Godin posted some challenging thoughts on his blog yesterday:

Sure, it’s fun to be picked, anointed, given social approval for what you do—the newspaper writes you up, you get invited to speak at graduation, your product gets featured on the front page of a website or blog…. The thing is, it’s really difficult to get picked, and those doing the picking don’t have nearly the power they used to.

He offered some alternatives to thinking that we must get picked by someone else to thrive in our work, and suggested that “you’re better off finding a path that doesn’t require you get picked in order to succeed.”

The Bible is full of warnings against putting too much stock in the opinions of the world. Yet the desire for human approval and validation is a huge issue for artists of the church. The truth is, we need other people for our work to thrive. Much art is collaborative in its very nature; but even art that is created alone is intended to be shared with others. And – as we’ve discussed many times before on these pages – art is not free, and we need financial support.

One way to convince others to collaborate/connect/support is to point to “proofs” of our merit – the kudos and acclamations of the world, and the fact of being picked before others. It sometimes seems that, without those proofs, we’re doomed to obscurity and failure.

But is it true? Godin says, especially these days, absolutely not.

Apparently he got a lot of pushback about his first blog, because in today’s post he followed up with some even stronger ideas:

If your plan requires getting picked and you’re not getting picked, you need a new plan. I’m betting it will turn out far better in the end, but yes, indeed, I understand that it’s harder than being anointed. Your talent deserves the shift in strategy that will let you do your best work.

I would rewrite Godin to say that the Creator God who has redeemed us and called us into creative Kingdom work in collaboration with Him deserves that shift in strategy.

Did God already choose us, giving the triple gifts of passion for an art, talent to create it, and opportunities to develop as artists – only to abandon us to “the ways of the world” from there? I don’t think so. We can be just as creative in how we connect, collaborate, and find support as we are in the work itself.

Will that be easy? Nope. You might need help.

And that, in a nutshell, is what Church and Art Network is here for – helping artists in the church become arts leaders and entrepreneurs, so that we don’t feel limited to “getting picked” by the world to fulfill our callings. We have a God, and a community, filled with great ideas, resources, and alternatives.

This reminder ended up being a great wrap for our month of daily touches! Watch your inbox for an important eNewsletter in the next couple of days with info about exciting summer projects. If you’re not on our email list, sign up at “Receive C&A Updates”  above, or email me to become a Network Member.

This is an important time of year to support and pray for arts students – the future leaders of arts production and engagement in God’s Kingdom. Let’s also pray for their instructors and mentors, those people who are guiding students to artistic and spiritual maturity. Remember that God chose Bezalel both to make works of art and lead the creative project of building the tabernacle; and God filled Bezalel with His spirit for the task. At the same point, God also gave Bezalel and his helper, Oholiab, “the ability to teach others.” (Exodus 35:30-34) Leading, creating, and teaching all work in concert for the artist. And we, too, need the spirit of God for the task. 

One of those leaders/artists/teachers is our guest blogger this week. William Catling is a sculptor, professor, and Chair of the Department of Art and Design at Azusa Pacific University in California. He writes:

It is late spring and students often refer to the week before finals as “dead week.” In speaking with art students they laugh and respond with “it is anything but dead,” “it is the most alive week all semester,” “I will feel dead when this week ends,” “yeah I will be dead after no sleep and all of the studio projects are finished!” In one conversation the last minute was referred to as one of the greatest gifts God gives to artists.

Art students always need just a little more time, a lot more money and more space to make what they feel they are capable of creating. Actually I believe time, space and money continue to be driving issues artists face as they pursue their careers in the arts. Juggling these concerns is part of an art student’s education and continues into their ongoing studio disciplines. It is not procrastination but the fact that good work takes time and academic terms are fast paced and filled with many distractions.

How do students navigate this journey of managing the weight of projects and academic time constraints? How do any artists find their way through this challenge? Finding studio rhythms and seasons is our task, learning how to manage life’s demands while remaining productive, sorting through what is essential and what are distractions to the primary call from God to create.

This has been a tough week, and it’s been good to see people coming together to support and help each other. We need a little Christmas – a reminder that the King of Love has come – and we need plenty of love our hearts, so we can give it generously to each other.

Have a blessed Sunday.
–Luann

When it comes to cultivating investors in our work, it’s easy to fall into one of two extremes: feeling humiliated by having to “beg” or feeling entitled to more than we’re given. The solution is to see ourselves as being involved in a relationship, rather than simply being receivers of money. 

Are we doing our part? In this guest post, fundraising professional and consultant, Amanda Zambrano, poses a great question: Are we valuing those people who value us?

Find more info about Amanda at the end of her post; and if developing investors for your work is important for you, consider joining C&A’s upcoming virtual study group on Henri Nouwen’s book, A Spirituality of Fundraising.

Amanda writes:

As a fundraiser, I often think about the “life time value” of our donors. Life time value is essentially the total value that a donor can bring to an organization, often thought of in terms of dollars donated. A supporter who gives one gift of $500 is valuable; a supporter who gives 30 gifts of $25 is also valuable. Yet so often we fall into the trap of recognizing the value of the single $500 donation and completely disregarding the $25 donation.

Using only dollars to place value on your supporters and sponsors is the type of thinking that gives fundraisers a bad name. It’s this kind of attitude that sometimes makes me feel embarrassed to admit I’m a professional fundraiser. It’s important to me that as fundraisers we start fighting against this type of thinking – I’m proud of the funds I raise to help people, and I’m proud of helping donors put their money to good use. So how can we fight the negative attitude toward fundraising?

Here’s a good place to start: when you are thinking about fundraising, expand your view of what constitutes a valuable supporter. There are many factors to a supporter’s value. Consider:

• Volunteer hours – do you have someone who is there every time you ask for help?
• Advocacy – does a supporter have an influential voice that is often speaking on behalf of your organization?
• Gift frequency – does the supporter give on a monthly or annual basis, or every time you ask?
• Advice – does the supporter have wise words that have made a positive difference in how you operate?
• Gifts of goods – does the supporter provide you with refreshments for guest artists, crayons for a Sunday school classroom, or artwork for your silent auction?

There is nothing wrong with celebrating large gifts, or acknowledging them specially. Donors who are capable of giving large gifts are an important part of your fundraising program. My encouragement to you is to also take time to build relationships with loyal givers, and those able to give things other than money.

The next time you receive a $25 gift, do a little homework on that donor. How many gifts has he given? Does she volunteer? Is the couple faithful to attend many events? Does he spread the word about your organization and recruit new volunteers and donors?

If you don’t have donors who are doing other things, find ways for them to get involved. Stop only asking for money, and start asking for other types of help. Show your supporters you value whatever types of help they are able to offer your organization.

Amanda Zambrano is the Director of Advancement for Grace Village. She is a graduate of Houghton College (BMus, Applied Flute Performance) and Indiana University-Bloomington (MA, Arts Adminstration), and holds a Certificate of Fundraising from the Fundraising School at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. Amanda is a dedicated flutist, an avid reader, and an amateur quilter and gardener. She is married and lives with her husband in Warsaw, Indiana. Amanda is available for consultations and ongoing consulting work for arts-based nonprofits. Contact her at alszambrano@gmail.com.

From Wikipedia: “Revelations is the signature choreographic work of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. It was first produced by Alvin Ailey Dance Theater in New York City, New York on January 31, 1960. Revelations tells the story of African-American faith and tenacity from slavery to freedom through a suite of dances set to spirituals and blues music.” Read more of the article here.

In a New York Times article celebrating the 50th anniversary of the famous piece’s debut, former artistic director and Alvin Ailey dancer, Judith Jamison, said about the portion entitled “Wade in the Water”: “The baptism is one of the holiest events in the church, particularly in the black church, and so being completely submerged in that water and brought up and having a new life is what that is about. In that we see hope.” The article also includes several links to different portions of the piece. (Remember that NYT offers a few free visits to their site each month.)

Enjoy!

This is a first stab, brainstorming. I’m sure you’ll have great ideas, suggestions, feedback, and challenges. Please add them in Comments, or email me directly at luann@churchandart.org. If we get some great input going, I’ll create a document we can all share and use with others!
—Luann

Value Questionnaire

To “value” something means “to regard or esteem highly.” It also means “to calculate or reckon the monetary value of.” Consider what you value, and what others value about your creative work, especially (but not exclusively) as it relates to how you and others invest your money, time, and other value-able resources.

About your values:

• What are the five things you value most (in order of priority)?
• For each of the five, identify what you value about them.
• How do you express that you value them?
• Are these the five things you’d like most to be valuing? Are you valuing them at the level you’d like to?
• What does investing in them look like? Feel like?
• What difference does your investment make?

• Does your creative work align with your values and support them?
• Whose creative work do you value? Why? How do you express it?

About your creative work:

• Who is your #1 fan/supporter/patron?
• How do you define that?
• What is it that he/she values about your work?
• How would he/she communicate about your work to a friend? (If you don’t know, ask him/her!)
• [Ask the same questions for your #2-#5 biggest fans/supporters/patrons]
• How can you engage these five people in communicating the value of your work to their friends?

• Who do you wish valued your work more than they do?
• What might change his/her/their mind?

• What about your work isn’t currently being valued to the level you’d like?
• What do you need to communicate more, or better? How can you do it?
• Do you need to make changes in what you’re doing or how you’re doing it, in order to increase that value to others?

Please post your comments, thoughts, and suggestions below!

But, to get back to the April “fools” series: Through April (and maybe beyond, if I think there’s more to say…) I’m going to be looking at various incarnations of “the fool” and folly and, eventually, I hope, making a point about our purpose as arts leaders and artists in the church.

The title of the series is “Fool’s Gold,” which is the name given to the mineral pyrite. In its natural state, pyrite looks enough like real gold that many have mistaken the two. I have an image of a naïve prospector in the California gold rush excitedly taking his bag of pyrite into town, eager to collect his fortune, only to be laughed at by the more savvy bankers and miners who know its real value.

Why is pyrite nearly worthless while gold is extremely valuable?

It seems there’s only one reason: Gold is valuable because people value it. Pyrite is worthless because they don’t. It’s all in perception.

Granted, gold is rare. It has certain qualities that make it useful, like malleability (helpful in jewelry, gold leaf, etc.) and conductivity (useful for eletrical wires), and it doesn’t corrode or oxidize. It’s attractive. But none of those things, alone or together, explain the phenomenon of gold’s extraordinary value. Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, said it’s merely “tradition.”

Vincent van Gogh painted 900 paintings in his lifetime. They’re in museums and private collections all over the world, so they’re not really rare. Paintings are not useful. They don’t do anything. We might find them attractive, although I’d guess few people have chosen similar artwork to display on their living room walls, just because they enjoy looking at it (besides, of course, inexpensive prints of van Goghs…).

So what can possibly explain this: van Gogh’s paintings were nearly worthless when he died in 1890. He could barely give them away. Yet only 100 years later one was sold for $82.5 million, the highest price ever paid then for a work of art. Did the rarity, usefulness, or attractiveness change?

Was “The Portrait of Dr. Gachet” a piece of fool’s gold that slipped by, passing as the real thing?

Or is “gold” merely in the eye of the beholder? And the beholder’s eye can change?

It’s no accident that “value” has a double meaning, of both financial worth and emotional/cultural worth. If we value something, we are willing to invest in it. If you want to know what you value, look at your bank statement. Matthew 6:21 says “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Notice the verbs. It doesn’t say, “Wherever you put your treasure, your heart will follow.” Our money and our hearts travel together.

The larger world of the arts has realized that it hasn’t made a case for the value of the arts. How did they/we figure that out? The money started to go away. How do we get the money back? We deal with the heart first.

We turn fool’s gold into real gold.

More to come.

Today, we’ll look at “The Annunciation Triptych,” aka the Merode Altarpiece, which I get to visit regularly at The Cloisters museum here in NYC. Click here to view larger and more images, and for some history of the work. 

Many pieces of medieval and renaissance religious art strike me as being very theatrical, in that the artwork seems aware that someone is looking at it, that it’s “putting on a show.” In the theatre, the space is confined to an artificial stage setting. It’s not unusual for an actor to acknowledge the audience in some way, even before the curtain call when everyone comes out and says, metaphorically, “thank you for sharing this with us.” Everyone goes home, and the show is over until another day.

The “scenes” in medieval and renaissance religious art often seem to be playing out on a stage set, sometimes even with something like the “frame” of the proscenium arch within the picture (like in this piece). Or, as in the Merode Altarpiece, there might be anachronistic viewers within the piece, audience members just like us, watching the biblical scene unfold just as we are. In the triptych, the audience on the right-hand panel is actually the patron who commissioned and paid for the painting and his wife, peeking through a tiny door at the moment before the Annunciation, while Mary innocently reads and Joseph innocently works. The audience – both the patrons and us – holds its breath, because we know something unbelievably amazing is about to happen.

I pray that, today, we will have the same sense of excitement and anticipation about everything we see God about to work in.

Blessings,
Luann

I haven’t played (or been the brunt of) an April Fools’ Day joke in many years. As a kid, April Fools’ Day mostly meant pulling someone’s chair out from under her, putting salt in the sugar bowl, or otherwise embarrassing or disgusting each other for “fun.” Some subjects of April 1 pranks laughed at them, but many prank-ees weren’t so good-natured about being the unwitting (and unwilling) source of others’ amusement.

Some pranks are hilarious and harmless, though, like Image journal’s clever annual April Fools’ Day enewsletter. I fell for it for the first three years I was on their email list. Yesterday Twitter announced that users could no longer include vwls n twts without enrolling in new $5/month premium service. I wonder how many people started to blast Twitter with comments before they realized what day it was. These are much gentler, smarter, and more historically accurate examples of “fools” and “foolishness” than the humiliating childish pranks – more “fooled you” than “you look like a fool.”

For instance, 1 Corinthians 1:20-21:

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. (ESV)

Although God might reveal the wise person’s ideas as folly, he then uses a wonderful prank – a guy who seems to have been defeated but then jumps up and shouts “Gotcha!” – to save the wise person who believes. Sounds like foolishness isn’t so bad. God loves us too much to cruelly mock our worldly ideas, but it makes him smile to use folly to save.

What does this foolishness have to do with the arts and community? Stay tuned. I have 28 more days of content to come up with.

Today marks the beginning of a month-long series of daily “touches” about the arts, faith, and living in community together. Consider it our very own, self-designated “Church and Art Month.”

Why now? The season after Easter is a great time to be thinking hard about who we are, and want to be, as a Christian community. Spring fever gets us moving again and excited for the months to come. Arts students are getting ready to graduate and are thinking about their future. And C&A is gearing up for a big and busy summer.

We’ll “reach out” with:

• New blog posts from me on the value of the arts, what we bring to our communities, and how we can initiate and lead new projects;
• Guest blogs from members of our network ranging from students to teachers to pastors to arts leaders and entrepreneurs;
• Links to websites and articles of interest;
• Reviews/recommendations of books and other resources.

If you’d like to reach out to our network with something that’s important to you, contact me at luann@churchandart.org. We’d love to hear from you!

Here we go!

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Keep up with us in April! Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter, and watch for our daily posts. Links to new blogs will be included on both, or add this page to your RSS feed to receive a notice in your Inbox.

Please like/share/retweet our daily touches, so your friends can enjoy them, too!