art in holy week day 4: the easter story engedi arts

[this is part of a series of blog posts on art in holy week - see also

• art in holy week day one: the lent cross delarosa
• art in holy week day two: raised in leeds
• art in holy week day three: the create project
• art in holy week day five: soul of sheffield 
• art in holy week day six: stations of the king's cross
• art in holy week day seven: noesis
• art in holy week day eight: the resurrection ]

the easter story is an exhibtion that opened last weekend in north wales in colwyn bay. this photo was taken at the opening which sounded like a big success. jen and i are heading up tomorrow to join in the fun... gav mart is a student on the cms pioneer course and is the person behind engedi arts who are putting on the exhibition. to get this in motion has involved quite an adventure and a serious amount of risk taking. this has involved taking out a lease short term on the imperial hotel on the hgh street, doing the place up, connecting wth local artists on quite a big scale, and meantime putting together funding bids and dreaming up a vision to enable the hotel to become a base for community and arts into the future - all of which is still unknown.

but the easter story itself is quite a simple idea. take sections of scripture that tell the easter story and invite artists to interact with the story. it doesn't matter if they are christian or not. in many ways the project is about saying that the story is the peoples and not the sole preserve of the church. i just love the scale of what is going on. there are quite a few pieces online about this so i don't want to repeat everthing here. cms write about it here, i really liked this photo story that tells the journey, and gav is interviewed here. here's what he says about it.

Engedi Arts is interested in what Jesus’ story looks like to non Christians, without the perceived barrier of the traditional church building standing in the way. We have handpicked all of our artists ranging from some of the top Welsh contemporary names to some established and up and coming new talent. Of our confirmed artists 80 per cent are based in Wales, and we have received an overwhelmingly positive response from the artistic community.

The 40 passages chosen range from the resurrection of Lazarus to the resurrected Jesus, and the fish breakfast of John 21, and are intended to highlight issues concerning: Life, death, women’s role in the gospel/Christendom, betrayal, economy, the Eucharist, loyalty, justice, gambling, denial, self denial, violence, doubt, theology and friendship, the community’s relationship with the church.

During the show’s run we’re planning a range of community (mini) events at the venue including an opening launch party, a song and creative writing workshop day and evening performance, a spoken word workshop day and evening performance, an acoustic evening, a meditative service, various arts workshops, a student open afternoon, an alternative worship event, a Maundy Thursday event, and a closing Easter Sunday Big Feast.

i intend to take some photos so will try and show something of what it's about when i get back. but if you scroll through the blog you can see stories of some of the artists involved and what they are up to such as this stroke of brilliance...

Comments

[Graham]

Enjoy it- spent 1999-2004 in that place in paid ministry and remember that space as a seedy pub. Check out Chloe Leavers during the weekend; I believe she is gigging there.