On Saturday I spoke about 'Art and Mission - the Cultural Olympiad' at 'Run the Race', a special day offered in the Barking Episcopal Area to enhance mission and prepare for 2012.
I began by saying that the starting point for understanding the Arts has to be God’s own creativity which he shares with us by creating us with the ability and need to make new things ourselves as part of our understanding and exploration of what it means to be alive as human beings. Bertil Ekström (InterAct) says:
“Artistic creativity is a gift from the Creator and reflects the image of God in the human. The commandment to take care of God’s creation demands this capacity to produce new things in dialogue and tension between the feelings of our inner being and the outer reality in which we live. Therefore, the arts have an important therapeutic function as well as a pedagogic purpose, helping us to understand the different dimensions of life ...
The Scriptures are full of artistic expressions, including the way that God’s revelation of himself has come to us through metaphors and case studies of intervention in the history of humankind ...
Art is present everywhere and probably much more so than we think about. Music, dance, poetry, sculptures, paintings and drama are arts that we usually recognise. But we could add to that list many other forms, such as architecture, arrangement of gardens and flower expositions, design of clothes, and many more. What would the world and life be without art? ...
Art is not just a tool for expressing faith. Art is a mission in itself — in the sense that excellent art is a way of honouring God and giving testimony to His image in us. In other words, great art fulfils part of the Creator’s purpose with our lives.”
So art is not primarily a tool to be used by the Church in evangelism. Instead, it is much more fundamental to human life than that, in that it fulfils part of God’s purpose for our lives by honouring him through it’s quality and exploring who we are in him through it’s content.
The London 2012 Cultural Olympiad is the largest cultural celebration in the history of the modern Olympic and Paralympic Movements. Spread over four years, it is designed to give everyone in the UK a chance to be part of London 2012 and inspire creativity across all forms of culture, especially among young people.
The 'Art' strand of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad features a range of projects and programmes, including large commissions such as Artists Taking the Lead. 'Film and digital' features a short film competition for young people. The 'Literature and libraries' strand features a number of Inspire mark projects. 'Museums and galleries' features UK-wide projects such as 'Stories of the World'. The 'music' strand includes a wide range of projects and programmes - from large-scale commissions to local activities run through the Inspire programme. The 'outdoor and events' strand features 'Discovering Places'. A series of major commissions, Unlimited is the UK’s largest programme celebrating arts, culture and sport by disabled and deaf people. The World Shakespeare Festival, produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company, will run from 23 April to 9 September 2012, celebrating how the world performs, teaches and engages with Shakespeare. It will form part of the London 2012 Festival. The culmination of the Cultural Olympiad will be the London 2012 Festival, bringing leading artists from all over the world together from 21 June 2012 in the UK’s biggest ever festival – a chance for everyone to celebrate London 2012 through dance, music, theatre, the visual arts, film and digital innovation, and leave a lasting legacy for the arts in the UK.
Not-for-profit organisations can submit applications to run programmes, events or activities. No matter whether they are large or small, the very best of these will be awarded the coveted Inspire mark which, subject to certain conditions, can be used on brochures, posters and websites to promote the project or event. The Inspire mark will be awarded across many sectors, including sport, culture, education, environment and enterprise. Successful applicants will be those presenting outstanding, non-commercial projects that are truly inspired by the London 2012 Games.
Cultural projects that gain the Inspire mark will become part of the Cultural Olympiad.
Although the content of the projects will vary, all must meet the following criteria to be eligible:
· only not-for-profit organisations can apply - companies limited by guarantee, for example;
· you must have non-commercial funding and support;
· your project must start before 9 September 2012;
· your project must be mainly cultural;
· your project must be above and beyond anything you’ve done before, build a lasting legacy, have young people at its heart, be inclusive and participative; and
· your project must be clearly inspired by the London 2012 Games and not from an existing piece of work. It must differ from the kind of work you normally do and it must be clear to participants that they are part of a London 2012 project or event.
Cultural Olympiad projects and events are already taking place around the UK. If you have an idea for a project the Cultural Olympiad organisers would like to hear from you. Firstly, their network of Creative Programmers will work with project organisers to develop ideas. Approved projects can then become part of the Cultural Olympiad through being granted the London 2012 Inspire mark.
Contact the Creative Programmers for your region and let them know the following details as clearly as possible in your email:
· Your name
· Your company name and job title (if applicable)
· Your telephone number
· Your email address
· What is your project or event idea and how is it different from what you normally do?
· How do you feel it takes its genuine inspiration from London 2012?
· How would your project or event meet the Cultural Olympiad criteria?
The 2012 Olympics gives the UK church an unprecedented opportunity to engage with contemporary culture. More than Gold aims to harness the creativity of the Church to connect with people around the 2012 Games. Their Creative and Performing Arts team will give local churches and national Christian arts groups an opportunity to serve in the context of mission initiatives including Community festivals and Hospitality Centres. More Than Gold is producing a list of performers and artists for local churches to book.
The ways you can use creative arts to engage with your community include national tours:
- Saltmine Theatre Company will tour with In Their Shoes – a collaboration with a Muslim Theatre Company. The theme is it's possible to get along with others in spite of our differences. And focuses on a pair of sports trainers the Muslim (Stripe) and Christian (Spot) that neighbours are fighting over. Ideal for primary schools and all age community events.
- Lantern Arts Centre will tour with their version of Dangerous Jouney. In celebration of 2012 Games, the team has revised the classic Bunyan play based on one man's race. With music by Paul Field, this production is relevant for all ages.
- Riding Lights tour nationally between March and June 2012 with Monsieur de Coubertin’s Magnificent Opymlic© Feat! It goes back to the roots of the modern Games, bringing together the company’s church-linked audience with a new audience of people passionate about sport.
- Act 4 have Star Citizen 2012, a record breaking interactive games show for primary schools, community groups and churches. It connects with the 2012 Games by encouraging children to reach for their potential.
Community Festivals are one of the best ways for churches to engage with their wider community. And can also leave a legacy of more local churches working together to serve their community. The 2012 Games offers a special opportunity to run festivals with a big screen showing of the Games. No special licence is needed, providing the content is broadcast without editing and without charge.
Community Festivals are timed for key points in the Games – the Torch Relay, opening ceremony, a major sports competition, the closing event etc – and can vary from place to place. They can be a one day event to a full week with a variety of events.
More Than Gold offers support for two distinct approaches:
- A Community Festival with a variety of events celebrating the Christian message through the arts, sport and debate - with support and help from Share Jesus International
- An Open Crowd Festival that gives a taste of authentic community - activities and games that bring celebration and fun where the participants are the stars – with support from Fusion
These festivals may include:
- Big screen showing the ceremonies or key events,
- Fun for children including face painting, clowns and competitions
- Sport based games
- Free barbecue and tea and coffee
- Live music
- Arts and theatre performances
There are three kinds of training available:
- Intensive Training Days for Fusion Open Crowd Community Festivals and Share Jesus International Festivals with no festival at the end.
- Fusion Open Crowd Community Festivals Training Days. These vary from 2 to 24 hours followed by taking part in an actual festival to put what you have learnt into practise.
- Share Jesus Festival Training Day including experiencing a festival event.
Arts Festivals could include any or all of the following: Art trails, community arts events, concerts, craft fairs, demonstrations, exhibitions, installations, lectures, performances, poetry readings, storytelling, workshops etc.
· Art Trail - an Art Trail has been created for the Barking Episcopal Area by commission4mission with funding from London-over-the-Border. The Art Trail aims to raise awareness of the rich and diverse range of modern and contemporary arts and crafts from the last 100 years which can be found within the 36 featured churches. The significant works of art in these churches, taken collectively, represent a major contribution to the legacy of the church as an important commissioner of art. The Rt. Revd. David Hawkins, Bishop of Barking, has said: “For centuries the Arts have been an important medium through which public communication of the faith has taken place and the Church has had a lengthy and happy marriage with the Arts.” The Art Trail demonstrates that this long relationship between the Church and the Arts continues today, as the Trail includes work by significant twentieth century artists such as Eric Gill, Hans Feibusch, John Hutton and John Piper together with contemporary work by the like of Mark Cazalet, Jane Quail and Henry Shelton.
· The Barking Episcopal Area Arts Festival was a new initiative which began in 2011. The Festival involves a series of quality events from a variety of Arts genre as a way of embracing and celebrating both performing and visual arts from the Barking Episcopal area and engaging with the local communities, their people and arts culture. We intend to organize a Barking Episcopal Area Arts Festival annually but in a different part of the Episcopal Area each year and will organize it to run parallel with one of the already established community arts festivals or trails within the Area. The benefits of this approach being: to establish and/or maintain links with the local community and existing arts networks; to work alongside already established and successful frameworks; and to share a common network for publicity. The first Barking Episcopal Area Arts Festival took place from Thursday 14th – Saturday 24th July and ran parallel to the Leytonstone Festival - http://www.leytonstonefestival.org.uk/.
· Run with the Fire is an arts project for the London 2012 Olympics organized by CANA, commission4mission and Veritasse based on the image of fire which links the Church’s Pentecost celebration with that of the Olympic runner. Run with the Fire aims to celebrate creativity, cultural exchange and hope for the future by providing a virtual exhibition of international artwork for use in Olympics-themed events organised by churches in 2012. The images that seeded Run with the Fire come from the celebration of Pentecost, with its tongues of fire, new languages, and promise of dreams and visions, plus the Olympic Games, with its running messenger carrying forward the burning torch and its dreams of cross cultural harmony. The vision of Pentecost, and also of the Olympics, is one of celebration and cross-cultural understanding. As a result, our title Run with the Fire emerged. 25 international artists are participating in Run with the Fire. These artists were selected, from a pool of 45 artists who applied to be part of the project, by an international jury of Dr. Dianne B. Collard (Director of Ministries – Europe, Artists in Christian Testimony International), Martin Crampin (Artist, Researcher and Designer) and Marleen Henglaar– Rookmaaker (Editor-in-Chief, ArtWay). The selected artists began the project by writing a statement to describe their vision of ’running with the fire’ for the other artists involved. Each artist will be creating an artwork, using the idea of another artist as a starting point. This aspect of the project simulates the idea of a relay, with ideas being passed from one artist to the next. Each artist will make their work available electronically for use in the project, so that the mapping of ideas as they travel from one artist to another can become part of the final product. Run with the Fire will provide a virtual exhibition of international artwork available on DVD, for display on large scale HD TV or monitor, or for projection using a digital projector. This digital exhibition can be presented as part of Olympics-themed events organised by churches in 2012 plus arts events or exhibitions organized by local churches. Run with the Fire will also provide an electronic resource package, to accompany the virtual exhibition, which will give ideas for churches on how to organize and facilitate community/arts events. These local events will enrich the experiences of those attending and will provide a context for the Run with the Fire exhibition in each venue. Optimal exhibition spaces include churches, community centres, open air venues (with some covered space), local art galleries etc. The Run with the Fire resources (virtual exhibition DVD and electronic resource package) will be available at a cost of £50.00. Any profit on the sale of resources from this project will be donated to Oxfam. Churches will bear the costs of putting on any events using Run with the Fire resources, including venue hire, additional publicity and resources used.
To organise an Arts event, begin by dreaming some dreams together with like-minded people. Think how an art piece has spoken to you. What was it? A visit to a gallery? A song you heard on the radio? Something your child brought home from school? We all have different kinds of experiences and encounters with art. Share memories of an experience like that. Sharing stories like that plants the seeds for a whole community of appreciation.
Now imagine a top notch arts event at your church. What is happening and why is it going well? It’s crowded. Why? Personal invites? Heard about it via local media? The visual art is very good and displayed well. The theatrical and musical acts go off flawlessly and everyone seems to appreciate them. The refreshments are fabulous. Everyone is talking about this show for days and weeks afterwards. There are already plans for another one. Other churches and communities are thinking of doing one and are asking you how its done. Once you have your vision then you can begin planning to achieve it:
• Planning group
• Aims - what you hope to achieve by running your event
• Objectives - the activities you undertake to bring these achievements about
• Outcomes – measureable results that establish whether you have achieved your aim
• Event plan – venue(s), equipment, content, publicity, health & safety, risk
assessments, licences etc.
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Lindisfarne - Run For Home.
AUGUST 3rd Trevor and Rev'd Pam Thorne - The cross and the cosmos