ECVA Newsletter

Art Contemporary
Message from Mel Ahlborn –
President and CEO, The Episcopal Church and Visual Arts

Visual art, religion, and society influence one another in so many different ways. Art history gives us the opportunity to learn from past events how art, religion, and society are interrelated. We also have art ‘contemporary’, which gives us an opportunity of a very different kind. Through art ‘contemporary’, we can learn from current events, and we can participate in the formation of the future. The Episcopal Church and Visual Arts is an art ‘contemporary’ community. ECVA is an art ‘history’ community as well. ECVA artists are deep explorers. Theology and church, anciently recorded and newly revealed, come to life in their hands.

ECVA exhibitions provide access to the work of this extraordinary community. Visitors to ECVA exhibitions are inspired to fresh ways of seeing. Through the visitor’s own sense of sight, the artist’s intention expands. It is, really, a most intimate, and often silent, collaboration. The received meaning of these encounters with the Holy unwraps itself like a gift. ECVA produced four online exhibitions in 2005. Venite Adoramus (Griffin Logue, Frank Logue, Curators) celebrates the church year from Advent through Christmastide to Epiphany. Illustrating the Hours (Jan Neal, Curator) exhibits the work of artists exploring the Daily Office. The curator for Spirit’s Fire (Brie Dodson, Curator) selected work “in hopes of evoking the Spirit’s presence in our world.” And Behold All Things New (Gurdon Brewster, Curator) exhibits work influenced by today’s political, social, or economic issues.

The year 2005 has been of tremendous organizational growth also.

	·	ECVA was awarded a multi-year Trinity Grant to further develop Visio Divina into a nationally available program.
	·	ECVA recently curated the ‘Faces of Christ’ exhibition on the new Episcopal Church USA homepage.
	·	The Office of General Convention has again commissioned ECVA for a series of Visual Preludes for Columbus 2006.
	·	The ECVA Web site resourced 50,000 visits. Compared with 2004, those visits viewed 30% more ECVA web pages and needed an 80% increase in bandwidth to deliver ECVA’s image-rich visual arts resources.

Web site highlights include:

	·	Dan Hardison’s Congregational feature, St Paul’s Episcopal Church (Wilkesboro, NC).
	·	Anne Wetzel’s Visual Essay, The Miracle of Small Things.
	·	Greg Lewis’s Community Arts feature, Spirituality and the Arts Camp at Christ Church Episcopal Parish (Lake Oswego, Oregon).
	·	Katie Robbins’ Article Using Art to Enhance Your Message (St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Fairfield Connecticut).
	·	Erin McGee Ferrell’s Illustrated Word, Very Cool Rain (Prayer of a Priest’s Wife).

The ministry of The Episcopal Church and Visual Arts exists today through the supporting vision of Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold and his wife Phoebe Griswold. The Presiding Bishop’s words appropriately invite each of us into the art ‘contemporary’ work of ECVA.

The Holy Spirit speaks many languages, among them the languages of art in all its forms.
As Christians, we are people of incarnation and therefore prepared to encounter the divine mystery in ways that engage our senses.

— Frank Tracy Griswold,
Presiding Bishop and Primate,
The Episcopal Church, USA

Mel Ahlborn
President and CEO,
Episcopal Church and Visual Arts
mahlborn@ecva.org

From the ECVA Registry:

Butterfly Bush
By Mary Howe
Kansas City, Missouri
(watercolor)

Mary Howe was included in the article "Deepening ties through art" by Michelle Gabriel in the November 2005 issue of Episcopal Life.

Remarques
The Episcopal Church and Visual Arts now has its own weblog or blog, "Remarques", online at www.ecva.blogspot.com. Remarques provides a welcoming place for discussion without having to receive a flurry of email messages. For more information, please click here.

RSS Feed
ECVA now offers a RSS feed for use in news reader programs. By subscribing, you will automatically be notified when a new ECVA newsletter is available at our Web site. Use the XML-based information linked to the button below and follow the instructions in your news reader to add a new channel. For more information, please click here.

Registry
If you are an artist, part of an organization, or just an individual with an interest in the arts, please join our registry. ECVA Registry

Submissions

ECVA is seeking submissions from artists and writers within the Episcopal community. All work should be based on the topics listed below. For examples of what we are looking for, view our current features online at www.ecva.org and view past features in our Archive. All submissions can be sent by email to editor@ecva.org or by postal mail to:

ECVA
PO Box 4765
Wilmington, NC 28406

Please include your name, desired contact information, local ECVA Chapter (if applicable), parish or other Episcopal Church community, and concise biographical information (optional).

Congregations
We are seeking stories about congregations with works of art. Please include information on the artwork, artist, church, and provide photos.

Community Arts
We are seeking stories about congregations or institutions using the visual art as part of their ministries or community outreach that incorporate the visual arts within the church. Please include information on how the project was developed, those involved, and provide photos.

Articles
We would like stories reflecting on the visual arts and its intersection with church life. Please include images on the topic.

Visual Essays
The concept is to feature an artist's work that was created as a series based on a single theme where the images tell the story. The theme is the choice of the artist and could be anything related to the church, worship, or that is inspirational. We would prefer five or more images and an artist statement reflecting the work and the theme.

Illustrated Word
Writers are invited to submit up to 3 poems at a time for consideration. There is no limit in length, though the shorter, the better. Previously published poems are accepted. After a poem has been selected, a work of art will be selected as an illustration for the poem. The poem and image will be posted together at the Web site.

Multimedia
We are seeking multimedia presentations that bring together image, word and/or sound. Presentations could be videos or Flash graphics.

eNewsletter
Writers are invited to submit short essays (300 to 600 words) for consideration in our monthly emailed newsletter. The theme is the choice of the writer and could be anything inspirational relating to the visual arts.

Events and Books
Send us your news releases and information on upcoming events at editor@ecva.org. We will list the announcement on our Events Web page and in the News section of our eNewsletter.

The Worship Well
Church Publishing Incorporated has partnered with ECVA, the Office of Liturgy and Music, and the All Saints Company to provide an online community for conversation, collaboration, education, and the sharing of liturgies, images, music, art, multimedia, scripture tools, and more. The goals for ECVA are to increase visibility of ECVA and ECVA artists through The Worship Well; support increased use of art and image in worship and liturgy; and create support for ECVA artists in the areas of how to use art in church situations and how to ask for remuneration for the use of their art in church situations.
www.theworshipwell.org.

	About ECVA

	The mission of The Episcopal Church and Visual Arts (ECVA) is to encourage artists, individuals, congregations, and scholars to engage the visual arts in the spiritual life of the church. ECVA values the significance of visual imagery in spiritual formation and the development of faith, and creates programs to support those who are engaged in using the visual arts in spiritual life. To learn more about ECVA, please visit www.ecva.org.		If you know someone who might enjoy our newsletter, please forward this issue to them so they can learn what is happening at ECVA. To subscribe, visit www.ecva.org/newsletter.htm for information.

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