So I have been absent longer than I hoped. And for the first time this semester, I
failed to post my Friday Feature. Can we
view it as my free skip for the semester and call it all good? Thanks.
Because it is that ragged week before spring break when campus begins
looking like a scene from The Walking Dead (I don’t watch the show, but when I
walk in on family members who do, I see a lot of trudging and hear guttural utterances
that sound, to the untrained ear, a bit like my students).
The source of my distraction is only ever so tenuously
connected to campus events—and only in the sense that I must keep things
humming there while I install an art show and create about a third of the work
to be displayed therein.
I mentioned in a late summer post that I missed my art,
missed it terribly, and may even want to teach it again, in some manner. Although it seems likely that I may never
teach art again in an academic setting, a new and exciting venue has opened for
me to pursue the arts in a vitally crucial and historically ignored context:
the church.
I go to an offbeat church,
In fact, a coffee shop conversation about my church, four hours ago when
I began this post went something like this:
Me: "I go to a very exciting and unique church. We have
doctors, NASA scientists, homeless people and drug addicts.
Other Guy: "Oh, so you're Unitarian?"
Me: "Um, no. Just really accepting and welcoming. It's
a community church"
Other Guy: "So what denomination?"
Me: "We defy denominational labels."
Other Guy: nodding approval "I'd sign off on that."
It’s all true—and crazy, and awkward, and exhilarating in a
way you can’t imagine. It’s also a
perfect place to launch an arts program.
And so we are. In an offbeat,
evolving, and chaotic sort of way.
We have an art show opening on Friday. As in, 45.75 hours from right now. I don’t know how many pieces we’ll have, and
none of the installation has begun. But
the pieces I do have range from stunning to, um, quirky and The Baker is catering
so it will be a wonderful time.
I am posting “sneak peeks” on facebook—little snippets of
works to sort of whet artistic appetites, and I will share them here, now,
although I have to just include iPhone snapshots because there is clearly no
time for editing.
Our theme is “Just Listen,” and here’s a preview of how our artists are interpreting it:
And a catering preview:
 |
| Baby Croissants!! |
Exciting times, these. I will pop in with a brief update as the show progresses.
1 comment:
I'm glad to see you're posting again, as it seems so many bloggers have given up over the past year or two.
Your art show sounds like a lot of fun! I'm anxious to see some more pictures of it!
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