ArtWay (www.artway.eu) is a new web-based service for congregations and individual believers to help them better understand the role of the visual arts in deepening faith, contributing to worship, and communicating truth and hope across cultures. Its formal launch is on Pentecost 2010.
Based in the Netherlands, ArtWay is the vision of ArtWay’s editor-in-chief, Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker, and her husband Albert Hengelaar, not only to help sustain the landmark work of her father, Hans Rookmaaker (1922-1977) in the area of art and faith, but also to carry on his vigorous support of practicing artists, encouraging them to attain excellence in their work while maturing spiritually. Laurel Gasque, author of Art and the Christian Mind: The Life and Work of H. R. Rookmaaker, and Sessional Lecturer in Theology and the Arts at Regent College, Vancouver, BC, Canada, is contributing editor.
Thoughtful engagement with art and culture
ArtWay offers a key to the rich, fascinating world of the visual arts that is sometimes hard to enter and to understand. The goal is to open Christians’ eyes to the beauty and meaning of art so that more people can enjoy the vast treasury of art both past and present and become discriminating viewers of what they see, from both an artistic and a cultural perspective. ArtWay thus encourages a thoughtful engagement with art and culture, rather than an uninformed rejection or uncritical embrace of them.
Although ArtWay will showcase the best work it can find of believing artists around the world, it will by no means deal only with art created by Christians. It is committed to an open-minded and respectful examination of art, no matter what tradition that art comes from. “Christian art,” ArtWay moreover believes, is not necessarily art that deals with explicit Christian themes but any art that is rooted in a Christian view of life. A landscape or a still life, an abstract work or a scream of doubt or protest—all such art can spring from Christian conviction.
Art beyond borders
In recent years the number of Christian artists who produce good work has grown substantially, and so has the number of insightful books and essays about art written by believers. This has often, however, focused entirely on an English-speaking enclave and has left unnoticed significant artwork and writing being done elsewhere in the world—except for a few artists who seem to be able to attract an Anglophone audience. A distinctive goal of ArtWay will be to cross some of these linguistic boundaries by bringing forward the work of lesser known artists, first of all from the European Union, but also from around the globe. ArtWay trusts that after it introduces people to “art beyond borders,” these works of art will be able to find their way into homes, schools, and churches in other cultures.
Information and resources
In addition to showcasing international artists of faith, ArtWay will also offer many other resources, including information about international arts organizations and study programs for artists, image-and-word Bible studies, travel tips, reviews, news items, practical networking, and a host of other features. At its core is a weekly Sunday newsletter with a visual meditation on a notable work of art. ArtWay aims in particular to give suggestions and develop materials about how to use images in liturgy, small-group gatherings, church bulletins, and building design.
John the Baptist of the heart
ArtWay will facilitate the sale of works of art by its featured artists, but it will not take any commission or remuneration for this. ArtWay eagerly anticipates not only exchanges between artists and potential patrons, but also—by means of its information and resources—a vigorous exchange of views on the state of the arts from a Christian perspective.
Jacques Maritain called art “the John the Baptist of the heart, preparing its affections for Christ.” As both Scripture and the history of Christianity show, God can use art to convey his truth, love, and grace implicitly, multivalently, and powerfully across diverse cultures and circumstances. This is what ArtWay stands for and aims to encourage.
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Mahalia Jackson - Come Sunday.
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