WASHINGTON ARTS GROUP ACTIVITIES PAST AND PRESENT

Current Activities:

Exploring Sacred Space: Multiple Series (April 2013 – Present)  Dinner and conversation around multiple topics engaging the notion of sacred space. Past speakers include Marguerite Slocum Quinn discussing “An Artist’s Life: The Faces of Christ”: Encountering God in portraiture and painting the Stations of the Cross; Edward Knippers discussing “An Artist Speaks: The Body of Christ” The importance of the physical body in encountering the Incarnation; Jerry Eisley, Director of the Washington Arts Group discussing “Dwelling in Sacred Space: Where in the World are We?”; and Gary Robinson, Vocalist, discussing “Sacred Space in Sound: Music in Nashville — Industry or Transcendence?”. More to come!

2000-2009:

Our Visual Legacy:  designed to strengthen, inspire, and encourage artists (Sep. 17-19, 2009) A series of lectures exploring the relationship between the artist the church and the culture, past, present, and future.

Taste and See: Holy Russia and the Fine Arts (July 25 – August 6, 2008)
This trip combined an intensive
cultural/historical program with the opportunity to visit some of the
most revered sites of the Russian Orthodox Church. Participants felt the
Christian Spirit of places like the Holy Trinity Monastery
in the town of Sergiev Posad and the thousand year old St. Sophia
Cathedral in Novgorod. They also saw the glory of the palaces of
the Russian Tsars and some remarkable art collections of the great and world famous Russian museums.

Jumping Out of the Self Referential Box, Certainties
and Adventures for the Arts in the 21st Century

Youth Art Exchange: St. Petersburg,
Russia and Washington, D.C. (October 2003—May 2006) Ongoing exhibit exchanges of
American inner city children’s and Russian orphans’ artwork.  Exhibits at Grand
Duke Vladimir Romanov Palace,
St. Petersburg, Russia (curator: Tina Hmelnitskaya,
art historian, the Hermitage).

Down By the River: Anacostia, A Place of Spirit
(May 21 – June 11, 2003)

A Photographic Tour of D.C. Architecture (January
2003) Photographer Rachel Eisley exhibited her black and white photographs of
architectural sites in and around Anacostia and Washington, DC.  The Washington Arts
Group’s first International Cultural Leadership Academy student,
Ilya Ivanov wrote a narrative journal to accompany the photographs that will
explore the themes of democracy and beauty.

The Church in the 21st Century: Jumping Out
of the Self-Referential Box (January
19, 2002) was the first seminar in a two-year series of three seminars on
artistic expression, civil society, religious community and contemporary
culture.

Building Civil Society and International Cooperation (May 24-June 2, 2001) was the 3rd
international conference hosted by the Dutch-Russian
Center to prepare for their “Children
of the Millennium” celebration that will take place in St. Petersburg during the city’s 300th
anniversary in 2003.

Renewing the City Through Education (October 19-21, November 2000) was hosted by the Dutch-Russian Center
in collaboration with several other institutions in St.
Petersburg, such as the State
Russian Museum.  According to the account provided in the State Russian
Museum’s annual report,
the October conference “addressed such issues as mass and classical culture
[and] international cooperation in museum pedagogics.”

Window Into Eternity: The Rediscovery of Holy Images (July 2000, January 2002) The Washington
Arts Group partnered with sponsoring organization Christians
in the Visual Arts (CIVA) to mount
Window into
Eternity: The Rediscovery of Holy Images, an exhibit exploring the importance
of the iconographic tradition to the Christian faith.

Local Legacies (May 23, 2000) The Library of Congress’ Bicentennial Local Legacies
Project included the “Anacostia: Hope in Our City” exhibition of February 1999
at Union Station in their turn of the millennium celebration for 2000.  The Local Legacies project asked
Congressional representatives from every state to nominate a traditional event
or area of creativity that best represented a significant cultural tradition of
his/her state in commemoration of both the Library’s 200th
anniversary and the dawn of the new millennium.
“Hope in Our City” was the only project chosen to represent Washington, D.C.  A fifty page report including visual
documentation will be installed in the Library’s digital records so that future
generations may discover the message of “Hope in Our City.”

1990-1999:

Hope in Our City (Feb. 1-21, 1999), a celebration of National Black History Month at Washington DC’s
Union Station. Exhibition curated by the Arts Group.

Anacostia: A
Place of Spirit,
(Nov. 15, 1998) an International Arts Exhibition designed to construct a bridge
of harmony between the diverse Washington
neighborhoods.

Consequences of Truth: Injustice, Taboo and Personal
Responsibility (May 10, 1997),
the second national conference of Christian journalists in the secular media,
held at the College of Preachers in Washington
DC.

Sacred Fire Jerusalem (May 22-26, 1996), a project including (1) Word
and Image, at the Bible
Lands Museum.

(2) The Russia Series, at the
Jerusalem YMCA, an exhibit of portrait photographs by Pat Dalzell;

(3) A Celebration of the Arts Through Worship,
at St George’s
Cathedral, a worship service for artists and an exhibit of the Florence
Portfolio.

(4) Exploring the Mystery: Contemporary
Religious Spiritual Art, at the Lutheran Church
of the Redeemer, an exhibit of Judeo/Christian spiritual art.

(5) Standing in the Light:Truth in All
Marketplaces, The First International Conference of Christian
Journalists in the Secular Media.

Utility
or Mystery:Sacred
Art and Sacred Space in a Postmodern Setting (June 24, 1995), a
symposium by visual artists and architects, held at the College
of Preachers, Washington DC.

Impact International (aka Mukulu) (September 23 – October 1,
1994), a group of ten Christian musicians/singers/dancers from Uganda performed
to reach out in witness to inner-city children and to encourage racial
reconciliation and harmony in the greater Washington DC area.

Let the Word Break Through: An Exploration of Words
and the Word in a Culture of Absence
(November 13, 1993), a conference in Washington
DC.

Letting in the Light, First National Conference of
Christian Journalists (November
14, 1992), held at the College
of Preachers, featuring
guest speakers and 65 professional journalists working in secular media.

Host to Russian visitors to Washington DC (February 1992 and July 1992): Larisa Ageeva,
Chairman of the Subcommittee for Affairs of Orphans and Member of the St
Petersburg City Council of People’s Deputies.

Sacred Fire: First International Christian Arts
Festival (1991), held in St Petersburg, Russia, as a benefit for the city’s
orphans.

(May 18-19 2007) This International Washington, D.C.
based Convocation (five years in the making) explored the role of art in
relationship to faith and culture.

Tinkers in the Toy Shop: The Sequel (1991), a conference in Washington DC,
featuring the same guest speakers as in the first Tinkers conference.

War and Peace in the Persian Gulf: A Forum on the
Moral and Theological Issues, a
forum held at the College of Preachers, Washington Cathedral, Washington DC.

1978-1989:

Tinkers in the Toy Shop: The Opening of the Closed
American Mind (1989), a
conference in Washington D.C. Seminars by various guest speakers focused on
fine arts.

Outreach receptions (various dates) for extending hospitality to
out-of-town performing organizations such as the American Ballet Theatre, the
Eliot Feld Ballet and the Houston Ballet

Art in the Trenches: Mobilizing for Art, Aesthetics
and Worship, (1986), a lecture
series with Thomas Howard, Nigel Goodwin and Stuart McAlpine.

Revelation (1984)
and C S Lewis on Stage (1985),
benefit performances starring Tom Key at the Terrace Theatre of the John F
Kennedy Center
for the Performing Arts

Washington Arts Group/Christians in the Visual Arts Regional Conference (1984),  Fall
Festival (1983)

Heather Cottage (Georgetown)
Sunday Night Weekly Discussions
(1978-1983). Weekly gatherings featuring local artists and visiting artists
from New York and California.