Signs of Crossing Over: Secular and Sacred Art

CHARLOTTESVILLE NEWS & ARTS
By Andrew Cedermark

VIRGINIA - Locally, the melding of religious and secular arts communities can thank groups like the New City Arts Initiative, the Garage, and Bifrost Arts. These groups, their ties to faith invisible, serve up some of the most vital art in town, pushing back against the widely-held notion that the church, today, is a cultural regurgitator or a voice against risqué, challenging art. Providing patronage for the arts “grows out of our understanding of who God is, that God is the God of creation and beauty,” says Collier. “Part of God’s character is to create things that are good.” Maureen Lovett is the arts director for the New City Arts Initiative. The local nonprofit is an offshoot of the International Arts Movement, an organization founded to “gather artists and creative catalysts to wrestle with the deep questions of art, faith, and humanity.’” The International Arts Movement was founded by the New York-based painter Makoto Fujimura who has said in a recent interview that major critics have told him that, if he did not identify as a Christian, he would be among today’s leading artists. [link]