From Staff Reports

The Faith in the Arts Institute, intended to bring together artists, creatives and scholars to celebrate and explore the intersections of faith and arts, will hold a multi-day festival Oct. 13-16 as its inaugural event "in the heart of Asheville" with a combination of free public performances, lectures and film screenings, as well as intimate registration-only institute workshops and contemplative practices.

Events will be held on UNCA's campus and downtown at the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center. For more information, including a full schedule, visit faithinarts.unca.edu/

"Can our experience of the arts – as creators, listeners, viewers, readers – and the ways we talk about those experiences, offer us a way to also talk across what might otherwise divide us?" the release asked, rhetorically. "The Faith in Arts Institute proposes this question while providing a platform to celebrate artists and creatives who draw on spiritual or religious practices as an influence in their work and exploring ways that arts have played a role in spirituality and religion. Through workshops, lectures, performances, and exhibitions, the Faith in Arts Institute engages attendees in contemplative and reflective practices while providing a welcoming space intended to evoke open and honest dialogue. Together, performers and presenters will join institute participants in thoughtful discussions, powerful performances, and evocative film screenings." 

Faith in Arts founder Richard Chess said in the release, “Perhaps the arts themselves can open us to new possibilities in our own spiritual or religious lives or help those of us who are secular to discover similarities between our experiences of the arts and experiences of those who engage in religious or spiritual practices... The Faith in Arts Institute will offer us a rich opportunity to explore these possibilities.” Chess is a professor emeritus of English at UNC Asheville who recently retired after directing UNCA’s Center for Jewish Studies for 30 years.

UNCA's release added, "The thoughtfully curated programming of the Faith in Arts Institute is elevated by its diversity and noteworthy guests and performances. A few of the events taking place over the four-day event include poet and acclaimed translator David Hinton leading a discussion on Ch’an (Zen) insight and how Ch’an shaped the arts in ancient China and beyond; artist and pollinato Marie T. Cochran guiding a talk following the screening of her film Testify, Beyond Place, an homage to the 85th anniversary of the Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church’s demolition and gravesite removal in Cullowhee, NC;  musician and filmmaker Alicia Jo Rabbins showing her film A Kaddish For Bernie Madoff, a hybrid musical memoir and narrative fantasy; art critic and author Kay Larson examining “John Cage’s Lecture on Nothing and Its Inspirational Value for the Visual Arts”; and, choreographer and scholar Christopher Rasheem McMillan exploring 'Danced spirituals’ as African American liturgical and artistic acts.

BMCM+AC Executive Director Jeff Arnal was quoted in the release as stating, “The interdisciplinary nature of the project invites audiences to re-examine what theology means in the context of their own lives, the public sphere, and settings or fields of inquiry they may not have previously associated with religion. “Connecting these conversations to Black Mountain College, the programming demonstrates the ways both faith and art cross disciplinary and geographic borders, and offers audiences an entry point for examining such issues in the context of this region’s rich history.”

Originally scheduled to launch in May 2020, the original Faith in Arts Institute launch was interrupted by COVID-19 restrictions, the release noted.

“Perhaps now more than ever,” Chess said in the release, “we are seeking meaningful ways to connect with one another. The Faith in Arts Institute provides a platform for us to come together and reflect on matters of the deepest meaning to us. What better way to do so than by engaging with powerful works of art that nourish our souls.” 

A limited number of Faith in Arts Institute passes are now on sale for $60 at faithinarts.unca.edu/ and blackmountaincollege.org/faith-in-arts/. Passholders will be admitted to all events including intimate workshops, contemplative practices, and small group conversations which will be limited to Institute participants only. A variety of other performances, screenings, and talks will be free and open to the public as indicated.

The Faith in Arts Institute is presented by UNCA and Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center with support from the Center for Jewish Studies at UNCA, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UNCA, Warren Wilson College, a grant for the humanities from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Henry Luce Foundation as part of their Theology Responsive Grant program, the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, and Bob and Carol Deutsch.