Photos from 2018 Conference in Waterbury Center, Vermont. Photos by Paul Rogers
The Vermont Conference on Christianity and the Arts seeks to equip, encourage, support, and care for artists of faith in and around Vermont, and to teach and challenge the church to understand and appreciate the value of art and of artists from a Biblical perspective. This includes:
Helping artists and others consider the relationship between art and faith and culture, and consider ways we might approach art as artists of faith. We want to see faith and art come together in ways that are deep and thoughtful rather than weak and didactic.
Building a nurturing and supportive community (or group of communities) among Christian artists in the region. This seems important in a place where artists of faith are often scattered and working alone.
Helping artists pursue excellence in their art.
Exploring and presenting a Biblical worldview as it pertains to art, and encouraging churches to engage in and promote the arts as a way to care for culture.
Getting people more excited about making art because this is part of what God is like.
Inspiring thinking about how we might use our art to love people and serve the communities we are in.
On the Relationship of Faith and Art
In speaking of art and faith that intersect, we don’t mean creating religious or “Christian art.” As Flannery O’Connor put it:
... when there is a tendency to compartmentalize the spiritual and make it resident in a certain type of life only, the Supernatural is apt to be lost.
We believe creativity and beauty are good because these are what God is like, and that art may reflect these without some lesson or moral being embedded (or worse, artificially tacked on). We are excited by:
art that cares for the community and culture we live in.
art that is deeply honest about the brokenness we see around us, and yet deeply rooted in hope.
art that glorifies God not by being preachy but by being really good art.
On Core Christian Beliefs
The Vermont Conference on Christianity and the Arts affirms the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and his unique divinity as the son of the Creator God. We affirm the truth of the canon of Christian scripture as the starting point for our understanding of the meaning of art. We affirm that we are made in the image of God, and that human creativity is a reflection of that image.
We subscribe to the Apostles and Nicene creeds. Beyond that, we seek to be ecumenical in our approach. We’ve had committee members and presenters from a range of traditions within the Christian faith, including Anglican, Baptist, Charismatic, Congregational, independent, Methodist, Mennonite, Reformed, and Roman Catholic.
While we’re rooted in the Christian faith, you don’t have to be a Christian to attend our conferences and workshops. (An affirmation of Christian faith is required to present at the conference.)
Conference Steering Committee
Matthew Dickerson
Eric Taylor
Paul Rogers
Kevin Moffat
Jessica Sturtevant