I was honored and excited when asked to jury the 2007 CIVA Transforming Spaces exhibition. As a curator for the Hammer Museum at UCLA I am often invited to jury exhibitions and awards for various institutions and foundations nationally, but this is a special privilege to be able to review at one time and in one place the art of so many Christians working in the field today. I thoroughly enjoyed the review process and was impressed with the quality of submissions and the wide range of media and artistic expression. Because of the exhibition space limitations I had to edit my selections carefully and decided to choose work with a common visual thread to create a coherent exhibition. I am encouraged by the level of quality and the uniqueness of vision in this work and that it can speak to both the Christian community as well as to the secular art world.

As an artist and a Christian I understand the difficulty in reconciling the two and finding our place in life. The church often times ignores or rejects the relevance of the artist in the work of the Kingdom while the world rejects the perspective of the Christian in culture. It can be a disheartening place to live. But as Christians and as artists we are called to persevere. We should not forsake the gathering together of like-minded believers but also seamlessly make our way out into the world as salt and light taking part in and befriending and supporting the culture. Christian artists should be the first ones in the door at gallery and museum openings. We should be seeing, participating in, and dialoguing with those artists and what's going on in the artworld. Organizations like CIVA, who desire to bring together the church and artists and to speak with relevance to all are providing a great service to the culture we live in and the one to come.

I would like to thank all of the artists who submitted work and want to encourage you all to continue in your artistic endeavors. It is our job and our calling as Christians to nurture the creative spirit God has breathed into us and to share that spirit with the church and the world at large. We are to be creative leaders to all and to exhibit in the light of the gospel what it means to be more fully human living together in this amazing world God created for us and for his pleasure.

James Elaine