Community by student Tiffany Bentley
1 Comments Published by Bonnie on Friday, April 16, 2010 at 1:14 AM.
Community.
by Tiffany Bentley
It's a word that we misuse on a daily basis, though it's also something we claim to have achieved. It's an "easy step" in our lives, something that happens naturally. We put it on the shelf, we mark it off our checklist. Done. Accomplished. Out of the way. And we move on.
But community is more than what we have made it out to be, and more important than we comprehend. It is more than showing up, more than talking, more than listening (even though these all play a part in the process). Community is connection. And what better to connect one heart to another than a mutual love for God and, through him, a genuine concern for each other. We fool ourselves if we think, even for a breath, that he is not the thread that bonds us. If one heart breaks, they all should. I am not advocating that we absorb each others problems, but rather, that we be aware of them and offer encouragement in the purest, least self fulfilling way possible. Self righteousness is not love, even though it can convince us other wise. Good intentions can be all too easily twisted if they are not offered from a place of understanding. The challenge is to support each other not by our own strength, but by the strength of God. Without him as the foundation for our relationships we are crumbling towers. We are the charred debris of a barricade. We are tiny scraps of a carefully rendered portrait.
This is more than a place to socialize. How we interact with and regard each other is crucial. We use the analogy of war a lot in the church: "We are soldiers of God, the world is a battlefield for the soul". But do we believe it? Do we fight for each other?
Our lives are not a game. We can no long hide behind the mask of being a child. There is a time to be serious.
The greatest defense against darkness is light. And we have a way to access that light. We have God.
And he desires to see a community established in light.
It's a word that we misuse on a daily basis, though it's also something we claim to have achieved. It's an "easy step" in our lives, something that happens naturally. We put it on the shelf, we mark it off our checklist. Done. Accomplished. Out of the way. And we move on.
But community is more than what we have made it out to be, and more important than we comprehend. It is more than showing up, more than talking, more than listening (even though these all play a part in the process). Community is connection. And what better to connect one heart to another than a mutual love for God and, through him, a genuine concern for each other. We fool ourselves if we think, even for a breath, that he is not the thread that bonds us. If one heart breaks, they all should. I am not advocating that we absorb each others problems, but rather, that we be aware of them and offer encouragement in the purest, least self fulfilling way possible. Self righteousness is not love, even though it can convince us other wise. Good intentions can be all too easily twisted if they are not offered from a place of understanding. The challenge is to support each other not by our own strength, but by the strength of God. Without him as the foundation for our relationships we are crumbling towers. We are the charred debris of a barricade. We are tiny scraps of a carefully rendered portrait.
This is more than a place to socialize. How we interact with and regard each other is crucial. We use the analogy of war a lot in the church: "We are soldiers of God, the world is a battlefield for the soul". But do we believe it? Do we fight for each other?
Our lives are not a game. We can no long hide behind the mask of being a child. There is a time to be serious.
The greatest defense against darkness is light. And we have a way to access that light. We have God.
And he desires to see a community established in light.
"What's happening is this – most of today's younger generation and even many of the baby boomers of the 50's, 60's, and 70's prefer to learn through spoken and visual means rather than written word.
Studies have shown this trend. A 2004 study reported that “literary reading in America is not only declining rapidly among all groups, but the rate of decline has accelerated, especially among the young.” This reflects a “massive shift toward electronic media for entertainment and information.”
But this wave is much deeper than a learning style preference, more than just preferring to watch TV and listen to music. There is also a strong move towards relational, non-linear learning.
he problem is that most of our preaching, Bible studies, evangelism and discipleship are reader-oriented and linear-sequential in thought. Also, the post-modern's learning style involves a more 'poetic' language than a scientific language."
This is from http://storyrunners.com
Studies have shown this trend. A 2004 study reported that “literary reading in America is not only declining rapidly among all groups, but the rate of decline has accelerated, especially among the young.” This reflects a “massive shift toward electronic media for entertainment and information.”
But this wave is much deeper than a learning style preference, more than just preferring to watch TV and listen to music. There is also a strong move towards relational, non-linear learning.
he problem is that most of our preaching, Bible studies, evangelism and discipleship are reader-oriented and linear-sequential in thought. Also, the post-modern's learning style involves a more 'poetic' language than a scientific language."
This is from http://storyrunners.com
Tribeca Artwork and Artist Statement
0 Comments Published by Bonnie on Monday, August 03, 2009 at 12:35 AM.
The World I’m Always Waiting For
Some experiences simply fall into the recesses of our memory until triggered to recollection. Often through unintended connections to the senses or even in unconscious dreams, these fragments race to and contend with our thoughts. This work reflects a few rather small but significant instances in my life that I have rediscovered in my dreams. I chose three of the most rendered memories I had including a perfect sunset, hellish tales told at summer camp, and the first time a stranger remembered my “usual.” The historical facts of the actual events are quite hazy to me, yet the dreams are vivid. The five weeks I have worked here began with several sculptural environments that are the most accurate descriptions of my dreams. Since then I have madly tried to recreate these in my native two-dimensional mediums finding some success, but unable to capture its fullness. Seeking this ideal I now understand that the current condition of my work, or even our world, is interconnected with my hope for completion as well as my inability to achieve it. Consequently I expectantly rest in the threshold.
-Alex
Some experiences simply fall into the recesses of our memory until triggered to recollection. Often through unintended connections to the senses or even in unconscious dreams, these fragments race to and contend with our thoughts. This work reflects a few rather small but significant instances in my life that I have rediscovered in my dreams. I chose three of the most rendered memories I had including a perfect sunset, hellish tales told at summer camp, and the first time a stranger remembered my “usual.” The historical facts of the actual events are quite hazy to me, yet the dreams are vivid. The five weeks I have worked here began with several sculptural environments that are the most accurate descriptions of my dreams. Since then I have madly tried to recreate these in my native two-dimensional mediums finding some success, but unable to capture its fullness. Seeking this ideal I now understand that the current condition of my work, or even our world, is interconnected with my hope for completion as well as my inability to achieve it. Consequently I expectantly rest in the threshold.
-Alex
Hey y’all,
Thanks so much for your prayers over this past summer. I apologize that communication was a bit sporadic. For some reason, this summer like no other seemed to hurdle on so fast and I could barely find the handrail to grasp. I’ve attached the project newsletter that one of our staff wrote. It contains a little bit of a description of the Tribeca Summer Project as a whole and information about each of the tracks. If you need a reminder, I was on the arts track.
I’ll go into more detail about the project in my next newsletter in a week or so, but a few quick words of cool thing God did:
1. He definitely knit the community together and worked a lot of issues out in student’s lives and in staff’s lives through the process of artmaking. While this can be painful at the time, each person on our project voiced how thankful they were that God used New York and the process to refine us majorly.
2. Our staff team was amazing. Everyone gave 110% and were always ready to lend a hand even when something wasn’t their direct responsibility. This is the first year that every single staff member has emphatically stated that they want to come back and staff the project again.
3. People from all walks of life in New York heard and saw the Gospel in a variety of means. Through our artist feasts and our exhibition, we were able to continue the conversation with many of them. I’ll get more into their stories in the next letter, but here’s just a few cool interactions: Two of our students were interviewed by two high school students filming a
documentary on the way the media has distorted women’s self image. One of our students had dealt with an eating disorder and was able to, on camera, share her testimony with these two girls and as a result of the filming, the entire high school class heard the Gospel as well.
At FIT (New York’s famed fashion school), we met a man from the Dominican Republic and a man from Haiti and were able to share about the project and our own relationships with Christ. We also met a fashion major who then proceeded to come to every single one of our artist feasts and would come hang out in studio with us late into the night all the time. I could list story after amazing story after amazing story, but I’ll save that for later.
4. God is doing something at SCAD through the summer project. I was thrilled to have Jenn, one of our student leaders from SCAD Atlanta come to New York this summer and to grow in her own walk with God and in sharing her story. She’s already excited to take back what she learned to SCAD.
5. Personally, he definitely began to refine me in the aspect of leadership as I was constantly faced with either my inability without Him to accomplish something, or when I charged ahead and did it anyway, worked out some of my stubbornness!
I can’t say enough how much I appreciated you bringing us before the Father this summer. I can recall on multiple occasions getting an email, a text, call, or facebook message indicating someone had prayed for the project and almost always, it was very specifically for something we were struggling with just before. Thanks for interceding!
As for next steps, I just returned from our staff conference in Colorado and I’m at my parent’s house in Florida “recuperating” a bit. I’ll be headed back to Atlanta on the fifth. There’s some exciting and at the same time, scary, changes going on this next year with my job role and I’ll be rolling more of that out in the next letter. For now, please just pray for wisdom in preparation for some new things.
Thanks!
Bonnie, or as the Tribeca students called me, “Bonquisha”
Thanks so much for your prayers over this past summer. I apologize that communication was a bit sporadic. For some reason, this summer like no other seemed to hurdle on so fast and I could barely find the handrail to grasp. I’ve attached the project newsletter that one of our staff wrote. It contains a little bit of a description of the Tribeca Summer Project as a whole and information about each of the tracks. If you need a reminder, I was on the arts track.
I’ll go into more detail about the project in my next newsletter in a week or so, but a few quick words of cool thing God did:
1. He definitely knit the community together and worked a lot of issues out in student’s lives and in staff’s lives through the process of artmaking. While this can be painful at the time, each person on our project voiced how thankful they were that God used New York and the process to refine us majorly.
2. Our staff team was amazing. Everyone gave 110% and were always ready to lend a hand even when something wasn’t their direct responsibility. This is the first year that every single staff member has emphatically stated that they want to come back and staff the project again.
3. People from all walks of life in New York heard and saw the Gospel in a variety of means. Through our artist feasts and our exhibition, we were able to continue the conversation with many of them. I’ll get more into their stories in the next letter, but here’s just a few cool interactions: Two of our students were interviewed by two high school students filming a
documentary on the way the media has distorted women’s self image. One of our students had dealt with an eating disorder and was able to, on camera, share her testimony with these two girls and as a result of the filming, the entire high school class heard the Gospel as well.
At FIT (New York’s famed fashion school), we met a man from the Dominican Republic and a man from Haiti and were able to share about the project and our own relationships with Christ. We also met a fashion major who then proceeded to come to every single one of our artist feasts and would come hang out in studio with us late into the night all the time. I could list story after amazing story after amazing story, but I’ll save that for later.
4. God is doing something at SCAD through the summer project. I was thrilled to have Jenn, one of our student leaders from SCAD Atlanta come to New York this summer and to grow in her own walk with God and in sharing her story. She’s already excited to take back what she learned to SCAD.
5. Personally, he definitely began to refine me in the aspect of leadership as I was constantly faced with either my inability without Him to accomplish something, or when I charged ahead and did it anyway, worked out some of my stubbornness!
I can’t say enough how much I appreciated you bringing us before the Father this summer. I can recall on multiple occasions getting an email, a text, call, or facebook message indicating someone had prayed for the project and almost always, it was very specifically for something we were struggling with just before. Thanks for interceding!
As for next steps, I just returned from our staff conference in Colorado and I’m at my parent’s house in Florida “recuperating” a bit. I’ll be headed back to Atlanta on the fifth. There’s some exciting and at the same time, scary, changes going on this next year with my job role and I’ll be rolling more of that out in the next letter. For now, please just pray for wisdom in preparation for some new things.
Thanks!
Bonnie, or as the Tribeca students called me, “Bonquisha”
Our show starts in less than two hours! I wish I could have written more to update y’all over the last few weeks. We’ve lost internet at our studio, housing, and office and today I was able to jimmy rig a connection at our housing temporarily. I will send a more detailed update later tonight or tomorrow, but be praying specifically for the students and people from the city that our group has met and have been invited to tonight. Pray for the conversations that are spurred from our installation concerning death, resurrection, and the redemption of the earth.
So I've been here for two weeks now and I'm already amazed at how well God has knit our team together. Melinda, my co-director and I were just discussing how much we love our staff team and how on top of things they are. They are such servants and have taken their individual roles and run with them. The students arrived about 5 days ago and we have quite the creative and social bunch which is great. Community building and vulnerability is already happening in safe situations.
Tomorrow we have our first day on campus with the students. This week our focus is being good listeners, asking good questions, and exploring well as we do Soularium with college students all over Manhattan. With our understanding that everyone is somewhere on their spiritual journey, either moving towards or away from God, our desire is that the students learn how, in the power and prompting of the Holy Spirit, to connect these individuals stories and struggles with God's epic narrative of creation, brokenness and rebellion, redemption, transformation, and ultimate hope. Pray for us to take steps of faith and to see college student's lives changed this summer.
The students are in the middle of creating their pitches for our collaborative art installation exploring the topics of death, resurrection, and the new earth. We're excited about being able to present our experiences with a holistic Gospel including our own explorations of what it means to be changed by Christ, and to one day be raised back to life and experience a new earth of which we just see a shadow now.
One of our student's grandfathers died yesterday unexpectedly. Please pray for her and the rest of her family and she grieves and figures out plans to return home for the memorial services. Pray for us as a community to grieve with her and to be able to encourage and love on her.
I've posted a few pictures below of our last few days. I hope it shows you just how awesome the community God has brought together truly is!
Thanks so much!
Bonnie, AKA Bonisha
Students performing their "getting to know you" collaborative sketches
On the top of Rockefeller Center with Amy,
one of the staff girls I'm mentoring.
You can find out more information on the site of one of my favorite organizations ever, To Write Love On Her Arms, but if enough money is not donated to the hopeline, it will be taken over by the government and the compassionate and confidential nature of the number will be breached. So...Pick Up the Phone!
Some of these photos were taken by me, others by a well-known New York photographer, Alicia Hansen. All of these pieces were produced this summer by students and staff on the Tribeca summer project in response to conversations with God or with people and students in the city. They explore the topic of rehumanization.
In the current culture of consumerism, over stimulation, electronic relationships, isolation, and hipster sarcasm, it is not surprising that the art coming from this culture feels fractured and dehumanized. As Christians, we believe God reconciles us back into relationship with Him through unconditional love. Then, He calls us to be in relationships with one another that mimic this profound love. Rehumanization comes through relationship, forgiveness, and relentless love.
Feel free to browse the artwork, click to see a larger view, and many of the artists have their own websites, so click their names and see what else they're working on. Enjoy!
In the current culture of consumerism, over stimulation, electronic relationships, isolation, and hipster sarcasm, it is not surprising that the art coming from this culture feels fractured and dehumanized. As Christians, we believe God reconciles us back into relationship with Him through unconditional love. Then, He calls us to be in relationships with one another that mimic this profound love. Rehumanization comes through relationship, forgiveness, and relentless love.
Feel free to browse the artwork, click to see a larger view, and many of the artists have their own websites, so click their names and see what else they're working on. Enjoy!
"Snapshots of the City"
Written Word
Digital Photographs
"In Process"
Mixed Media
Joshua Nix and Evan Huwa
Video
Click below to watch the two videos.
Matthew Miller, Cam Tran, Jayson Choe, Sarah Kelly
"Pursuit"
Digital Collage
Emily Brink"Imaginary Sun"
Watercolor on paper
Collaboration:
Desiree Rindahl and Brian Dang
"Undone"
Acrylics on Unstretched Canvas
"Led"
Acrylic Paint, pastels on canvas
Collaboration:
Rachel Roehrich, Brandi Voigt, Tiffany Egbert, Carlee Lingerfelt
"Breaking Free"
Mixed Media
"Restoration"
Acrylic, Oil on Canvas
"5 Minute Sketch"
Video
Watch below
Emily Kilroy
"Still"
Oil paint on canvas
Carole Sconfito
"Untitled"
Mixed media on board
"Imago Dei: Dorothy Sayers"
Oil on Panel
Beth Suessenguth
"Valued"
Acrylic on Panel
Collaboration:
Julie Brewer, Angelica Richie, Stephanie Hoon, Emily Kilroy
Collaboration:
"Fix. 167: Interior Anatomy of the Heart"
Woodcut, acrylics, found object
Julie Brewer
"Undone"
Oil on canvas
Desiree Rindahl
"Looking for Love"
Mirror, Acrylic Paint, Plaster Cast
Cam Tran
"Restoration"
Photographs
"NOLA Sister Series"
Photograph transfers, yarn, thread
Collaboration:
Lauren Casler and Carole Sconfito
"Fleet of Feet"
Stoneware clay, acrylic
Each miniature shoe was hand-crafted with the intention of becoming a gift to people that Carole and Lauren meet on the streets of New York City. In the next few days, these shoes will be given to a variety of New Yorkers, including homeless people, businessmen, street vendors, and doormen, along with asking thoughtful questions about their lives. We hope to find out what it's like to walk in someone else's shoes.
Angelica Richie, Kaitlin Niewoehner, and Rachel Roehrich
Dance
Brian Dang
"Heart 2 Heart"
Oil on canvas
Clare Sturni
"Open Expression"
Watercolor, Pen and ink
Collaboration:
Joshua Nix, Rebekah Ronnenberg, Evan Huwa, and Whitney Mayer
Photographs
Lauren Casler
"Will you dance?"
Stoneware clay, metal, ceramic glaze
Beth Suessenguth and Kaitlin Niewoehner
"Rainy Restoration"
Mixed media, dance, painting, music, compilation
On July 5, 2008, at 12:30pm, Beth and Kaitlin performed in Washington Square Park. Beth had four 2x2 canvases set up as Kaitlin prepared to dance in front of them. There were five sections of the piece with distinct themes. Loneliness was represented as blue, despair as green, stress as red, brokenness as brown, and restoration as white. The music began as Beth painted a simple blue picture and Kaitlin danced in a blue shirt. With each change in music, Kaitlin removed a layer of clothing to reveal the next theme represented by colored shirt. At the same time, Beth moved canvases and changed the color of paint. During the last section-restoration-Beth came to dance with Kaitlin, and Kaitlin painted with Beth. The piece was five minutes long.
Watch footage of their performance here.
"The Great Reversal"
Watercolor, Pen, and Ink
Collaboration:
Ethan Jackson, Sarah Kaplan, Joelle Morgan, Timothy Novak
"Untitled Collection"
Watch the footage below.
