Artists and Poets Respond to the Pandemic: An Online Exhibition
| Since Beth’s arrival at St. Michael’s, we have been engaged, individually, in small groups, and collectively, in far-ranging conversations about “church” and “community.” Those conversations are ongoing and likely to effect many more changes in how we intend to grow in mission while attending to our immediate and future parish needs. Already, they have revealed to us that the meanings of “church” and “community” are best expressed through the work we do outside of our building, in partnership with each other, our neighbors, and the greater world.
The coronavirus pandemic, which so suddenly turned the world upside down, has been showing us in the most painful ways that how we’ve been living needs to change. At the same time as it is revealing the ugly inequities of our society, our tendencies to exploit and destroy, our arrogant and persistent sense of privilege, it is showing us that engagement with one another matters, that compassion and empathy for the one unlike us bring us closer to each other, even in enforced isolation. In our current crisis, the ambiguities we live with are striking, as are the paradoxes of our 21st Century existence. Who, beyond our priest, might help us make sense of all that? The answer, I think, is our artists and poets, who continue to have a unique role in our culture, being, as they usually are, the first to turn our mirrors to ourselves, to document what is happening and how and to show us something else we might imagine. They invest that something else with intention but not need to be “right.” Not always, but very often, they give us beautiful glimpses into that creation God made for us on earth and of which we are stewards. They nourish through the formative power of their gifts, helping us to know and understand the world in a different way. If that sounds lofty, it is. But I believe it is true as well. And so I proposed to Beth an idea to create an online exhibition inviting artists and poets to respond to the pandemic generally and to a specific aspect of the crisis, such as loss and grief, or fear and hope. I issued a call for submissions, which set out the requirements to participate, and from among all the entries received created our first online exhibition “Artists and Poets Respond to the Pandemic.” The exhibition, which represents artists and poets from all over the United States and abroad, is available to view here. I ask that you spend a few minutes reading the introduction to the exhibition to learn what it comprises and what I hope it will do: get us thinking and talking about the stories being told through the beautiful visual art and the poems, and how we do or might use these stories to connect, find meaning, and create purpose in church and in community. |