Christian art center, downtown?

10 February 2009 by pcNielsen 9 Comments

Generally, when my mind wanders with daydreams of a missions focused art center (retreat, colony, center, I don’t know what to call it exactly), I imagine twenty acres in the countryside. Hence my last post on the matter inquiring about the use of farmsteads as anchors for the place.

This week I’ve pondered putting the center in the middle of Siloam Springs, Arkansas. This is a result of the recent revival in downtown Siloam and conversations about the city center’s available real estate — hashed out mainly with the owner of The Baby Habit.

So far as I can tell (without actually having talked to a realtor) the buildings on each of the corners of Wright and Ashley are for sale. Three of the buildings formerly formed a lumberyard, one represented a tile shop and coffeehouse and gracing the last corner in question are the Creekview Flats.

wright-and-ashley

I’m having fun imagining the kind of positive impact such an institution might render on modestly populated Siloam Springs, especially the impact on downtown. The spaces seem more or less ideal for such a proposal: The lumberyard for studios and galleries; the buildings across the street, including the tile shop and coffeehouse, for classrooms and the Creekview Flats (which are still on the market, though being rented out) for housing. The lumberyard and flats were both just remodeled, but the flats would probably need to be split into ten 1,200 square foot apartments. Presently they are five 2,400 square foot condos, which — in my opinion — is why they remain unsold. There just isn’t the demographic here willing and able to spend $250,000 on living space downtown, from what I can tell.

Imagining cost is a bit difficult. Buying all of the flats gets you going at $1.5 million (which they are not worth, especially in this market), before any renovations to add kitchens upstairs. Apparently the tile shop/coffeehouse building is on the market for only $80,000; as I recall it was round about 3,500 square feet. I haven’t the slightest idea what (or, honestly, if) the old M&D lumberyard is for sale, but I assume so. It constitutes, basically, an entire city block by itself. Take into account other remodeling, purchase of equipment (kilns, wood shop, forge, easels, chairs, tables, office equipment etc. etc.), an initial marketing and design campaign, a savings account for maintenance and some sort of endowment for scholarships and I suppose we’re looking at $2.5 to $3 million.

Any donors out there with that kind of capital interested in this kind of project?

Filed under Art, Art and Missions, Art and faith, Art education, Northwest Arkansas, Siloam Springs Tagged with

Faith, art and barns

5 January 2009 by pcNielsen 6 Comments

I mentioned last week how I mulled over my idea for a faith-based art center while traveling through Missouri and Illinois over the holidays. This idea comes back to me with regularity when I’m on the road, when I have more time to think than in other circumstances (and probably on account of the surrounding land’s inspiration).

Logistically, I had a new thought during this jaunt. I previously assumed the best way to make a retreat/education center like this work would be designing and building from the ground up, a quite costly prospect. Riding across Midwestern farm country last week, however, I wondered if a small cluster of farmsteads wouldn’t work to get the idea going.

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A very large and well kept barn along Hwy 36 in Missouri

I don’t know how many such clusters actually exist in reasonable repair, but the idea is that two or three farmsteads right next to each other be combined to form a campus. The houses would be used for lodging and classrooms, and the barns (and outbuildings) retrofitted for studio space.

I’ve long had a thing for barns (I’d love the opportunity to convert one into living space). I’d like this project to be located in the Midwest or Great Plains near a fairly large metropolitan area (for easy access to a sizable airport). Land is less expensive here than on the coasts and the geography lends itself to contemplation, as Kathleen Norris rightly points out in her book Dakota. On the drive up to Chicago for a wedding last week I also pondered ideas such as leasing extra acreage adjacent to the campus to an energy company for a wind farm to create income for the nonprofit venture.

The chances of finding such a location for sale are, practically speaking, probably very slim. Farmsteads probably aren’t grouped together like this very often. Of course, the whole project — as much as it’s one of a few very big dreams my mind continually returns to — more often than not seems bigger than I can fathom. The whole thing needs some divine direction to come together at all.

Which is, of course, entirely possible.

Filed under Art, Art and Missions, Art and faith Tagged with

Art, faith, missions and a retreat

27 February 2007 by pcNielsen 18 Comments

I’m sitting down after a couple hours in my studio and Oprah’s TV special, detailing her South African leadership academy, is on ABC. I don’t know all that much about Oprah — don’t watch her regular show — or this academy. You can read an articulate criticism of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for girls on Kitoba.com.

I’m jealous of Oprah’s opportunity in South Africa. For some years I’ve dreamt of creating a retreat for artists of the Christian faith. One or two of these exist in some form now, including CIVA’s Glen Workshop and something called the Grünewald Guild. Image Journal is also pursuing a project called Still Point. Of these three, Still Point — which is not yet realized — is probably the most similar to what I have in mind. However, even more exciting to me are some of the ideas at OM’s Arts Link.

Unlike the aforementioned retreats, OM (and my own dream) focuses on artists in missions. Granted, any project looking like a retreat or school for artists of the Christian faith as a part of Arts Link is probably years off, barring a $40 million donation from Oprah or one of her very well endowed friends.

My ideas, though pondered often, are fledgling: I imagine this retreat as a place of learning and meditation. I envision a beautiful and well-kept campus with ample studio space, living quarters, gathering spaces and classrooms using responsible and sustainable design and building techniques. Length of terms ranging from a couple months to a couple of years would allow a variety of programs for artists of different proficiency to more deeply explore the relationship between art, faith and missions — propelling the students into a missional, communal and service-oriented lifestyle.

As mission organizations slowly open up to the idea of the fine arts as a credible witness on their fields, it’s fair to say most don’t know where to put artistically missional people yet. Seven or eight years ago the only opportunity I could find for artists pursuing missions was marketing wares crafted by engaged people groups (This excludes graphic design, in which there were ample opportunities, herein not part of the “fine arts.”). The same opportunity exists today in multiple agencies. However, while a knowledge of the visual is important for these jobs, they do not wholly utilize the gifts and interest of artists who actually like to get their hands dirty. Marketing is a desk job. Artists aren’t used to sitting at a desk.

I can’t help but believe there is a need for the retreat I propose in this writing. A few years ago I ran into a girl at the One Day conference very eager to use her painting in missions. I met one person with a similar sentiment at Urbana, where many more likely congregated in the Arts Lounge.

Another problem, however, is that many traditional sending agencies live in a box. In this box, they define art as utilitarian. In the mind of the 20th century church, art is for illustrating children’s books, designing posters and other overtly pious activities. The church has operated, and largely still operates, under this inhibitiing visual status-quo.

Art should be about so much more than a pragmatic piousness! Imagination, creation, engaging culture, speaking to culture politically and socially — and, perhaps the most forgotten aspect of the arts among evangelicals, even beauty. Just, beauty. Is not God beautiful? Is not His creation beautiful? Did He not sanction beauty? The answer, by the way, to these questions is “yes.”

Oprah hired 500 artisans and artists to create and craft her leadership campus. The reason she gave for this: “Beauty.” The modern American church so often reduces art to practical craft, devoid of imagination and creativity. The church should instead be setting standards for artistic endeavors.

I’ve spoken to many of these things on this blog already. If you couldn’t tell, it is something I am extremely passionate about. This is, however, the first time I’ve mentioned my dream of creating a campus for art and missions.

For more resources on art and the Christian faith see these links:

Christians in the Visual Arts

Visual Arts and Missions

Art and the Bible

Digg this!

Filed under Art, Art and Missions, Art and faith, Personal reflection Tagged with