The Artist and the City: Art and Faith in the Public Square

The Glen Workshop, sponsored by Image journal, is an innovative and enriching program, combining the best elements of a workshop, an arts festival, and a conference. Add to this the intimate setting at St. John's College and the rich cultural, spiritual, and natural resources of northern New Mexico and the result is an unforgettable experience. Daily classes are taught by nationally known authors and artists, and are small enough to allow the faculty to give close attention to each participant—to beginners as well as those advanced in their craft. The seminar class is for artists and non-artists alike, a forum to explore the workshop theme in more depth through discussion and hands-on collaborative art making. The Glen also offers a retreat option for those who wish to join us for meals, readings, and worship, but prefer to spend mornings working, exploring the area, or in contemplation, instead of attending a workshop. Like its sponsor, Image, the Glen is grounded in a Christian perspective, but its tone is informal and hospitable to all spiritual wayfarers.

The Glen Workshop combines an intensive learning experience with a lively festival of the arts. Each participant selects either a workshop, the seminar class, or the retreat option. Workshops and the seminar are held concurrently each morning. Afternoons and evenings feature readings, lectures, and concerts. Each day will conclude with a worship service incorporating the arts.

The theme for the week, “The Artist and the City,” will provide a focal point for discussion. What is the relationship between the believing artist and the public square? This question raises fundamental issues about the way faith and culture interact. In North America believers have often felt that they must address the world through proclamation, the assertion that others should acquire what we already have. But art works differently, involving both its creator and audience in an act of common discovery. As the theologian Henri de Lubac once said: “Truth is not a good that I possess... It is such that in giving it I must still receive it; in discovering it I still have to search for it...” How might the artist's quest to understand what it means to be human influence the way church and society address one another?

Writing classes combine general instruction and discussion with the workshop experience, in which each individual's works are read and discussed critically. In the visual arts classes, students create new work while also receiving individual and general instruction. For those seeking a non-workshop class, we offer a seminar called "'Everyone is Welcome': Art, the City, and the Beloved Community" led by Tim Rollins, founder of K.O.S. (Kids of Survival), a South Bronx collective of young artists that creates collaborative visual responses to music and literature. Students will explore this technique as a way to stimulate dialogue and interactive creation related to the workshop theme. Free time (including a free day) offers all participants opportunities for conversation, hiking, visiting the many museums, galleries, and sights in and around Santa Fe, and exploring the stunning scenery around the St. John's campus. Here in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, you will encounter a stimulating and inspiring environment saturated with the spirituality of Hispanic and Native American cultures.

2008 Faculty

Poetry

Daniel Tobin, Margaret Gibson

Fiction

Valerie Sayers

Spiritual Writing

Ann McCutchan

Playwriting/Screenwriting

Mark St. Germain

Seminar: Art, the City, and the Beloved Community

Tim Rollins

Drawing from Life

Barry Moser

Photography

Kathy Hettinga

Mixed Media

Barry Krammes

Songwriting

Over the Rhine

The Glen Workshop is held in collaboration with
Christians in the Visual Arts and Christians in the Theatre Arts

For more information, please write to:
Image, 3307 Third Avenue West, Seattle, WA 98119.
Phone: (206) 281-2988. Or send us an e-mail.