This is the online version of our monthly eJournal. To receive in your Inbox, click the link in the column at right, or join us as a member!
In this edition:
You’ve probably seen something like this:
What makes the center squares look different from each other when they’re actually exactly the same color? Context.
In my “The Moment Hits You” blog series, I’ve been looking at the factors that give a work of art impact, and why that’s something we need to understand as Christian leaders in the arts.
And, just like the center squares above, things look different ways in different contexts. Sometimes the moment hits you in the wrong way. Continue reading
Last week I wrote about arts “moments” that impact us, stop us in our tracks, turn us in new directions, force us to listen and look in new ways.
Impact. Stop. Turn. Force. Listen. Look.
Going back to that blog: stunned, aroma, sneaking up, revisits, move me, put ourselves in its way, take risks, create, worship, open up a space, turned the page, drawn in, opened, stood before, said “thank you, Lord.”
Get where I’m going here?
Here’s my philosophy about how art* works – which you’ll be hearing a lot about from me in the next weeks and months – and why art is uniquely needed in the Church, and art created by the Church is desperately needed in the world: Continue reading
I guess we’re never more than a few feet from an advertisement these days, and the NYC subway system is no different. The stations, platforms, and train cars are full of ads. The good news (for advertisers, at least) is that, when we’re sitting on a subway car for twenty minutes with nothing else to do, we do tend to actually look at and think about the ads. And the good news for the viewer is that advertisers sometimes then give us ads that actually require some thought.
One great case in point is the current ad campaign of Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM): “And then it hits you.” You can view the ads and read more about the campaign here. But the gist of it is a series of images of “audience members” who are stopped in their tracks (in the middle of 7th Avenue, on the subway, in the library), days later, as they’re “hit” by the experience they had at a BAM music, dance, theatre, or film event. “We’ve all had a BAM or other cultural moment come home to roost in the unlikeliest of places.”
Isn’t this what we all want, as artists and arts leaders? To give this experience –which we’ve all had ourselves – to others? Continue reading
Hi everyone,
Thanks for your patience and messages of support while C&A was on hiatus for awhile. Artists understand the demands of making a living while also pursuing the things about which we’re passionate, and the “seasons” in which some efforts must supplant others.
Thanks to God’s provision through the financial support of some good friends of the arts-and-faith movement, C&A has entered a season of rebooting our programs, reconnecting with all of you, and rethinking our mission in order to serve God and our members better. More on that soon.
Until then, watch your inboxes in a week or so for an enewsletter in our new format, and another email to members with more information. Until then, I’m working on some new blogs, and revisiting some old ones, just to get the gears moving again before getting back up to full speed!
Hope you also had a productive fall and Christmas season, enjoying the blessings of God!
–Luann
Web version of our monthly eNewsletter. To receive in your Inbox, click the link in the “Receive News” box at right, or join us as a member! Continue reading
But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know when your right hand is doing, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. – Matthew 6:3-4
I love my job.
I love that I get to say, “I love my job” and really mean it.
I work in the performing arts, but you’ll never see me under stage lights (if you do, something has gone very wrong!).
And yet, I get to do the neatest things – that projection/lighting/smoke/moving scenery sequence you thought was so cool at the most recent production you saw? I might have said the magic word to make all that happen. I get to work with the coolest people – Olympians, Broadway actors, Tony-nominated directors, Emmy-award winning choreographers, brilliant playwrights, and my best friends (to name a few from the past year). I get to travel to exotic places – I’m taking a dance production to the Dominican Republic this November!
So what is this rad, awesome, don’t-you-wish-you-were-me job that I have, and actually make a living (yes, really!) doing it?
I’m a stage manager. Continue reading
