Pullen Visual Imagery Study Group (VISG)Recommendations Report

February 2009

Background/History:

The Pullen Visual Imagery Study Group (VISG) is a group of 16 Pullen members and staff who have been researching and discussing ways to make the visual imagery in our sacred worship spaces more inclusive. The VISG met monthly, and sometimes more frequently,beginning in March 2008. We were formally commissioned in worship on June 1, 2008. On that date, VISG was commissioned “…to study the sacred spaces within our church to determine how they may more fully, though visual art and symbols, represent our shared beliefs and values we affirm: that God’s love is inclusive of all people and all creation; that it is important to honor the stories of both women and men of faith in our visual imagery; and that our space is a reflection of who we say we are and what we value as a church.”

During our work, VISG spent a good amount of time working through and agreeing upon a decisionmaking process. We incorporated and used the Pullen Decision Making Group Covenant Statement, as well as recommendations for consideration from their work regarding meeting process, parameters, and a systematic problem solving model. Grace Evans and Nancy Petty were instrumental in sharing information from the Pullen Decision Making Group. With our group process,VISG agreed upon a full consensus decisionmaking model, with a fallback plan of consensus minus two persons. Our final decisions and recommendations had full consensus of all members present.

The Pullen Decision Making Group’s covenant statement will be shared in this report as well because we found it useful to reflect upon in our work together. We often used the VISG mission statement and the covenant statement at the beginning of our meetings for centering and reflection. The covenant statement is as follows: “We are a Christ centered community seeking what is best for our church. In our community, we experience the presence of love and meet God in each other even while we struggle to reach solutions. Aware that there are a variety of ways of seeing, our duty to each other is to participate fully in the process, listening to each other with open minds and hearts until jointly we discern the direction we should take. We trust the good intentions of all participants, believing that all the people want what is best for the church.”

A primary task of the VISG over the past several months has been researching liturgical art consultants who would be potential candidates to be retained to partner with our church in addressing inclusive visual imagery. We researched several people in various locations across the nation, and found few people with extensive knowledge and work experience within this specialty area.

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The one person with whom our search kept coming back to was Catherine Kapikian,Director of the HenryLuceIIICenter for the Arts and Religion at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C.Ms. Kapikian has a very extensive resume that details her work experience since 1972. She has completed an extensive number of liturgical design consultations and commissioned works for churches in various locations within the country. Additionally, she has given numerous lectures and workshops on topics related to visual arts and the church.

Ms. Kapikian has visited Pullen on two separate occasions thus far. She first visited in October 2007 and gave a Wednesday night presentation on the past and present roles of art within the institutional church. Approximately one year later (this past September 14-15, 2008), she attended Sunday worship and subsequently participated in meetings with VISG members and some staff members. During her visits, we have had much conversation about inclusive visual imagery within our church and on the church grounds. After the September visit, she wrote a proposal letterwith preliminary recommendations for us.

While our study group recognizes the state of the economy within our community, nation, and world, we believed we were still called to be faithful to our commissioned task. We believe our recommendations will lead to more inclusive visual imagery within our church and on our church campus. Additionally, we believe our recommendations will lead toimagery reflective of who we say we are and what we value as a faith community.

VISG Recommendations:

1)Retain Catherine Kapikian as a liturgical art consultant to help Pullen develop a comprehensive plan for inclusive visual imagery in the church sanctuary and church entrance/exit areas (i.e., foyers).

  1. Recommend that Worship Council discuss with the Pullen Finance Committee diverse ways to obtain funding for such a project.
  1. If Ms. Kapikian is hired, it is recommended that a volunteer sub-group of 6-8 VISG members help shepherd the next phase of this project.

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2)Create an “Arts and Spirituality” committee (name and composition to be determined) that develops and oversees a master plan for full inclusion in the visual and performing arts at Pullen. It is recommended that this committee be an ad hoc group of Worship Council, being a resource that provides leadership for the integration of the arts at Pullen that is consistent with the mission of the church.

Implemented Recommendation:

1)In collaboration with Coordinating Council and Building, Grounds, and Aesthetics, VISG helped establish acuratorial group. VISG spent a good deal of time discussing this recommendation, as well as a job description for such a group. The Pullen Curatorial Group (PCG) has recently formed and consists of the following church members: Sory Bowers, Joyce Correll, Grace Evans, Jeff Evans, and Gayle Lowry (chairperson). PCG is an ad hoc committee of Building, Grounds, and Aesthetics and reports directly to this standing committee. Working relationships with the Deacon Council and Worship Council will be available/pursued as needed. While the PCG will continue to refine their job description as their work evolves, their duties currently fall broadly into three categories:

  1. Start and maintain an updated record/catalogue of Pullen’s artwork.
  1. Oversee the display, rotation, and storage of artwork throughout the church building and grounds.
  1. Accept/decline future artwork gifts on behalf of the church.

Respectfully submitted by the Pullen Visual Imagery Study Group:

Carolyn Billings, Anne Dahle, Grace Evans, Jeff Evans, Kathy Foglia, Holly Harris, Phil Letsinger, Gayle Lowry, Santi Matthews, Nancy Petty, Larry Schultz, Bruce Spencer (co-chair), Gretchen Staebler, Cheryl Stallings (co-chair), Alexa Williams, and David Wilson.