ruah arts group

You may be a reader of aeternus blog, a lovely online page for commentary on spirituality and mysticism, but what you may not be aware of is that the author, Lisa A. Johnston, is an artist and photographer. And her photography is gorgeous. Take a look.
(Photo used with permission.)

In lieu of being an actual arts marketeer and faith-and-culture non-profit manager, I read about it.

I can’t remember how I came across ArtsJournal, but I read it every so often and love it. It has a great variety of articles, ranging from news to opinion to news opinion. It nicely breaks up the articles by subject: issues, dance, ideas, media, music, people, publishing, theater, visual, etc. It even has a classifieds section where arts-related jobs and educational ops are posted.

As a little appetizer to your arts news consumption, they’ve also got a couple dozen bloggers rockin’ out commentary on, well, rock, among other things. One of my regular web stops is Madison’s own Artful Manager, a blog about the business of arts and culture, by the Director of our local Bolz Center for Arts Administration.

A new favorite, though, is Life’s a Pitch, which has more to offer than punny, pithy and witty titles. She’s got a little insight to arts marketing and promotion, is smart, and best of all, she’s a little critical and, well, bitchy, which isn’t all too different from Mrs. Ruah here. We’re tired of mediocre, folks! Don’t be shrinking flowers in the face of criticism! Face it, own it, and move on and up.

That’s all here for today. I hope you enjoy ArtsJournal and their blogs as much as I do. Perhaps we’ll start a little Sacred Arts Journal???

If you don’t read the ArtsJournal daily digest of arts and culture news, you should. A friend who’s a Bolz Center Arts Admin grad, recommended I check out an arts management blog, The Artful Manager, by Andrew Taylor.

Today’s blog entry is a diplomatic (d)evaluation of the Kennedy Center’s new national recession support initiative, “Arts in Crisis.” Arts in Crisis, or AIC for short (pronounce it “ache”–it fits the recession ambiance), isn’t so much a bail out as a hand up. For some.

Though the Washington Post article says the initiative is for arts organizations, it’s actually performing arts organizations which means, “Hey, VSA Arts, we love your artwork, but unless you clients can dance, sorry.”

Which is precisely Mr. Taylor’s point. The initiative, the web site, the web site video, the Washington Post piece (and very nice portrait, Mr. Michael M. Kaiser); it’s all very nice, but it’s not THE answer. Not even close. Mr. Taylor posits,

“The crisis in the arts, or any other industry, is an ecological one. Any crisis can certainly benefit from unilateral and independent action. But a more resilient and encompassing response would also include recognition and interconnection of the entire ecosystem that provides coaching, counseling, mentorship, and responsive strategy support to organizations and leaders at the edge of collapse.”

Sounds great, Taylor. Does Bolz Center have a GP? Perhaps. But that’s the point. We’re all supposed to have a hand in the GP for Arts & Cultural Survival in an era of non-profit and philanthropic downsizing. Where shall we begin?

She’s tapped into my brain and spoken my wishes, inviting a real and concrete dialogue of the Church with the Arts. Actually, she wasn’t the progenitor of the invitation to dialogue. Our favorite Polish feminist in Heaven said it in ‘99 in his letter to artists, where he called for “a renewal of that fruitful dialogue that used to exist between the Church and the Arts.”

Booya.

Cool, but what have artists of faith done? Well, bits here and there, but Nicolisi goes on to name it and invite us to really concretely make an organized effort to answer this call.

Clearly, you cannot have dialogue without a forum, a message, and without a speaker. Our investments in Hollywood as Catholics should be geared to establishing and fostering all three of these.

She goes on to elaborate and define what she means by forum, message and speakers.

Then I realized part of my call–my desire in God–is to help create a forum, and not just a virtual forum (as fun as the blogosphere can be). I desire to re-create a physical forum for training, instruction and prayer. Additionally, I want this to be a place not just for artists, but for budding patrons. We need to teach people that supporting artists isn’t just a matter of personal taste or interior design, but a matter of philanthropy that sparks the very living flame of Love that will save the world from its dark drift into post-humanism.

Who, then, will help us?

Barbara Nicolisi on a fabulous get together in PA next month. Anybody want to send the Smiths to PA???

If you haven’t read the Sheldon Vanauken book, it’s a splendid diamond of a love story/conversion story/ tragedy. Gorgeous. Read it. And see the movie when it comes out.