May the Excellence Still Flow
The Via Affirmativa Summer 2008 Gathering is over … but is the excellence? Not hardly.
This year’s 110 guests, from Italy, Japan, the Netherlands and the U.S. filled the Colorado air with their music, art, drama, poetry and relationships, during our annual gathering held in the Springs.
Featured guest presenter Makoto Fujimura shared with the community that
“We experience (re)generative creativity by serving people …
unless we create we don’t realize what we’re missing …”
What powerful words to this generation of emerging art makers!
During the four day event, we saw these themes appear, which reveal to us the movement of the invisible in our midst:
1) We celebrate goodness, truth and beauty
2) We deepen our calling, at the intersection of faith and art.
3) We integrate our lives, in community, in the context of the movement.
4) We affirm the expression of the creative gifts through the making of art.
Another “Wow” moment from Mako came when he said “We artists can bring mercy and beauty to break into everyone’s every day life – it is an authority given to us and what we create matters and will last.”
The implicit parallel we draw from this is that we have gifts for a specific purpose, perhaps several purposes, but we are not the sole end of those purposes. When we employ our gifts, with excellence, while serving others and being open to relationships, the reality of generative creativity is realized, we are energized, and our purpose is fulfilled. Then those around us (and our audience) experience beauty & grace through our creativity.
Jim Petersen captured the attention of the gathering by sharing that
“We artists can be kind of like miniature versions of that burning bush that Moses saw and moved closer to. Once he saw that the bush was not being consumed by the fire he said, ‘I must go see this strange sight.’”
What a challenging adventure it will be to implement and apply all these great thoughts to our lives! One can not even imagine what impact they will have on our art -
May the Excellence Still Flow!
COMING SOON:
The lyrics to Sunita’s song “Ambition.”
A “Meditation on Excellence” written by Christy Tennant of the Int’l Arts Movement!
Did Mako actually talk about excellence? What does “the medium is the message” mean?
See how this year’s messages coalesced or talk about it! Explore ‘the End Beyond’ our time together - these and other attractions are, again, COMING SOON!