Visual Arts Course in Regent College Summer School

The Visual Arts addressed by Adrienne Dengering Chaplin in Regent College Summer School

From 20 – 24 July Adrienne Dengerink Chaplin will teach a summer course at Regent College in Vancouver, Canada about the visual arts entitled 'Coming to our Senses: Art, Faith, and Embodiment'. What is the inherent value of art? Does it bring us into more intimate contact with the world, with others, and with God—or does it stand apart with its own value? Many centuries of dualistic thinking have conditioned Christians to evaluate art primarily by its capacity to transcend our finite embodied existence in search of ‘the spiritual.’ This course will take a different approach. It will focus on the integral role of the bodily senses, exploring how art, whether religious or secular, articulates affective human experience. Instead of seeking to escape our transient existence, art can bring us into a more intimate contact with the world, with others, and, ultimately, also with God. We will look at many examples – ranging from pre-modern applied art to post-modern, contemporary works that may often seem obscure. The aim of the course is to enable participants to develop fresh Christian criteria by which to approach and evaluate works of art, especially contemporary art. http://www.regent-college.edu/summer/courses/culture-story

Adrienne Dengerink Chaplin
Independent Scholar, Cambridge, UK
PhD (Free University, Amsterdam)

Adrienne Dengerink Chaplin has a longstanding track record of writing and speaking about the arts and aesthetics. Originally from Amsterdam, she taught for eight years at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto where she was also an Associate Member of the Toronto School of Theology. She served as President of the Canadian Society for Aesthetics from 2005 until 2007 and has published widely for both academic and public audiences. Her publications include articles or chapters for Contemporary Aesthetics, Radical Orthodoxy and the Reformed Tradition, The Routledge Companion to Aesthetics and, most recently, a chapter on a group of Northern Ireland muralists for Oxford University Press’s Strategic Peacebuilding series (forthcoming). She co-authored the textbook Art and Soul: Signposts for Christians in the Arts and currently works as an independent scholar in Cambridge, UK. 

CROWDFUNDING opportunity until July 23:

Adrienne has also recently set up a website for CROWDFUNDING for a travelling exhibition that tells the story of twelve large murals about The Troubles, painted by the Bogside Artists in Derry, in Northern Ireland. The murals are on the gable walls of blocks of flats on Rossville Street, that runs through the centre of Derry's Bogside neighbourhood. The murals show iconic moments of The Troubles as they took place on people's doorsteps and attract large numbers of visitors. While continuing the Ulster tradition of using murals for social commentary, the artists use this medium to raise questions about the past and promote cross-community conversations. The artists have been invited to show their work at venues in England in August and September 2015. Now we need the funds to make this happen. Adrienne Dengerink Chaplin says about the project: ‘ I see the murals as an important site-specific work of public art that has emerged directly from the community's experience. While a mere superficial look may dismiss them as sectarian, they do tell a universal human story that speaks to people globally.’ The project is using flexible funding and will receive all pledges made by 23rd July 2015. Read more and donate