The conference starts at 4pm on June 18th and will end on June 21 at 9am. Please email office@civa.org for the full schedule and more information.

While Christians have long-long debated the nature of their relationship to “culture,” they have made relatively little progress in actually defining what this “culture” is. The word “culture” is often joined to other terms to generate curious conjunctions such as “High Culture,” “pop-culture,” “visual culture,” “the culture wars,” and “cultural production.” To state the obvious, our engagement with contemporary culture is complex and the nature of this complexity is the central theme of the 2009 CIVA Biennial Conference.

Visual artists, of course, have always exercised a pivotal role in shaping, defining and representing culture. The 2009 CIVA conference asks how 21st Century Christians will find the wisdom needed to live out their calling to the arts with joy, creativity, and obedience?

To address these questions we have invited a number of artists, theologians, and critics to start the conversation. But that is just the beginning. The 2009 CIVA Conference will be a highly interactive event. We expect that all of us—speakers and participants alike—will work together to better understand how to respond to our place and moment.

Complimenting the more formal dimensions of these four days, there is ample time to renew old friendships and form new ones, to be restored in worship, to walk the Bethel campus, and to interact with one another’s work.

Conference Tracks
Whether you are an artist, designer, historian, educator, pastor or layperson, critic or collector, a broad selection of tracks encourages attendees to pursue the conference theme—Culture?—in greater depth. Our six track options are:
• Art and Design sponsored by the Henry Luce Center
• Art and Worship
• Art Educators sponsored by the Art Education Network
• Gallery and Museum Professionals
• Scholars and Critics sponsored by the Brehm Center
• Spiritual Formation for the Artist

Presenters
Featured Speaker
Miroslav Volf is Henry B. Wright Professor of Systematic Theology at Yale Divinity School. He also serves as the Director of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture, and is a long time advocate for the arts. Included among his many books are: Exclusion and Embrace (1996); Work in the Spirit: Toward a Theology of Work (2001); and The Sun Is Not Afraid of the Darkness: Theological Meditations on the Poetry of Aleksa Santic (1986).

Adrienne Chaplin is adjunct faculty member of the Institute for Christian Studies and the Toronto School of Theology and co-author of Art and Soul (2001).

Brian Moss is the Director of Worship, Music and the Arts at John Knox Presbyterian Church in Seattle, Washington.

Cameron Anderson is the Executive Director of Christian in the Visual Arts.

Charles Taliaferro teaches philosophy at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota and is author of the forthcoming book on philosophical aesthetics The Image In Mind.

Chris Larson received his MFA from Yale University and he lives in the Twin Cities. His work is represented by Magnus Müller Gallery in Berlin, Germany.

Daniel Siedell is assistant professor of modern and contemporary art history, theory, and criticism at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and recently published God In the Gallery: A Christian Embrace of Modern Art (2008).

Debbie Blue a founding pastor of House of Mercy, a church in St. Paul, Minnesota and author of Sensual Orthodoxy (2003).

James Romaine is an art historian with a focus on Modern and Contemporary art, is the co-founder the New York Center for Arts and Media Studies, and author of Objects of Grace (2002).

Joe Smith is an artist and he chairs the Art Department at Northwestern College in Roseville, Minnesota and was the recipient of a McKnight Fellowship.

Karen L. Mulder is an architectural historian who teaches design history at the Corcoran College of Art + Design in Washington, D.C and was a Menil Scholar of Visual Arts at Yale University.

Kevin Hamilton is an Associate Professor and Chair of New Media in the School of Art and Design at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and has exhibited work at SKOR in Den Haag and Spain’s Cyberart and MADnet festivals.

Lara Scott is a video artist, illustrator, and graphic designer, working in the Boston area.

Lex Thompson is a Minneapolis-St. Paul artist whose art and writing has been published in Look-Look, Neomu, Religion and the Arts, and Camerawork: a Journal of Photographic Arts.

Linda Stratford is the Art Department Chair at Asbury College, Wilmore Kentucky where she is a Lilly Scholar researching theological foundations for vocational calling in the visual arts.

Makoto Fujimura is a painter in New York and founder of International Arts Movement, a presidential appointee to the National Endowment for the Arts, and is represented by Dillon Gallery in New York and Tokyo.

Theodore Prescott is a sculptor and a writer. He established the art department at Messiah College in Pennsylvania.

Tom Gokey is an artist whose work deals with the overthrow of global capitalism, the protection of democracy through non-violent methods, and the purity of true love.

Wayne Roosa is an art historian and critic who chairs both the art department at Bethel University and the New York Center for Art and Media Studies. He co-curated and co-authored the catalogue for The Next Generation: Contemporary Expressions of Faith at the Museum of Biblical Art.


Our Conference Site
CIVA is excited to celebrate its 30th anniversary by returning to the site of the first conference—Bethel University! Located in a picturesque setting, Bethel is a leader in developing Christian artists, supporting their careers, and building appreciation for the arts among churches in Minneapolis and beyond. Its landmark academic program for the arts in New York serves Christian students around the country, and its downtown St. Paul gallery is a vital platform for showcasing excellent art.

Conference participants will be housed in recently constructed suite-style dormitories. The natural beauty of the setting and its state-of-the-art facilities are especially conducive to contemplation, learning and fellowship. And the rich art community of Minneapolis and St Paul allows for art-intense excursions as well as great restaurants and sites.

Conference Exhibits
Conference participants will have the opportunity to see the work of CIVA members and friends in four venues:
• The CIVA Walk-In-Show is a general invitation for all participants to exhibit their work. To participate in this non-juried opportunity, simply bring one or more pieces of work with you and we will help you hang it in Bethel University’s on-campus gallery.
• The CIVA Member Juried Exhibition—Culture?—features work that addresses the ways artists interact with culture. It seeks to showcase a variety of stylistic and conceptual frameworks that highlight contemporary artist communication. Whether you are a designer or photographer, a painter or ceramist, a liturgical artist or producing new media, this call-for-entries is to every CIVA member working in any medium or format. Pieces are only limited by the size of our exhibition space and what may be reasonably shipped. Please email office@CIVA.org for entry requirements.
• Art + Text: Images Concepts and Insights—a CIVA Traveling Exhibit—will be on view in Eugene and Leona Olsen Gallery at Bethel.
• The Late Late Show is among of CIVA’s most beloved traditions. This rapid-fire projection of artists follows on the heels of our regular conference day and lasts until nearly midnight. This forum provides dozens of artists the opportunity to present their work. Artists wishing to show work through a basic PowerPoint© presentation must bring a finished presentation of no more than 12 images (each no more than one megabyte in size and in RGB and jpg formats) on a CD. Video artists wanting to show clips may also bring Quicktime© videos on a CD (the total time cannot exceed three minutes). Since there is a limited amount of space, sign-up for the Late Late Show will occur during conference registration.

Small Works Auction
Since 1999, CIVA’s Small Works Auction—a silent auction—has steadily grown in popularity. Nearly one hundred small works (mostly on paper) donated by dozens of CIVA members friends will be on display for a little friendly competition. Among this broad assortment of work and artists it is usually possible to find some real gems. The Small Auction is a great opportunity for beginning collectors. Better still, all of the proceeds help support the work of CIVA. Let the bidding begin! Submissions should be created on an archival sheet of paper no larger than 7” x 10” and sent to:
CIVA Small Works Auction
255 Grapevine Road
Wenham, MA 01984-1813

Organizational Tables
Representatives from several visiting organizations, magazines, journals, colleges and business will have information and items of interest for sale. If you would like to have a table at the conference please contact office@civa.org

Day Ahead Museum Tours
For those able to arrive at the conference a day early, the 2009 conference offers two choices of tours in the Minneapolis and St. Paul area. If needed, lodging is available on Wednesday -June 17. Please make appropriate arrangements if this is necessary (see registration form). Since space for these tours is limited, please register early. Please note that the tour price does not include the cost of lunch or museum admission.
Tour #1 Minneapolis Institute of Arts
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts was founded in 1883, more than a century later it stands as a monument to a remarkable history of civic involvement and cultural achievement. www.artsmia.org
Tour #2 Walker Center for the Arts and Galleries
The Walker Center is a national leader for its innovative approaches to audience engagement. www.walkerart.org

Join us in June for a freshly designed, highly interactive event and come put your stamp on this CIVA conversation.