Initiative Grant Spotlight #2

Original: InitiativeGrant Spotlight #2

"A Broken Beauty"

The CCCU Initiative Grants to Network Christian Scholars enable Christian scholars to develop mutually supportive networks that will strengthen the work of any one scholar and will allow the collective contribution to be greater than the sum of the individual contributions. Each $15,000 grant is for a three-year period of time and is awarded to teams of three to six Christian scholars headed by a faculty member at a CCCU member institution. The following highlights the results of just one project:

The project "A Broken Beauty: Figuration,Narrative and the Transcendent in North AmericanArt," was directed Bruce Herman, professor of artat Gordon College (MA). The project features the recent work of 15North American artists who deploy a range of figurative andnarrative modes in painting, sculpture and mixed media.

"The CCCU Initiative Grant opportunity helpedto underwrite a larger project that I have been developing over thepast three and a half years - entitled'A BrokenBeauty,'" says Herman."The fruit of the work is an Eerdmans volume ofthe same title (released June '05) and anexhibition that just debuted at Laguna Art Museum in the LosAngeles area. The project had a significant collaborative aspect toit and has fostered a great deal of artistic and scholarly dialoguearound the surprising reality of beauty found in the midst ofruination and suffering. This work and this project are at theheart of my most committed artistic endeavors. I so appreciate theopportunity that this grant provided to bring a group of diverseartists and scholars together around theseissues."

According to the officialWeb site of "A BrokenBeauty", the 27 works in the exhibitionrepresent both gravity and hope, challenging viewers"to be present to the struggle and grace emergingfrom deeply personal stories, historical and sacred narratives, andthe terrors of modern history - the horrific events of the past andpresent century that overshadow and seep into our present, andthreaten to shape our future."

Participating artists of note include Gabrielle Bakker (WA),Gaela Erwin (KY), Erica Grimm-Vance (CAN), Richard C. Harden (CT),Bruce Herman (MA), Edward Knippers (Wash DC/VA), Tim Lowly (IL),Mary McCleary (TX), John Nava (CA), David Robinson (CAN), JoelSheesley (IL), Stephen De Staebler (CA), Melissa Weinman (WA),Patty Wickman (CA), and Jerome Witkin (NY).

Other recently completed grants were invested into the followingprojects:
•"Aquinas's Ethics: MetaphysicalFoundations, Moral Theory, and TheologicalContext." Project director: Rebecca DeYoung,Calvin College (MI)
• "Living as Part ofGod's Good Earth." Projectdirector: John R. Wood, The King's UniversityCollege (Alberta)
• "Testing a Model of theRole of Forgiveness in the Social Competence of YoungChildren." Project director: Beverly J. Wilson,Seattle Pacific University (WA)
• "Neohumanism And TheEthical Turn In Theological Perspective." Projectdirector: E. Norman Klassen, Trinity Western University (BritishColumbia)
• "Gender, Genre and Faith:Religion and the Nineteenth-Century Woman Writer."Project director: Pamela Corpron Parker, Whitworth College(WA).

For more information about Initiative Grants to NetworkChristian Scholars, clickhere.

Related Links:
http://www.abrokenbeauty.com/
http://www.brucehermanonline.com/
http://www.eerdmans.com/shop/product.asp?p_key=0802828183
http://lagunaartmuseum.org/current_exhibits.html