ADVENT "O ANTIPHONS" EXHIBITION (2021)

/

The O Antiphons, sometimes called The Great O’s, were originally written in Latin around the 7th or 8th centuries. They come from the Old Testament prophets who expressed a longing for the coming of the Christ. Each Antiphon begins the words O come, and are followed by a Messianic title:

O’ Sapientia (O Wisdom) Isaiah 11:2-3a

O’ Adonai (O Lord) Isaiah 11:4-5 and 33:22

O’ Radix (O Root of Jesse) Isaiah 11:1

O’ Clavis (O Key of David) Isaiah 22:22

O’ Oriens (O Radiant Dawn) Isaiah 9:1

O’ Rex Gentium (O King of the Nations) Isaiah 2:4

O’ Emmanuel (O God with Us) Isaiah 7:14

In reverse order, these Antiphons form an acrostic ERO CRAS, which means “I am coming soon.”

This exhibition consists of original work from artists within our community who considered these Great O’s and the ways in which we are storied by Jesus Christ, whose glorious return we anticipate and patiently await during the Advent season.

A couple of our artists released an original Advent song for the O Emmanuel submission! You can find it on your favorite platform here.

 

CIVA "REVEALED" EXHIBITION (2021)

/

The concept of an “illustrated Bible” conjures, for some, soft-focused feathery-winged angels, perfect pairs of well-behaved animals peeking out the ark’s windows, or baby Jesus snuggled into his pint-sized Jenny Lind manger. These cozy images often belie the earthy realism of the Bible’s contents. Revealed shows the Bible in all its raw, violent, and beautiful glory. As J. Mark Bertrand attests, “Revealed sets out to crush any notion that the Bible is a safe, inspirational read. Instead the artwork here . . . takes a warts-and-all approach to even the most troubling passages, trading well-meaning elision for unvarnished truth.”

Revealed features twenty-three works from the book, Revealed: A Storybook Bible for Grown-Ups. This collection of contemporary works, many created by CIVA member artists, features various printmaking techniques and covers the entire story of Redemption—from the Fall in Genesis through the New Creation promised in Revelation. Curated by CIVA graphic designer and creator of Square Halo Books, Ned Bustard, the exhibition includes art by Margaret and Ned Bustard, Tanja Butler, Matthew L. Clark, Wayne L. Forte, Craig Hawkins, David Busch Johnson, Diego Jourdan Pereira, Edward Knippers, Kevin Lindholm, Steve Prince, Mark T. Smith, Justin Sorensen, Ryan Stander, and Kreg Yingst.

LENT EXHIBITION (2021)

/

Each of us are invited into this season to prepare ourselves for the joy and feast of Easter through the journey of giving up. What might God show you through this season? How might he help you learn to love the future, or lay down your life for Jesus and his kingdom.

We’re excited to host a lenten exhibition throughout the season in our gallery that will consider and interpret a different painting for each day of Lent with each week consisting of a unique focus. This coming Sunday marks the second Sunday of Lent and the theme is “Contemplation” Meditate in your heart…and be still. (Psalm 4.4). We hope you will take a moment each week to allow these reflections and paintings to speak into your life as you prepare for the feast that is to come.

EPIPHANY EXHIBITION (2021)

/

Epiphany is a season of the Church that begins after Christmastide (the twelve days of Christmas) and concludes the day before Lent.  It is a season when people celebrate how a star led the Magi (the three kings) to visit Jesus after his birth.  Like Christmastide, the season of Epiphany is an occasion for feasting and celebrating not only the birth of Jesus, but also the glorious reality that the light of Jesus has entered the world to shine on all peoples and nations.  Epiphany is a greek word meaning to “show” or “reveal”.

The Magi who brought gifts to Jesus were really the first Gentiles to acknowledge Jesus as King and thus they were the first to show or reveal Jesus to a wider world as the incarnate Christ.  This act of worship by the Magi - reflected in Simeon’s blessing that Jesus would be “a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel (Luke 2:32)” - was one of the first indications that Jesus came for all people and all nations, and that God’s work of salvation in the world would extend even beyond Israel.

This installation encouraged the participant to enter into this season and communicate this idea of Jesus as savior for all by bringing and affixing a “gift” to the wall.  During the six weeks of Epiphany, each week people were prompted to take a card (gift), and after following the instructions they placed their card anywhere on the board.  Using the colors traditionally associated with epiphany (whites, greens, gold) each participant contributed to this “living” tapestry that gradually changed and grew over the course of the season.  Our hope was that we would experience afresh the all-encompassing grace of God for the world, and perhaps be stirred with deeper desire to show and reveal the Light of the world.

Week #1:
Jesus is the light that shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1.5).  God has placed many people in our lives who belong to him, but have yet to know him.  One of the incredible aspects to prayer is that God uses people who were once far from him, to reach out and have an impact on those who have yet to know him.  You get to be part of the blessing! 

Instructions
1. Choose a colored card from the basket. (choose as many you like)
2. Write the first name of a person for whom you are asking God’s light to break through and shine in the dark. (hole at top of card)  
3. Use one card for each name.
4. Hang your card(s) on the wall.

Week #2:
The Prophet Jeremiah wrote: Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise boast in their wisdom, let not the mighty boast in their might, let not the rich boast in their riches, but let the one who boasts boast in this, that they understand and know me, that I am the Lord…” (Jer. 9.23-24).  A spiritual and saving knowledge of God is the greatest need of every human creature, and the foundation of a knowledge of God is to understand his perfections as we see them revealed in the Bible.  

Instructions
1. Choose a colored card from the basket. (choose as many you like)
2. Write down an attribute of God that you are thankful for during this season. (hole at top of card) Consider his supremacy or his patience or his power or his holiness or his goodness or his mercy or his love or his wrath.  Let writing down this attribute be an offering of praise to God.  
3. Use one card for each attribute.
4. Hang your card(s) on the wall.

Week #3:
God communicates his plan for the world and what he requires and expects from his people through his word, the Bible.  God’s word teaches, reproves, corrects, and trains us in righteousness (2 Tim 3:16).  As we encounter God’s all-encompassing grace for the world on the pages of the Bible, it shapes us into a people whose desires become his desires, our hearts and lives become aligned with his.  As we read, and the Spirit of God illumines our minds, the Bible forms us into a people who live to show and reveal the Light of the world.

Instructions
1. Choose a colored card from the basket. (choose as many you like)
2. Write down a scripture reference(s) that God has used to prompt you to consider others, pray for others, serve others. (hole at top of card)  Let the recalling of God’s word stir afresh a heart for the other.  
3. Use one card for each reference.
4. Hang your card(s) on the wall.

Week #4:
Many of us experience a gospel blindness in our lives.  This happens for different reasons.  Our sight gets dimmed by the things of this world that scream for our attention and devotion, by life’s daily demands that we face every day, by the pressures of success and the necessary steps we take to secure it.  But the truth is the gospel belongs to every part of our life - our hearts and minds, our houses, our cars, our relationships, our jobs, our schools.  Many of us simply become blind to the power and hope of the gospel of Jesus.  2 Peter 1:3-9 reminds us, His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.  

While we experience this blindness at times, praise God that we also experience the breakthrough of his power and the increasing of these qualities in our lives.  This causes us to celebrate - celebrate his kindness toward his people and his faithfulness to complete his work in us.

Instructions
1. Choose a colored card from the basket. (choose as many you like)
2. Write down (hole at top of card) an area of your life where you have experienced an increase from God.  Where has the Light of the world shone most brightly?  It might be in a relationship.  It might be a change in your posture toward money.  Take a moment to offer praise and thanks to God for the grace he has shone you in this area. 
3. Use one card for each area.
4. Hang your card(s) on the wall.

CIVA "FIRST FRUITS" EXHIBITION (2020)

/

We have been a partner with the organization CIVA (Christians in the Visual Arts) for a number of years now. This March, we were able to host their national exhibit, First Fruits and it was absolutely stunning.

From the beginning of the Old Testament to the end of the New, returning to our Creator the first fruits of what has already been given us—in talent, labor, and wealth—stands as a hallmark of God’s faithful people. The entire biblical narrative is filled with images of feasting, fruitfulness, and faithful service in which both God’s people and kingdom flourish. Joyfully and creatively engaging in the good work that God has given us to do, yielding our best efforts to the Lord, we return our first offering to him.

Curated by Joel Sheesley, this exhibit featured the work of twenty-five contemporary artists in a wide variety of media and styles as a response to this theme.

All that Is Kept within My Heart, Rachel Durfee
Eucharist, Kirsten van Mourick
First Fruits, Kelly Shehan Hazime
Hearts, Matt Ballou
The Journey of Painters, Poets & Musicians, Coulter Prehm
Keep Them Close, Marcus Miers
Plateaus (blue), Josh Smith
Untitled Measurement (Ultra Life), Gene Schmidt
40 Days Forty Sacraments, Kari Dunham
Abstraction, Sara Nordling
Beauty for Ashes, Heather Wright
Dairy Farm, Weld CO, 1980 and 2014, Kathy T. Hettinga
Eulogy for Mammon #3, Tyler Gathro
Good Morning, Sheila Ballantyne
Inherent, Allison Luce
Leaves, Heidy Chuang
Lengthening, Keith Barker
Milk & Honey, Vincent Hawley
The Nurture, Robert Eustace
Pleasant to the Sight, Delro Rosco
The Reinterpretation of the Full Armor of God, Lee Benson
Southern Indiana, Michael Winters
The Sum of My Parts, Megan Murphy
Tree Parables (Generations), Joseph Di Bella
Up Through the Endless Ranks of Angels, John Bergmeier

CHILDREN OF UGANDA EXHIBITION (2019)

/

We had the privilege of partnering with a talented local artist, Rebecca Prince and her Children of Uganda exhibit. All proceeds went to Compassion International.

Rebecca’s artist statement:

Poverty is all around. How can I avoid it?
Poverty is too BIG and I am too small. What can I do? What will make any difference at all?
After visiting Uganda with Compassion International I have a different view of poverty. It is not merely an issue of money. It affects a person’s self worth and confidence. It affects their health, education, and ability to dream.
I DO want to make a difference so I decided to use my ability to paint to tell these children’s stories. They looked at me with questions, longing, appreciation and most of all hope.
These are the children I met in Uganda and they live in poverty but Compassion International is making a difference and you can help. Sponsor a child and release them from poverty in Jesus name.

PROSPERING SOUL LENT EXHIBITION (2019)

/

For Lent this year, we commissioned our good friend, Mat Barber Kennedy to create a HUGE piece for us. Graphite and Charcoal on Paper, 22.6’ x 2’! It was that huge! He did an absolutely beautiful job. The idea was to create a wilderness scene, because that really is the invitation of Lent - to enter into the wilderness. This was the write-up for this exhibition:

We’re not ready for Easter.  We’re not ready for the feasting that is the resurrection.  We move through life so fast and before we know it, Easter is upon us.  Our hearts aren’t prepared.  Our minds aren’t clear.  Anticipation is absent.  The season of Lent is an invitation to enter into the wilderness not because that’s where God is, but because in that desolation we can actually feel, contemplate and anticipate.  It is a pilgrimage into a severe landscape.  It is an invitation to cling to the promise of something better, to plod forward fueled by the hope of the resurrection, to open our hands both to let go and to receive something better.  It is in our longing and hunger and discomfort that we meet our weakness and confront the needs we thought we had filled. 

The viewer is invited into this wilderness, an overwhelming experience outside our safety zones and comfort zones.  It is mankind transported into a place of helplessness and hopefulness.  These people are not embarking on a fun holiday outing.  They are not part of a hiking excursion.  They come by boat.  They come by bike.  And they come in their everyday clothes to enter into this journey.  They’re walking along paths, but there’s no end-point.  We don’t know where they’re headed.  There’s an element of trust here, dependence and reliance on God for endurance, provision and safety.  And these are well-worn paths - there’s a sense of history, a sense of tradition.  People have come this way before.  People have made this journey before, evidenced in the discarded items along the way. 

Like the people within this wilderness, the viewer is invited on a journey of their own.  What might God desire to show you through this wilderness season?  In what ways will he help you learn to love the future?  In what ways will he help you learn to lay down your own kingdom in exchange for the King’s kingdom?  The viewer is invited to slow down and enter into this pilgrimage.

GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT EXHIBITION (2018)

/

In 1 Corinthians 12:7, the Apostle Paul wrote, “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” Through the Holy Spirit, we are given various gifts that, when exercised, reveal the heart of God and manifest his presence in this world. Our vision as a community is to help people and places encounter Jesus. And as a Jesus-centered people empowered by the Holy Spirit, as we exercise our gifts with those around us, God’s light and goodness and beauty and truth shine into the darkness.

We invited our people to take a spiritual gift (any single string), tie it to one of the cross’s nails, and stretch it out attaching the other end to one of the unused wooden pins. Our hope was that this simple gesture would recall to mind the transformative nature of the gift God has given each of us to steward. As God’s people manifest his Spirit, the story of the cross and resurrection bursts out into the world bringing life and freedom.

14 STATIONS OF THE CROSS EXHIBITION (2018)

/

This was a BIG one! In addition to our Good Friday service, we invited the church to participate in a spiritual pilgrimage of sorts. We designed and created a walk and experience through the 14 Stations of the Cross. The goal of these interactive stations was to immerse the participant in an artistic experience that contemplated the Passion of Christ, from the Garden of Gethsemane to the tomb. The “14 Stations” exhibit was open from 5pm-9pm on Good Friday, March 30th and consisted of:

(1) Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matt 26:36-41)
(2) Jesus is betrayed by Judas, is arrested (Mark 14:43-46)
(3) Jesus is condemned by the Sanhedrin (Luke 22:66-71)
(4) Jesus is denied by Peter (Matt 26:69-75)
(5) Jesus is judged by Pilate (Mark 15:1-5, 15)
(6) Jesus is scourged and crowned with thorns (John 19:1-3)
(7) Jesus bears the cross (John 19:6, 15-17)
(8) Jesus is helped by Simon the Cyrenian to carry the cross (Mark 15:21)
(9) Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem (Luke 23:27-31)
(10) Jesus is crucified (Luke 23:33-34)
(11) Jesus promises his kingdom to the repentant thief (Luke 23:39-43)
(12) Jesus speaks to his mother and the disciple (John 19:25-27)
(13) Jesus dies on the cross (Luke 23:44-46)
(14) Jesus is placed in the tomb (Matt 27:57-60)

We knew we needed help on this one so we reached out to our good pal, Mat Barber Kennedy to see if he’d be interested in art directing it for us. He was. And he did! It was awesome. (p.s. Mat is the best. He and I work on various exhibitions together.)

Mat not only helped us ideate what each station could look like, but he also created original drawings and icons representing each station. Here’s what each station’s icon looked like as well as each station’s instructions for the participant :

Our team wrote and created a Prayer Guide to accompany the participants on their pilgrimage. As people came into the space, they were asked to grab one, as well as one white glove per person with the instructions that the glove was to be worn throughout the walk to help them witness the polluting effects of sin and the hope the cross of Jesus provides. This is what our prayer guide looked like:

It was a powerful and meaningful night - from stamping our names with the word guilty, but coming to the cross to nail our dirtied gloves and leave them behind, trampling on the name of Jesus to sitting in an empty room with nothing but the words it is finished. We hope to do this one again.

ADVENT EXHIBITION (2017)

/

The season of Advent, a season of waiting, is designed to cultivate our awareness of God’s actions - past, present, and future. It's where we hear the prophecies of the Messiah's coming as addressed to us — people who wait for the second coming.

In Advent we heighten our anticipation for the ultimate fulfillment of all Old Testament promises, when the wolf will lie down with the lamb, death will be swallowed up, and every tear will be wiped away. In this way, Advent highlights for us the larger story of God’s redemptive plan.

And yet, a deliberate tension should be built into our practice of the Advent season - Christ has come, and yet not all things have reached completion. While we remember Israel's waiting and hoping, and while we give thanks for Christ's birth, we also anticipate his second coming at the end of time.  Thus, a tension between celebrating/hoping and longing/waiting.

We took a digital approach to this exhibition, utilizing digital photography in a square ratio. We then suspended the polaroids above the viewer to try to provide an enveloped and engaging experience.

AWAITED HOPE EXHIBITION (2017)

/

Mandy Rogers is an abstract artist from East Texas who now resides in the city of Dallas. She works mostly in acrylic, while sometimes utilizing oil and watercolor. This particular series is about suffering. However, she didn’t want to tell a story of suffering without telling a story about hope - to ensure that hope shined through in the midst of pain and suffering. She writes about her experience in creating these pieces, “I kept coming back to mountains and blue hues and the way light comes into them. I wanted to capture that feeling just before the light comes in, that hope, but also the heaviness and weightiness. Hope can often feel heavy and difficult to grasp onto, and it can be easier to hold onto your doubt or hurt. I wanted to let the viewer know that hope can be hard to grasp, but it is here and it is coming. That’s why you see the white sweeping down in the paintings."

Learn more about Mandy Rogers and view her artwork at mandyrogers.art.

Also follow her on Instagram - @mandyrogersart

PENTECOST EXHIBITION (2017)

/

We have coupled our CATC gallery with the liturgical year, providing us with a constant rehearsal of the life story to which all Christians find their lives conformed.  After all, it is through rehearsal that we come to experience the mystery of which Paul testifies: “it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” (Gal 2.20)  

Historically, Pentecost is one of the great feasts of Christianity and it commemorates not only the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and Disciples, but also the fruits and effects of that event - the completion of the work of redemption, the fullness of grace for the Church and its children, and the gift of faith for all nations.  In the Christian liturgical year it became a feast commemorating what is described by some Christians as the "Birthday of the Church".

It is celebrated 50 days from Easter Sunday, counting Easter Sunday itself, 49 days or 7 weeks after Easter Sunday. Therefore it always occurs on a Sunday.  So we’re looking at June 4th.

Artists were asked to consider these texts as they prepared -
Luke 22:12–13 and Acts of the Apostles 2:1–31.

RESURRECTION EXHIBITION (2017)

/

We asked artists to consider the themes of new life, new birth and joy.

Some works might explore the idea of resurrection itself, while others may consider what joy might entail, visually. Some pieces might communicate a personal exploration of experiencing joy out of chaos, finding new life born out of a former circumstance.

Our hope is that as this exhibition explores the transformative idea of resurrection and renewal, we will experience afresh the glory of the resurrection of Jesus, and the ways in which we've been brought out of the ashes of death's grip through the radiance of God's glory.

ALIVE TOGETHER EXHIBITION (2016)

/

This exhibition was based on our Ephesians series Alive Together, and explored the individual contribution to the community. Together, we become something we would never have become otherwise. Everyone is significant and necessary to the community’s overall flourishing.

Our community was invited to contribute to our scaled-up reproduction of "Stacked Houses" by Mike Burson. Watch how this “living” drawing, made by our community, changes over time.

Instructions
1. Choose a small image square from the basket.
2. Take a blank card and write the coordinates on one side.
3. Draw your section on the other side of the card. (hole at top of card)
4. Return the small image square to the basket.
5. Hang your drawing on the grid using the coordinates.

ANATOMY OF THE SOUL EXHIBITION (2016)

/

In his preface to the Psalter, John Calvin referred to the book of Psalms as, “An Anatomy of All the Parts of the Soul”. He believed you could not find an emotion expressed in the world that was not present within the Psalms - grief, sorrow, fear, doubt, hope, care, perplexity, wonder. Calvin believed that by perusing the Psalmist’s compositions, we would be both awakened to our own maladies as well as instructed to seek the remedy for their cure.

This curated exhibition invited the artist to peruse these compositions and submit work that explores this broad range of human experience. Calvin understood the soul not as a fixed muscle in stasis, but a multifaceted complex organ emanating a spectrum of emotions and heartfelt expressions. This exhibition sought to portray work that addresses the range of these expressions and complexities of experience found throughout the Psalms.

SIX HOURS EXHIBITION (2016)

/

In Jesus’ final moments on the cross, he uttered 7 sayings:

- "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” Luke 23:34
- "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” Luke 23:43
- "Woman, this is your son." Then he said to the disciple: "This is your mother.” John 19:26-27
- "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34
- "I thirst.” John 19:28
- "It is finished"  John 19:29-30
- "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” Luke 23:46

This exhibition considered Jesus' final moments, those six hours he spent hanging on the cross. The artist was invited to consider - what did Jesus experience? What sorts of emotions and thoughts might these final seven sayings have produced in him? Surely, these six hours were filled with the full spectrum of passion, a broad range of emotions. The artist was invited to illuminate Jesus' experience, deepen our consideration of these sayings, slow us down to contemplate these glorious and horrific hours of time.

Submission Deadline: Sunday, March 13
Exhibition: Palm Sunday (March 20th) through Easter Sunday (March 31st)

ADVENT EXHIBITION (2015)

/

For this year's Advent season, we utilized still photography to capture four stories from various families in our community. Since the Advent season includes the four Sundays preceding Christmas, we shared one story each week on video leading up to Christmas. We decided we wanted each story to enhanced a theological truth (love or joy or peace, etc), rather than a mere rundown of their story. The script for each story, however, concluded by tying in a portion of each reader's own story into the larger narrative. We then pointed people to the gallery for the fuller experience and fuller story where you could actually pick up a copy and read along.

We created four quadrants on the gallery wall that displayed each story in detail - both visually and textually: 

love
joy
peace
hope

IDOL FACTORY EXHIBITION (2015)

/

C.S. Lewis observed that we need help from each another to truly and fully see the mystery, the beauty, or the terror of the world. Our eyes need to be disciplined to see the world rightly and we utterly need to proclaim the Word of God in ways that actively expose and resist both the idols that we are tempted to worship instead of God and also the idols of our distorted understandings of God. We believe because art is concerned with communication - communicating an idea through a gesture of some kind - that artists possess a particular way of helping us see rightly.

On June 28th, 2015, we invited artists to submit creative work that was accentuated or inspired or informed by our eight-week sermon series called, “Idol Factory.” This series included:

• the idol of power (control/anger)
• the idol of people (fear of man)
• the idol of success (work, money, possessions)
• the idol of pleasure (sex, sloth)
• the idol of religion (self-righteousness)
• keeping ourselves in the love of God
• idolatry and the 4 G’s

We called on artists to offer and discipline their various gifts so God’s people might acknowledge their own idol-making through the visual art presented, testify to the goodness of God, offer thanks and express repentance of our own idol-making.

The goal of this gallery was to present good creative work that disciplines our eyes to see the world around us and ourselves a bit clearer, that through beholding these various gifts, our hearts and minds might be directed to the good and true radiance of God’s glory (Heb 1:3).

We encouraged any medium at all and asked that all final submissions be in by July 24, 2015 to be considered.