Creativity and the Arts #2

Week Two :: Meet the Artists

• Can anyone justify why are the arts valuable? and why Christians should be artists and/or audiences?
• If yes or if no, what does the relationship between the Church and the Arts have?

Art is often seen to be superfluous and not efficient. It takes time, production is often done in isolation, it can be very expensive, demands hard work. Such energy could be better spent elsewhere, right? People need to hear the gospel to be saved, so why paint landscapes, write poetry, compose or play music?

I have heard numerous Christian artists and creatives share about the times they have resented and wished away their abilities and God given gifts. Reasons for such resentment often include: just wanting to fit in, the pragmatism of the gospel (importance of bible teaching), being told you cannot be a Christian and be an artist, its just too hard, you can't do gigs on Sunday's because your Minister thinks you are falling away...

We often, in subtle ways, place occupations into hierarchies... Minister and Word gifts are top of the list, followed by Christian teachers who can impact the youth who will be our tomorrow, Doctors and Nurses who can travel overseas to do tent-making gospel work and/or compassion work, then Lawyers who can provide the monetary support for the gospel and accountants are great on Parish Council. Artists and cultural produces are often far down our list of importance to the body of Christ, and often only are considered valuable for evangelistic efforts. We often only engage with the arts to 'reach' people 'creatively' with the gospel.

It would seem that Christian artists unfairly need to justify their occupation, and its effectiveness for it to be valid. However we need to resist boxing our artist and creative brethren in. The evangelistic ability or the ability to produce art that is a paraphrased sermon should not be the measuring stick for valued art by Christians.

Art is an amazing forum for the discussion and debate within our society. Although it is not the only concern for all artists or Christian artists to make bold statements and ideologies about humanity, art does provide an arena for where truth, identity, origins, beauty and behaviour is explored:"... debates are taking place in cinema, painting, dance, fiction, poetry, and theatre on issues where Christians have something to give and yet are not even being heard" (Steve Turner - Imagine) . Despite this, it does not mean that Christians should only be in the arts to dialogue faith, Christians are to be doing everything they do to the glory of God, whether that is making coffee, creating reports, presenting proposals or performing Brecht.

Producing and performing art that affects and awakens people to the world around them and thier own emotions is an amazing thing. To see a Christian content and satisfied in Christ as they enjoy the gifts God has given them and embrace the person God has made them is a joyous and God exalting thing in and of itself - ceramist, surgeon, violinist, plumber or graphic designer.

Tonight at Replenish, we heard from RCA a Christian, a daughter of an architect and ceramist, an artist herself, and an educator. She shared with us how she was told when she was 18 heading to Sydney College of the Arts that she would not be a Christian by the end of the four years study and even told as bluntly that she could not possibly be a Christian if she was to pursue such a career.

We also hear from TD a Christian, a husband to a design student, son of a doctor and lectuerer, and a musician. He shared how and why he entered into this arena, the frustrations of being a creative and the blurred lines between work and leisure, and the constant justification he feels to make use of his music in the church as means of validation for his work.

It is intersting to that Artists so strongly feel this need to validate their occupation. I don't hear it as often said, oh well as long as I am using my adminstration skills for the church am I allowed to be a personal assistant. I think this also has to do with our culture (church culture) fo getting our identity so wrapped up in our occupation. Our identity should be soley based upon our relationships. It would be lovely to hear 'oh I am a child of God, husband to Jane, Son of Bob and Beatrice, Friend to Joe, Luke and Will and Father to Thomas and Susan' rather than 'oh I am a banker'. We so quickly jump to defining ourselves by our occupation and then quickly judge people accordingly.

Artists and creatives have a unique place in our culture to shape and inform our society and tell the stories of people, reflect on the anxieties and record the questions of our day. It would be great to have our gifted Christian brethren to pursue careers in the mainstream arts and not the religious subculture.

A hurdle that does lie in the way of the relationship between the Church and the arts is the arts tendency to utilize its position and power within society to shock our world. The arts have moved a long way from its days of being the prerogative of the church. Today it is the world that dominates the arts, often with concepts that are offensive to Christians, which has seen the church in recent years take a step back as we often don't know how to debate the truth with our world.

More on that in Creativity and the Arts #4 - Art in Controversy.
Next post - Creativity on the Arts #3 will be a Benniale Review