Artfest 2015 and Onwards
As an artist, community artmaking helps me to live out a community serving purpose in my life. It helps me to achieve meaning in my life and to belong to something greater than myself. Artfest has become such a project in my life.
It also adds to my own more private artmaking. I am very interested in making art which uses the art as a launching point for a dialogue on a topic and which then leads to the creation of additional art - a rhythmic co-creation cycle resulting from mindful momentum building.
The main launch point for the community artmaking project called Artfest, is within a large core downtown mainstream church and by extension with the larger community it serves. It all started with the project entitled SWARM: The World Migration of which I was one of the 124 international artists chosen to participate. I approached the Minister at the church to see if I could use the beautiful old building to install the SWARM butterflies for photography. Within 15 minutes we had invented an arts festival offering. little did we know the impact it would have!
The purpose of these festivals was/is to engage the congregational community within the church in greater future visioning and to better engage the broader community outside the church. This is accomplished by utilizing various art forms encouraging more thinking and dialogue around a theme. The 2015 theme was ‘transformation’ which dovetailed with CFRUC’s strategic planning about its future path and existence. There were weekly events (visual, photo/digital, words, dance, music) both within worship (public encouraged to attend) and during the week. For example, two dancers performed on the theme of transformation during Sunday worship and an art show was created around the same theme. The results were astonishing to all – congregation, community and artists. A level of engagement, excitement, dialogue and thoughtfulness was felt consistently and often intensely throughout the festival and also subsequently. It energized the congregation and brought a sense of hopefulness about future possibility. It brought in many from the community and further afield as well. The theme of 2016 was Intersection.
Artfest 2018 (Renewal), 2019 (Peace Re-imagined), 2020 (Peace Re-imagined), 2022 Handle with Care and 2023 Listen to the Voices! Events can be viewed at www.cfrucartsfest.weebly.com
It also adds to my own more private artmaking. I am very interested in making art which uses the art as a launching point for a dialogue on a topic and which then leads to the creation of additional art - a rhythmic co-creation cycle resulting from mindful momentum building.
The main launch point for the community artmaking project called Artfest, is within a large core downtown mainstream church and by extension with the larger community it serves. It all started with the project entitled SWARM: The World Migration of which I was one of the 124 international artists chosen to participate. I approached the Minister at the church to see if I could use the beautiful old building to install the SWARM butterflies for photography. Within 15 minutes we had invented an arts festival offering. little did we know the impact it would have!
The purpose of these festivals was/is to engage the congregational community within the church in greater future visioning and to better engage the broader community outside the church. This is accomplished by utilizing various art forms encouraging more thinking and dialogue around a theme. The 2015 theme was ‘transformation’ which dovetailed with CFRUC’s strategic planning about its future path and existence. There were weekly events (visual, photo/digital, words, dance, music) both within worship (public encouraged to attend) and during the week. For example, two dancers performed on the theme of transformation during Sunday worship and an art show was created around the same theme. The results were astonishing to all – congregation, community and artists. A level of engagement, excitement, dialogue and thoughtfulness was felt consistently and often intensely throughout the festival and also subsequently. It energized the congregation and brought a sense of hopefulness about future possibility. It brought in many from the community and further afield as well. The theme of 2016 was Intersection.
Artfest 2018 (Renewal), 2019 (Peace Re-imagined), 2020 (Peace Re-imagined), 2022 Handle with Care and 2023 Listen to the Voices! Events can be viewed at www.cfrucartsfest.weebly.com
