One creative approach in integrating the visual arts into the life of the local congregation involves employing an artist-in-residence. In return for studio space and appropriate monetary remuneration, the artist-in-residence is available to create visual arts for worship, to instruct worshipers about the nature of the visual arts in worship, and to involve members of the congregation in the design and fabrication of the arts in worship.
Art and theology are both about the discipline of the imagination. Thus, they have a natural affinity, one with the other, making an advocacy role by the church for artistic expression in process and product a wise investment. In fact, the local parish provides an optimal setting for a resident artist and gives the congregation and artist alike the mutual benefit of each other’s imaginings.
The sense of awe and wonder triggered by watching a resident artist work kindles the religious imagination. The reality of radical faith is brought to light when watching an artist trust a creative process to reveal resolution. The presence of grace is experienced when watching an artist transform material and transcend the medium by creating a whole greater than the sum of its parts.
The intermingling of creative processes with religious ideas is productive for the church and empowering for the artist. This mutually beneficial arrangement lifts up the notion that applied creativity is an essential resource for building our world, while the faith of the church lifts up the notion that the capacity to create is a reflection of our being in the divine image. By building on the intrinsic relationship between the artistic and spiritual dimensions of human existence, an artist-in-residence program promotes the idea that the artistic vision and the vision of faith see possibility in all things.
Although the following discussion sets forth parameters for a visual artist’s residency, its concepts are adaptable to residencies of artists working in nonvisual mediums (dance, music, drama, or other arts). Furthermore, the issues and suggestions outlined in this discussion are pertinent to churches of contrasting membership sizes. Only slight modifications are required in establishing an artist-in-residence in a small church of approximately 200 members as opposed to a corporate-sized church of 2,000 members. (See Arlen Rauthge’s Sizing Up Your Church for a definition and discussion of categories of congregational size.)
In a large church, it is politically astute to align the arts committee with another (worship, liturgy, education, or music) for support or status. As a catalyst for arts activity, the arts committee negotiates between professional staff and members of the congregation, recommending to both on behalf of the other.
Since the arts committee functions to enhance the life of the congregation through art, and since art is easily dismissed or misunderstood, this committee must supplement all of its programmings with a persistent educational agenda. First, however, the committee must educate itself. An organized study of several books that bridge art and theology will enable the members to field such questions as: “What is religious art?”, “What is Christian art?”, “What is sacred art?”, “What is liturgical art?” Members will be prepared to point out invalid distinctions as well as amplify meaningful ones. If asked, “Is the best church art the best secular art, or what purpose in Christianity should art serve, or can a non-Christian artist produce a work of art for liturgy?” committee members will answer by asking more questions. Compelled to such discourse with the congregation, committee members animate interest and understanding of the arts and lay the groundwork for the appointment and arrival of an artist-in-residence.
It is wise to select an artist who not only is professionally competent but also is articulate and engaging. Give the artist ample room. Convert a Sunday school classroom to a studio. Such a room often exists in a heated building otherwise empty during the week. Forty hours per month of working time on behalf of the church is an equitable exchange for a modest salary and in-kind contribution of space and utilities. Give the artist a key and expect him or her to come and go at will, creating in the studio a place where the creative process is given high visibility for the church. The congregation and the artist need at least a year together to realize the benefit of each other. A renewal contract or a contract with another artist is a viable option at the end of the first year.
Traditionalism versus innovation is the critical issue the church faces in committing to an artist-in-residence, and the arts committee helps the congregation understand this issue. The artist works at the boundary between tradition and innovation. A work of art by nature has the capacity to take a person to a new place of being because the newness of the experience excites, distresses, delights, disturbs, challenges. The role of the artist, like that of the priest, is a prophetic one.
The arts committee helps to integrate the artist with the professional staff and advocates for his/her presence in planning sessions. Inclusion achieves two major things: first, the artist has time to incubate, a critical step in the creative process when the artist wrestles with ideas and searches for solutions; second, the artist is not ghettoized, thereby enabling his/her works to be understood as essential to the life of the church rather than “extra,” like frosting on a cake or stripes on a pair of stockings. If the artist is well integrated into the staff and understood and accepted as one of them, his or her visual proclamations will be taken in stride much the same way the pastor’s work is.
When West Coast artist Nancy Chinn was artist-in-residence with a congregation in San Francisco, she appointed two committees to work with her—one, a Dream Committee, and the other, a Recruitment Committee.
The Dream Committee, comprised of approximately half a dozen members from the congregation, interacted with Nancy regarding the use of sanctuary space around themes of worship. Referring to the appointed Scripture for that week or season, Nancy would ask, “What does this Scripture mean to you? What are the feelings this Scripture evokes from you? What is the mood we are trying to get across with this theme?” These questions provoked a “feeling” response, enabling Nancy to incubate ideas and visualize creations.
The Recruitment Committee, also comprised of members of the congregation, helped paint, fabricate, cut, install, and otherwise construct the work designed by the resident artist. Thus the work in the sanctuary became the work of the people. This work, inspired by Scripture, might accompany the procession, amplify the reading of the lessons, embellish a prayer, accompany the bringing of the gifts, elaborate upon the sermon, or surface during dismissal. With the help of this committee, the artist designed the work (a painted paper carpet down the center aisle with images of Holy Week on which congregants walk); organized the project; worked out mechanics of installation (e.g., a concealed drop-line system supportive of an evocative swoop of red, orange, and yellow ribbons during Pentecost, or 1,400 cut and folded paper dove images during Epiphany); and instructed people how to work with the chosen artistic medium.
The artist embodies and enfleshes the Word with the aid of the community in other ways. He/she might offer intergenerational “how-to” workshops during off-school times that thrive on the spontaneity of children and adults of all ages. Retreats which lift up the creative process as a meditative process, sessions with Sunday School teachers helping them incorporate the artist’s expertise in their teaching situations, an artist’s chat on Sunday morning about work in the church studio, or a dialogue sermon about applied creativity as rootedness in the divine image, all represent possibilities for engagement.
It is empowering to the artist to interact with a nurturing community. Furthermore, artists need space and the church needs the fresh insights of its artists. Why not risk such a relationship? Without risk, art and theology will not take us to an enlarged vision of reality where the religious imagination can take flight.