ARC is Looking to Add Board Members

Are you interested in providing leadership for an organization committed to supporting:

• Community leaders who acknowledge the powerful roles
  that spirituality and the arts can play in social change

• Scholars whose work comes alive at the place where community,
  creativity, and spirituality meet?

• Justice-focused artists who ask the big questions of humanity and society

• Faith communities that value the importance of the arts?

If so, consider serving on ARC’s Board of Directors

To learn more about ARC’s current board member, click here.
To talk with someone about possible board service, contact Ashley Theuring,
President of ARC’s Board of Directors, By June 15 | President@ArtsReligionCulture.org

Board Service Responsibilities

• Maintain Membership in ARC throughout Board Service

• Attend 3 (online) quarterly meetings of the full board (2 hours each)

• Attend 1 (physical) annual full board retreat (2 days) prior to ARC’s annual Theopoetics Conference

• Attend ARC’s annual Theopoetics Conference (2 days)

• Serve on one of the Board Subcommittees (Average of 5 hours of work per month)

• Communicate regarding respective board responsibilities and committee assignments to the appropriate parties in a timely fashion

• Use Asana for project-management Actively share about ARC in your networks

We are particularly seeking board members who either have established skills in -- or are ready to learn about -- in non-profit financial development, marketing and media, and non-profit governance and legal issues.

ARC Emerging Leaders 2020 Fellowship

We are now accepting applications for the 2020 ARCEL Fellowship.

This program is focused on those who are exploring a deepening call to serve in a way that brings together spiritual and creative practices. Creativity, imagination, and the arts have a vital role to play in our faith, and ARC is proud to build on the long list of ARC Fellows from the past by making a particular commitment to support rising leaders in this work.

What is the ARCEL Fellowship?

The Emerging ARC Leaders Fellowship is a program designed to accomplish four things:

1. Identify, annually, six rising young leaders whose sense of calling lives at the intersection of creative practice, spirituality, and work that builds up communities. These leaders will be drawn from gap-year young adults, undergraduates, graduate students, working artists, and early career clergy.

2. Provide these leaders with exposure to tools, models, and relationships that can help them to thrive in their individual contexts and communities where they may feel disconnected and relatively unsupported in terms of their work to braid together creative and spiritual practices.

3. Encourage these leaders as they wrestle with their sense of call, introducing them to each other and to networks of other leaders who are at the edge of innovation and discovery about the ways in which the arts and religion can be twinned to produce transformative opportunities for reflection and change.

4. Make Space for the fellows to reflect and discern how their own unique skills can best be used to promote the flourishing of all creation.

Note: This is less of a training program and more of an opportunity for reflection, re-orientation, and consideration of what leadership might look like for you in your work. While Fellows will almost certainly pick up some skills and develop new ways of discussing their work, inspiration, and service, this Fellowship is more about helping you to clarify, sharpen, and reinforce your own sense of personal trajectory.

Applications or questions should be sent to ARCEL@ArtsReligionCulture.org. All application materials must be submitted by May 31, 2020 and all decisions will be announced no later than by June 10, 2020.

More information about the program is available here.

Invitation to Contribute: Chronicles of Change and Hope

In this season where isolation is a daily challenge, we invite you to share stories, songs, prayers, poems, images, or insights that capture a moment of connection. What have you seen, felt, or thought that gave you a sense of greater life? What small acts of resistance or transformation have you experienced that you want to offer to others? We know that we are in a challenging moment. We also know that this community is powerful and visionary; we want to provide a way for your power and vision to be shared. 

We would love to have you contribute in any medium (links for audio and video please) that allows you to communicate what you need to say in this time. Starting on April 6th, we will begin to share pieces with the ARC community via our blog, letting people know about your work via our email list, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Our hope is that by amplifying your voice we can contribute to the reminder that something more is possible. Contributions and questions can be sent to Chronicles@ArtsReligionCulture.org.

New Program in "Insights: ARC Community Offerings"

Insights: ARC Community Offerings

Insights is a new live interview show hosted by ARCs Co-Executive Directors, Tamisha A Tyler and Callid Keefe-Perry. Screened live via Facebook, Tyler and Keefe-Perry interview members of the ARC community who are exploring leading new and innovative projects at the intersections of art, religion, and culture. The show is interactive, and allows our virtual audience to send questions for our guest to answer.

Folks looking to see Insights episodes can check out past guests here and check in for future shows.

Theopoetics Conference 2020 Cancelled

Colleagues and Friends,

We regret to inform you that after meeting this morning, ARC’S Board of Directors voted to cancel the 2020 Theopoetics Conference. The decision was based on the rapidly-Shifting public health landscape around COVID- 19, coupled with an increasing number of people who let us know that they would not be attending for reasons related to the virus. Your safety is of utmost importance to us, and is What ultimately led to this decision. Those of you who were registered and want a formal declaration of our decision to cancel in an attempt to recoup airfare costs and/ or housing can find a letter in PDF form in your email.

We recognize that many may be disappointed at losing this opportunity to share their work, see dear friends, and to learn from the creativity and wisdom that wells up at Theopoetics every year. We too will miss this chance. In that spirit, know that while the conference will not happen this year, we are planning and will keep you updated on some exciting new ways to connect throughout the year. Be on the lookout for news in the next few weeks as we finish sorting through the current changes and turn our attention to what comes next. In closing, we name our gratitude for the public health workers, medical staff, researchers, policymakers, and all those who are working to support individual and communal health in this trying time.

On behalf of the ARC Board of Directors and with hopes for the flourishing of all creation,