The Society for the Arts in Religious and Theological Studies or "SARTS" had its charter meeting at the 2002 AAR/SBL (American Academy of Religion/Society of Biblical Literature) conference. The Society was organized to provide a forum for scholars and artists interested in the intersections between theology, religion, and the arts especially in the classroom. The goal of the Society is to attract consistent participation of a core group of artists and scholars of theology and religion in order to have dialogue about the theological and religious meaning of the arts, and the artistic/aesthetic dimension of theological and religious inquiry. SARTS is located at the United Theological Seminary in Minnesota.
Wednesday, 31 March 2010
Tuesday, 30 March 2010
The Annual Religious Art and Architecture Design Awards program is co-sponsored by Faith & Form Magazine and the Interfaith Forum on Religion, Art and Architecture (IFRAA), a Knowledge Community of the American Institute of Architects. The Awards program was founded in 1978 with the goal of honoring the best in architecture, liturgical design, and art for religious spaces. The program offers three primary categories for awards: Religious Architecture, Liturgical/Interior Design, Sacred Landscape, and Religious Arts. To join IFRAA's mailing list [click: here]. I did.
Monday, 29 March 2010
Founded in 1979, Christians in the Visual Arts exists to explore and nurture the relationship between the Christian artist in the church and in the world-at-large. Known widely as CIVA, its purpose is "to encourage Christians in the visual arts to develop their particular callings to the highest professional level possible; to learn how to deal with specific problems in the field without compromising our faith and our standard of artistic endeavor; to provide opportunities for sharing work and ideas; to foster intelligent understanding, a spirit of trust, and a cooperative relationship between those in the arts, the church, and society; and ultimately, to establish a Christian presence within the secular art world." Just eight year ago, In 2002, CIVA hired its first full-time staff and accepted Gordon College in Massachusetts' invitation to make the school its first permanent home. It has 1,300 members and conducts conferences, exhibitions and auctions.
Sunday, 28 March 2010
Faith & Form, as an organization and a journal developed over a 40 years period. Its roots include the Church Architecture Guild of North America founded in 1940; Guild for Church Architecture founded in 1965; and the Interfaith Forum on Religion, Art and Architecture (IFRAA, now part of AIA). Faith & Form represents clergy, lay leaders, artists, architects, and landscape designers concerned with design for worship. It is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization incorporated in Washington, DC and a quarterly magazine, Faith & Form. The group also sponsors a yearly Religious Art and Architecture Design Awards program. To view the 2009 honorees, [click: here].
Saturday, 27 March 2010
The non-profit Christus Rex is dedicated to the dissemination of information on works of art preserved in churches, cathedrals and monasteries all over the world. They intend to assemble a collection of images that will constitute a visual representation of the Bible, ad maiorem gloriam Dei! (for the greater glory of God!). According to the groups website, they are in the process of "building the data base for a world wide tour of churches and monasteries, comprising in excess of 10,000 images." The group is soliciting artistic works for display. To participate, send them a color photograph and they indicate they will present online them with appropriate credits. The contact information is E-mail: christusrex_inc@hotmail.com.
Thursday, 25 March 2010
The Association of Scholars of Christianity in the History of Art is seeking papers on the lack of major religious artists of today. The deadline is Oct. 1, 2010. They are seeking 20-minute papers that examine specific examples of art from the 20th century which employ Christian subjects, symbols, and contexts in order to consider the methodological challenges that these works of art pose. The symposium will convene on February 8, 2011 at NYC's Museum of Biblical Art, the day before the annual meeting of the College Arts Association.
Wednesday, 24 March 2010
The Society for the Art, Religion and Contemporary Culture (ARC) was established in 1961 and is based in Kutztown, PA. Its archives are maintained at the Harvard Divinity Library and Nelvin Vos is the executive director. The Society meets three times each year, normally in New York City, on the first Saturday of November, February and May. It's purpose and program are based on the belief that the roles of the arts and religion are decisive. The Society believes that "Religion in isolation from the arts is starved of concrete embodiment of its insights into the fullness of human life. Art gives religion the eyes to see ourselves in all our dimensions." (Source: SARCC)
Tuesday, 23 March 2010
The website for Modern Religious Art reads that it "displays and encourages and the work of contemporary artists who are in some way motivated by or engaged with the religious." The project (site) also indicates that it is "not prescriptive of any particular belief system" and is open to contributions from artists who follow a particular faith as well as artists with no interest in faith including atheists, religious humanists and agnostics. It's a curious project
Monday, 22 March 2010
The genesis for The Freedom ART Project came in 1996. This California-based project is the calling of California born artist, Jeff LeFever. The 66 Project artworks are visual interpretations the 66 books of the Canonized Bible, with the intent of being the heart of a non denominational, non doctrinal sanctuary. Each painting for each book will contain that books full text in the original language gilded in 23 Karat gold. The size of each painting is determined by the amount of scripture contained in each book - the largest book being Psalms will be 30 feet tall by about 24 feet wide, and where John 3, will be only a few square feet.
Sunday, 21 March 2010
The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., is the pre-eminent Marian shrine of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. Envisioned by its founder, Bishop Thomas J. Shahan (1857-1932) as a “monument to artistic truth” that would speak with “divine eloquence,” the Shrine is home to the largest collection of contemporary ecclesiastical art in the United States. Amid a rich patina of mosaics, sculptures, and artistic renderings, the more than 65 chapels and oratories reflect not only the devotional traditions of the American Church but also the rich ethnic mélange of the Universal Church. In 1990, Pope John Paul II (1920-2005) named the National Shrine a minor basilica, the 36th in the United States.
Saturday, 20 March 2010
AOA NEWS
By Ernest Britton
INDIANA - Saint Seraphim of Sarov Book Store of Indianapolis reports that it is one the few area Eastern Orthodox bookstores open during weekday hours. They have been in operation since 1992 and specialize in Orthodox books, gift items, prayer ropes and anything else needed to support an Orthodox rule of prayer and world view. The website isn't much but it's a store rich in collectables. I purchased one cross to wear, one of place on the wall and a third to house precious memories.
By Ernest Britton
INDIANA - Saint Seraphim of Sarov Book Store of Indianapolis reports that it is one the few area Eastern Orthodox bookstores open during weekday hours. They have been in operation since 1992 and specialize in Orthodox books, gift items, prayer ropes and anything else needed to support an Orthodox rule of prayer and world view. The website isn't much but it's a store rich in collectables. I purchased one cross to wear, one of place on the wall and a third to house precious memories.
THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Ken Johnson
NEW YORK - In a recent essay in The New York Review of Books about R. Crumb’s illustrated “Book of Genesis,” the literary critic Harold Bloom seems bemused by Mr. Crumb’s graphic style, which reminds him unpleasantly of Mad magazine. Mr. Crumb may be irreverent, but in his attention to every detail of word and image he is as devout as any medieval manuscript illuminator. Scanning the 207 drawings on gallery walls is not the best way to take in the epical narrative, but it is good to see them in the original, undiminished by the inferior reproductive quality of the $24.95 book published by W. W. Norton. The inks are blacker, the pages whiter and the artist’s touch visibly subtler. [link]
By Ken Johnson
OAKLAND PRESS
March 20, 2010
MICHIGAN - Twenty-foot wooden crosses and black linens set the stage in Farmington, Michigan. Somber music fills the air as a bloodied man hangs on a cross, calling out to God and asking forgiveness for those crucified with him. It’s a biblical scene all Christians are familiar with. Catholics hear the story, known as Christ’s passion, at Mass the week before Easter, and many hear it weekly during Lent. Yet The Living Stations of the Cross, in its ninth annual performance at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church in Farmington, tells the story so poignantly that the audience is often moved to tears. Some 140 parishioners, including actors, singers and behind-the-scenes crew, participate in The Living Stations, a one-hour scripture-based theatrical performance that incorporates live music and images projected on a 12-by-15-foot screen. At least 1,500 people attend each performance. The Living Stations is the vision incarnate of parishioner Kelly Nieto, who 10 years ago joined the Catholic faith after being raised with no religion at all. Nieto said she had the vision during her first Good Friday mass at Our Lady of Sorrows. [link]
March 20, 2010
MICHIGAN - Twenty-foot wooden crosses and black linens set the stage in Farmington, Michigan. Somber music fills the air as a bloodied man hangs on a cross, calling out to God and asking forgiveness for those crucified with him. It’s a biblical scene all Christians are familiar with. Catholics hear the story, known as Christ’s passion, at Mass the week before Easter, and many hear it weekly during Lent. Yet The Living Stations of the Cross, in its ninth annual performance at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church in Farmington, tells the story so poignantly that the audience is often moved to tears. Some 140 parishioners, including actors, singers and behind-the-scenes crew, participate in The Living Stations, a one-hour scripture-based theatrical performance that incorporates live music and images projected on a 12-by-15-foot screen. At least 1,500 people attend each performance. The Living Stations is the vision incarnate of parishioner Kelly Nieto, who 10 years ago joined the Catholic faith after being raised with no religion at all. Nieto said she had the vision during her first Good Friday mass at Our Lady of Sorrows. [link]
Friday, 19 March 2010
ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
TEXAS---Lord's Art (lordsart.com) is an online store centered around Jesus Christ. Every piece of religious art they sell is intended to glorify God and reminds buyers of how the Lord is to be the center of their lives and homes. The owners consider their Christian Art an enhancement of any Home Decor and a blessing to all who see it. The store carries Christian framed art and unframed Christian art featuring biblical themes, scripture, pictures of Jesus Christ and more. Artists represented include Christian artists Ron DiCianni, Nathan Greene, Graham Braddock, Morgan Weistling, Stephen S. Sawyer, William Hallmark and others.
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| "The Sower" by Ron DiCianni |
Thursday, 18 March 2010
After many years as a successful buyer for a large religious store, Verna Panaccio decided to follow her heart and opened her own store in July of 1996. Since she had never been comfortable with the large mark-ups most religious stores charged, it wasn't long before the name Many Blessings became synonymous with beautiful religious and inspirational goods at very, very reasonable prices. People of faith in the New Jersey area recognized the values "Many Blessings offered, whether they were looking for the perfect gift for a special person or just wanted a plaque or statue for the home.
Wednesday, 17 March 2010
Romanesque paintings are generally done in fresco, but not having perfected this technique, retouching must be done with oils or tempera. The figures which appear are submitted to a process of abstraction which is derived from the sense of creative expression characteristic of the anonymous masters who do the paintings. As a result, this painting, whose flatness and bi-dimensionality have Byzantine origins, leads in a realistic-expressionistic path and tries, through patches of color on the faces and hands, to liven up the flat tones and disocover volumetric effects which will be more fully achieved in the Gothic period.
Tuesday, 16 March 2010
Under the command of the master masons the buildings are constructed with architecture, sculpture and painting forming a single organic structure. This is what causes the painting, being subordinated to the architecture, to possess a decorative as well as theological character. In general, these pictorial decorations are religious in character but not exclusively.
Monday, 15 March 2010
The Romanesque style is born as Latin begins to break down into the Romance languages; with the disappearance of linguistic unity, a new nexus will be found, thanks to art, which along with the pilgrimmages to Santiagao de Compostela and Rome, will link the European peoples. This new "universal language" will make it possible for the pilgrim or travelor to read, without need of translation, the messages expressed by a new figuration, whether it be presented in a sculptural from on the facades or capitals of the buildings, or pictorially on the walls and vaults.
Sunday, 14 March 2010
Along with Western civilization, art after the fall of Rome is submerged in shadows; the universal meaning of Classical art desintegrated into a plurality of national and local styles. Thus, in Spain there is a consecutive development of the Visigothic, Asturian and Mozarabic styles. But when it seems that European art has reached complete desintegration, a series of religious, economic and social causes will motivate the creation of a new utilitarian artistic style, the Romanesque one. It will no longer be that of an empire, such as the Roman one, but of a spiritual ideal, Christianity.
Saturday, 13 March 2010
On EWTN, Fr. Menes claimed that some Catholic universities are removing the crucifix from classroom walls so as not to offend non-Catholic students. He found this particularly odd since these students freely choose to at a Catholic vs secular university for their higher education. He challenges today's school to answer how they can lift up the Christ as they take down his crucifix? It's a good argument.
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