ECVA Newsletter

The ECVA Artists Work Weekend
at The Barbara C. Harris Camp and Conference Center
August 27 and 28, 2004
By Erin McGee Ferrell


	Dining Hall, Barbara C. Harris Conference Center

When a Bishop visiting Trinity Episcopal Church in Boston commented on the large number of blank white walls at The Barbara C. Harris Camp and Conference Center, a vision was born to provide the center with works of art reflecting the abundance of talent and creativity within the Episcopal community. Recently built in New Hampshire by the Eastern Diocese of Massachusetts, the camp and conference center would provide artists a weekend retreat for work and companionship.

In exchange for free room and board in a beautiful and new hotel conference center, each artist was asked to provide a work of art at the end of the weekend. The artists' commission was to capture visually an aspect of the camp and conference center - be it the buildings, view of the lake, or "the emotion and Spirit of the place". The Diocese would pay for the art to be framed and would display them with the artist's name and parish in the conference center.

The number of artists per parish in the Eastern Diocese of Massachusetts is extraordinary. The region contains many parishes with permanent gallery space as well as numerous Art and Spirituality programs. There is also the ECVA North Shore and Boston Chapters with a lot of ideas and enthusiasm. Our greatest challenge in developing a cohesive group of Episcopal artists for a weekend was scheduling the time to meet.


Barbara B. Beinhocker at work.

The event was planned for August 27 and 28, and an announcement was made in the ECVA newsletter. Even with scheduling problems among planned participants, artists from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and even South Carolina met for the planned weekend. Phoebe Griswald, the founder of ECVA, and Tom Shaw, the presiding bishop of the Eastern Diocese of Massachusetts, joined us for lunch.

The weekend consisted of long periods of unstructured time alone to paint, gather around meals for fellowship, Eucharist, and a closing for everyone to reflect and share their work. During Eucharist, each artist was asked to share a story or object representing why they were Christians committed to creating art. How did the process of making visual pieces draw our souls toward God? There was also time to brainstorm over the purpose of our chapter and future possible activities.

The highlight of the weekend for me was having Phoebe Griswald and Bishop Tom Shaw, a potter, talk to us about their passions of art in the church and as venue to spiritual growth. Over strawberry shortcake we discussed the visions Phoebe had for ECVA and the possibilities in our own diocese.


	Saint Francis By Linda Pulliam watercolor, 8 1/2" x 11"

The Artist's Work Weekend was a big success! The conference center now has beautiful art for it's blank walls, and the artists formed new friendships and contacts. They also carry away a memory of painting alone in nature for the purpose to glorify God. We are created creators!

For more photos of the ECVA Artists Work Weekend, please visit page 2.

Photographs provided by Sara Hamlen and Erin McGee Ferrell.


	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 and enter your email address.