation, Walden anticipates facilitating workshops at churches, schools, and community centers to promote poetry.  She hopes to collaborate with local artists and groups, and develop new ways to use poetry as a dynamic tool to inform, inspire, and empower those who are voiceless.

And while digesting her global adventure, poring over the thousands of photos that will eventually find their home in a book, Walden is working her craft as a poet, and hopes to begin work on a memoir next year of the Poetic Justice World Tour.

“I would like to highlight the stories I heard, the people I met, the lessons I learned, and the poetry I created that reflects each facet of the trip.  This will be the culmination of my experience.”  (Publishers and ghostwriters, take note!)

The public will continue to get a glimpse of the world and hear about Walden’s experiences through essays, poems, photos, and videos posted on the website and travel blog (link to blog).  A local exhibit is one goal, to display the more poignant photos, videos and poems.  And while no international trips are on the immediate horizon, Walden would love to travel again.

Her enduring desire is that wordsmiths the world over find, cultivate and share their voice.

Behind those silent eyes is a beautiful voice

So speak,

Speak with passion, speak with purpose…

From Speak, by Ebony Walden

Contact Ebony Walden at Ebony.walden@gmail.com or visit www.poeticjusticetour.com or The International Volunteer Headquarters for more information.

Fall 2012: the first annual tour of the Gospel Music Phenomenon across Poland. The desire is to take a large team or multiple choirs and soloists to perform, and coach the many choirs that are at work in the country.
Location:
MMA is connected to the Global Outreach Department of Perimeter Church, 9500 Medlock Bridge Road, Duluth, GA 30097.
How to Get Involved:
Opportunities to partner exist for short-term teams, events, special projects and for prayer.
How to Contact:
www.missionmindedartist.com
Allan Wiltshire at ALLAN@MISSIONMINDEDARTIST.COM .
Partnership Interests:
MMA is looking to network and partner with like-minded people and organizations. Currently there is a need for marketing material.

By Makoto Fujimura

I am grateful to be given this honor: an honor that is symbolic of the commitment to the arts that Belhaven University, Dr. Roger Parrot, and your Board of Directors have made. You are making a statement; that the arts are fundamental to the core of higher education. The arts are not a peripheral luxury for the elite few, but a central necessity, how a civilization is to be defined, and how our humanity is to be restored. The arts, like the spring flowers all about Belhaven this day, bring the aroma of the New.

I have just returned from Japan where I saw first hand the enormous devastation from 3/11—the massive earthquake, the Tsunami, and the ongoing nuclear disaster. I visited the small fishing village of Ishinomaki in northern Japan, a beautiful coastal town swept away by a series of tsunamis, one of which reached 30 meters high. My friend Emiko, who grew up in Ishinomaki, now finds her home and her parentsʼ business gone, though they themselves were spared having been in Tokyo at the time. The aroma—the stench—of death filled the air as I walked about the region. I saw rice fields inundated with salt water, fishing vessels in the middle of streets, trucks still floating in the rivers. After a month, volunteers with masks and orange overalls are still helping residents salvage what they can, helping one house at a time.

Read the whole address here.

The ideal applicant would be a committed Christian with good administrative skills, qualified to teach a dance syllabus (preferably Education in Dance and Theatre Arts), with a strong heart and gift for reaching the lost. The current principal is seeking to be released from this ministry to pursue a creative arts pastoral calling. For more information please email bek_palmer@yahoo.com.au or call 0421 313 180.

A student in a lecture hall once asked me, “Don’t you get tired of noticing things?”

By way of answering her I quoted one of my favorite sayings from Annie Dillard, embodied in a brief essay she wrote (for Life magazine on, of all things, “The Meaning of Life”): “We are here to abet Creation and to witness it, to notice each thing, so each thing gets noticed . . . so that Creation need not play to an empty house.” Dillard also says, in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, “Beauty and Grace are performed whether or not we sense them. The least we can do is try to be there.”

We cannot consume a six-course dinner in one gulp. We must savor every bite one savory morsel at a time. We cannot take in the whole universe at once. Every day gives us new chances for small discoveries, ways to view some commonplace object from a fresh angle, to acknowledge what Duns Scotus called haeccity, the “this-ness,” the “is-ness,” of things, to recognize what we already know but still need to learn, to detect the extraordinary in the ordinary. A move in the direction of this kind of awareness is a move toward a fresh appreciation of our richly detailed universe—the Creator’s handiwork. The prime motivation for such an exercise is curiosity; the prime requisites are time and focused attentiveness.

During a two-and-a-half-week trip to the South Island of New Zealand, I wrote a journal entry during the days I spent in the sub-tropical rain forest of the west coast. Most of the time I was alone, with camera and journal, intentionally opening my mental pores, as it were, to sensations and impressions. I wrote: “True gratitude requires a concentrated awareness, a single eye, which is linked to recognition. Awareness, attentiveness is something we all need to learn, or re-learn, and to practice. Both these A-words are linked with our ability to see. The word attend comes from the Latin adtendere, literally ‘to lean towards,’ or ‘to lean into.’ I find a kind of exhilaration in small things when I take the time to dwell with them. My camera lens, with its zoom magnification, helps me to attend to what I might otherwise merely glance at and move on. It becomes my other eye. When I frame and focus I am also focusing my brain and my imagination.”

Here’s more of what I was noticing: “Here in the lushness of the rain forest I notice the microcosm of the moss gardens—minute, damp, velvet fronds like green sea anemones—small, low, unknown, unnamed greens. Green upon green upon green, lavish in its rich diversity and texture. Diminutive star-flowers scattered among the grasses. Tiny, uniformly polished and rounded stream-pebbles, in multiple shades of gray. The lacy, almost inky foliage of the New Zealand black birches.

“My slowing down, stopping, being still, listening, allows me to hear the microcosm speak—the world of negligible, unnoticed things. We don’t need to be world travelers or theologians or philosophers or environmentalists in order to see and hear the messages of heaven in the earthly creation. My magnifying lens is careful scrutiny.

“My pleasure in this was so intense that it brought its own species of frustration. My regret was, ‘So much rain forest; so little time.’ For us to have a working world that functions efficiently, in which natural processes interact to reproduce and control healthy life, would have seemed, to a human perspective, quite adequate. So why the profusion of life species? Why the rich complexity and intricacy? Why pattern, and the full spectrum of colors? The Creator, like all poets, is an experimenter, adding the grace of beauty, something non-essential in a pragmatic sense, but a clear reflection of what theologians call Grace. And each of us has a flash of that same esthetic impulse, which needs only a modicum of human cultivation and expression to make us appreciative of the idiosyncrasies and surprises around us, and send us off in our own creative directions.

“We tend to think of the Creator in terms of the infinitely huge—mountains, continents, oceans, galaxies, universes, light-years. As the Almighty is beyond gender and time, so is he beyond size, glimpsed, if we open our eyes, in the helical unfolding of a shell, the lace of veins in a leaf with sunlight behind it, or, as we penetrate deeper into physical realities, in the structures of subatomic particles, in the infinite unfolding of fractal patterns.” We see this concentration of limitlessness to limitation in the Incarnation, in Almighty God taking on a human body, a human life.”

Like a camera, a poem or a brief essay is a little lens through which we can examine at close range the “insignificant” details of the universe, a miniature window on the world. In such small works of art the writer is lending you, the reader, her eyes in hopes that your own eyes will be captivated by things you’ve never noticed before.

I am often asked, “How does a poem happen?” It’s a bit mysterious, but usually I find myself stirred by the sudden (and often inconvenient) arrival of an image, or an idea, or a resonant phrase, that will not leave me alone. I may be preparing a dinner for eight, or be shopping in the vegetable section of the supermarket, but this imperious idea will not be denied. It demands that I pay attention. Sometimes this begins when I read another poet’s evocative work. Or a word that seems to jump from the page. The spark of an image kindles my own imagination and I am off, like a runaway horse.

At this point I am not quite responsible for my own actions. Preoccupied, I may break an egg into the garbage disposal, or absent-mindedly put a pot of hot coffee in the refrigerator. I suppose this is what makes a poet a poet—that slender antenna of awareness that is always extended, combing the air for images, listening to the rhythms of language, watching, noticing when something quite ordinary achieves an extraordinary significance which calls out to be crafted into an art form.

Poetry is both an art and a craft. The polishing of the poem on the page, or the computer screen, often takes dozens of re-writes over months or years. A poem I wrote 25 years ago, which had lain unfinished, waiting like an embryo in my file cabinet, just recently came alive for me as I found an image and a phrase that allowed it to be completed.

The greenness of the world has always moved me—its fertility, its self-renewal. Summer holidays in Muskoka, Ontario, gave me experiences which I remember like dreams, drifting in a canoe along a lake shore, shadowed by firs and cedars, collecting the green velvet hillocks of moss on the boulders, bringing them back to our cottage and forming, with twigs and lichens and pebbles, a miniature landscape in a metal pie pan to keep the dream of green alive. Or camping on the shores of Georgian Bay. Or canoeing the Mary River and Mary Lake. It is the green age of youth and of those gentle islands and forests that reinforces the dream and that refreshes the mind’s fertility. My books of poetry—Listen to the Green, The Secret Trees, and Writing the River, and essays about spiritual growth in Water My Soul—extend the metaphors of green and growth.

Where I live now, in the Pacific Northwest, my study window opens onto a deep ravine guarded by cedars and banked with sword ferns, with a stream that sends its sound into my thoughts and my writing. I tell people, only half-jokingly, “I write best to the sound of running water!” The shore of any ocean has much the same effect on me—its limitlessness, the borders of air and land and water rubbing at each other, the random treasures to be found and collected along the tide lines—many of these end up in poems or essays. I catch myself saying, as I follow the edges of the incoming waves, and pick up a pebble here, a shell there, an aqua winking eye of sea glass, a knot of driftwood—“This is the state of happiness. This is my purest happiness.” And when a poem has become itself, when it feels complete and I know that further revision would only muddy it, I echo Dorothy Sayers who could say, on finishing a novel (or an essay, or a poem), “I feel like God on the Seventh Day!”

Luci Shaw (www.lucishaw.com) is a celebrated poet and essayist, frequent speaker, and Writer in Residence at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia.

By Luann Jennings, founder and director

Church and Art Network (C&A) is a new ministry that provides helpful information and supportive relationships to arts leaders in churches, Christian schools, and faith-based arts organizations and programs, as well as to individuals working in the arts, education, and ministry.

I began C&A in 2010. During fifteen years of working in church arts ministry, I was struck by how often I and other arts leaders felt ill equipped and alone. The community of Christians working in the arts had profoundly shaped my own spiritual and professional journey, and I knew that others, particularly emerging leaders, could also benefit from the encouragement and experience to be found within these relationships.

The network is made up of organizational and individual members and is open to anyone. Membership is free and reflects a commitment to engage with the rest of the network. Members are spotlighted at times throughout the year in both the C&A website and monthly eNewsletter and can make announcements about their work in both locations as well.

Anyone can sign up to receive the monthly eNewsletter (go to www.churchandart.org), even without becoming a member, and can utilize the website for information about members and their activities and about faith and the arts.

In addition to creating a formal network of members and communicating about their work, C&A provides helpful introductory information about different aspects of the arts and faith and links to more information for those who wish to research further. Currently, the blog and “Resources” page serve that purpose while a number of short articles by notable scholars and practitioners in the field are in development.

C&A also convenes small gatherings based on region and special interests. The first gathering was held in New York City in early March 2011. Future regional gatherings are in planning for the Washington, D.C., area, Atlanta, and elsewhere. Topical gatherings for high school and college arts students and their parents, and for scholars working in faith and the arts, are also under discussion.

Finally, in addition to the formal network of members, information about faith and the arts, and small gatherings, C&A offers consulting and speaking/teaching services. I have fifteen years of experience in arts ministry and twenty-five years of experience in arts leadership. I have consulted by phone with many leaders and artists who need to talk through tough issues, and have spoken and taught at a number of churches and Christian schools. If I can’t personally help with a particular situation or need, I will help find someone who can through the C&A network.

Many organizations and ministries are doing important work in the arts and faith. I hope that C&A will serve and benefit all of these organizations. C&A is really a network of networks. I’d love for someone to hear about C&A, go to our website, and use it to find out about another organization that would meet his or her needs better. For other people, what C&A is doing in education, encouragement, and networking is really what they will need most, even if only for a season. I hope these folks take what they learn though C&A back to their own organizations and serve them more ably. Really C&A is about serving God by supporting and communicating about what he’s already doing.

I will begin fundraising soon to be able to develop educational content on the website, plan gatherings, and spend more time connecting with members and others. Your prayers for this process are appreciated. It’s a difficult economy in which to start a new ministry and to raise funds to support it. But I feel that God is strongly calling for this work to take place and will provide for it.

You can get involved with C&A by joining as an organizational or individual member at our website, www.churchandart.org. If you have any questions or would like to be in touch with me directly, email luann@churchandart.org.

I was a Christian, and I was a dancer. A ballerina, as I liked to avow with all the solemnity of seventeen. Studying classical ballet three and four days out of the week, showing up early to stretch before class, wrestling against all the opposing forces of aching muscles and tight tendons to add a fraction of a degree to my arabesque or half an inch of height to my grande jete’. I loved it, and I worked hard, both of which I owe almost exclusively to the much greater fact of a superlatively excellent teacher. She drew me out of the back corner of regional ballet school indifference and she scraped grimly away at an acquired layer of sloppiness and mimicking conformity, down to the very bones of my so-called technique. We spent untold class time spread out on the floor with anatomy books and I was made to perform all manner of ridiculous maneuvers in order to find and feel the muscles we were talking about. I danced for months without any shoes at all, and marched across the floor, en pointe, holding chairs over my head. She would call for sixty-four changement at a time and then call for them again, and drill me on the names of the famed “Eight Positions” as I assumed them in rapid succession.

In short, she taught me how to dance.  She set something free within me . . .

Read the rest of this article at the Rabbit Room blog.

Aims:
1.     To develop the whole person spiritually and artistically through teaching and training.
2.     To enable artists to communicate the gospel through their particular gifts and disciplines.
3.     To pursue excellence of artistic skill, spiritual discipline, and integrity.
4.     To train artists to teach others.
5.     To promote the awareness, understanding, acceptance, and full potential of the performing arts within and through the church.
6.     To stimulate friendship and Christian fellowship amongst artists.
7.     To provide discretionary financial support in the form of grants and scholarships.

Objectives:
1.     To establish a school for the performing arts based on a biblical worldview.
2.     To run short-term seminars, training courses, and workshops.

Under Phoenix are presently two performing companies: PointZero (physical theatre ensemble director—Danny Scott) and TouchPoint (theatre ensemble—director Mary Scott). PointZero has a mandate to operate primarily in the fringe theatre world with biblically based, excellent physical theatre productions as well as mixed-media productions (e.g. events involving music, dance, theatre, fine art, etc.). Its focus is local, European, and global. TouchPoint’s focus is primarily local community with an emphasis on theatre but also involving fusion of different art forms—so there is an overlap between the companies. Both companies operate on an Associateship basis: performers and contributors in any given project are engaged for that project only, and there are no full-time members apart from the directors. This enables the companies to work with local and international artists and build relationships with many different people from all backgrounds.

PivotPoint is our training company and is jointly headed up by Danny and Mary Scott. It seeks to fulfill the mandate of Phoenix and is open to all—Christians and non-Christians.

Our primary aim is to make an impact on culture through quality, Kingdom-based art. TouchPoint and PivotPoint have a particular mandate to act as a bridge between the church and community through the arts. We are in dialogue with churches and church leaders and are seeking ways to educate churches in the language of the arts through lectures, seminars, one-one coaching/mentoring or discussion, and by demonstration.

Activities, resources, and events:

• Gap Year program (starting in the autumn)
• 6-9 month programs (part-time) on all levels (theatre and physical theatre)
• Programs for youth
• Apprenticeships and internships with either company
• Workshops/short courses
• SIMA vocational and personal development coaching
• Lectures/seminars (both inside and outside the church)
• Mentoring/discipling artists
• Networking
• Short performances for churches (see the TouchPoint website for repertoire)
• Large-scale performance work in the community or festivals (see PointZero and TouchPoint websites for repertoires; also, pieces can be written on commission)

Location:

Oxford, U.K.

How to Get Involved:

In addition to courses listed on the PivotPoint website and Gap Year placements, we have workshops that we publicize through our websites. Also, you can audition for apprenticeships (download an application form through the PivotPoint website) and performances (if you send a CV, we will put you on a mailing list for upcoming casting opportunities). We also need volunteers for backstage or front of house, publicity, or admin (this can be in combination with an apprenticeship as a quid pro quo arrangement).

How to Contact:

Contact information and application forms are available on our websites:
www.pivotpoint.org.uk
www.pointzero.me
www.phoenix.pivotpoint.org.uk

Partnership Interests:

Most of our work is in some way collaborative. We are always on the lookout for helpers with admin or publicity and sometimes for performers.