More conferences

In addition to those I posted in March, here are a few more conferences of note. (Update, 5/4: I’ve added two more entries since the original publication of this post. Thanks, Chloë Reddaway and Talita Peters, for the tips!)

UPCOMING CONFERENCES

Title: “The Place of Sacred Art: Exploring the Interpretation of Sacred Art in Secular and Faith Contexts”
Date: May 9, 2017
Location: AV Room, Gas Hall, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, England
Organizer: Canon Dr. Andrew Smith, director of interfaith relations for the bishop of Birmingham
Cost: £20
Speakers: David Cheetham, Catherine Ogle, Orit Azaz, Rebecca Bridgman, Peter Bradley
Description: This symposium will consider the ways in which people reinterpret sacred art when it is displayed in new contexts or alongside art from different faith traditions, and how displaying different types of art in sacred spaces transforms our understanding of the sacred and the artistic. Presentations address how cathedrals have negotiated being open to artists of different religious backgrounds and exhibiting work that challenges and questions, and how contemporary art can offer unexpected encounters with the sacred. Registration also includes a tour through the award-winning Faith in Birmingham Gallery by curator Rebecca Bridgman.

Title: “‘any-angled light’: Poetry and the Mission of Your Church”
Date: May 16–18, 2017
Location: Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
Organizer: Yale Institute of Sacred Music
Cost: $65 (registration ends May 8, noon ET!)
Keynote speakers: Mary Karr and Christian Wiman
Description: How does poetry equip the church to fulfill its mission of inviting others into God’s future? Drawing on spiritual verse spanning all eras from the biblical to the contemporary, this conference for church leaders and laypeople will (1) inspire the integration of poetry into a church’s congregational life and its public outreach and activism; (2) model the introduction of poetry and poetic sensibilities into worship; and (3) expose participants to diverse poetry and poetic forms. Besides plenary sessions with two of America’s finest poets, the conference includes workshops, musical worship, and a poetry slam.

Title: “Catholicism, Literature and the Arts: 1850–Present”
Date: July 5–7, 2017
Location: Durham University, Durham, England
Organizers: Centre for Catholic Studies at Durham University and Ushaw College
Cost: £70 (discount rates for students, low-income, paper presenters)
Speakers: Eamon Duffy, Terry Eagleton, Paul Lakeland, Anna Lawson, Melanie McDonagh, HE Daniel Mulhall, Paul Anthony Murray
Description: The conference “will bring together leading scholars to address key questions in the study of Catholic art and writing, including the question of whether there is a distinctive tradition of ‘Catholic literature’. Among the main topics and themes of the conference are Catholic memoir and autobiography; Catholic fiction and poetry; Catholic readership; journalism; publishers and archives; and the visual arts. The conference will include film, music, and the visual arts, as well as literature,” and will consist of lectures, discussion groups, and workshops.

Title: “Canvas: A Conference on Theology and Creativity—Inscape, God, Art, and the Inner Life”
Date: August 11–12, 2017
Location: Imago Dei Community, Portland, Oregon
Organizers: Humble Beast and Western Seminary
Cost: $100
Speakers: TBA
Description: “The Canvas Conference humbly exists to inform all acts of human creativity and beauty with biblical, gospel-centered theology for the worship of the triune God. . . . We want to help build strong theological foundations for the artist and, likewise, to push Christians to pursue creative orthodoxy in their theological craft. We have found that without theology, creativity wanders from its original significance and purpose; while without creativity, theology often becomes cold, distant, and futile. In response, The Canvas Conference seeks to build bridges between the artist and the theologian by inviting God to take center stage in every human endeavor.”

Title: “Arts + Spirituality” (11th annual Verge Conference)
Date: September 28–29, 2017
Location: Trinity Western University, Langley, British Columbia
Organizer: School of the Arts, Media, and Culture, TWU
Cost: $199 (discount rates for presenters, students, seniors, and single-day attendees)
Keynote speaker: Cam Anderson, executive director, Christians in the Visual Arts
Description: Throughout human history and across cultures, the arts have been closely associated with spirituality and religious practice. This conference seeks to explore that connection. Paper submissions are welcome on any topic relating to the arts and spirituality, as are proposals for presentations in the form of performances. The deadline for submissions is May 31.

PAST CONFERENCE

There have been so many events organized around the topic of art and religion in the past year that it’s hard to keep up. Below is a “Study Day” that slipped by before I had the chance to promote it; I’m posting the info here so that you can see the kinds of conversations that are going on among religious studies scholars and museum professionals and can look for future opportunities to join in. (If you’re not in either field but are a museumgoer—and if you’re reading this blog, I imagine you are—a great way to get involved would be to give feedback to the museums you visit. Did their presentation of religion through art and artifact, and wall text, help you connect in a deeper way to your own faith tradition, or see others in a new light? Or did you feel it was offensive, unfair, or in some way else deficient, and if so, why?)

Title: “Encountering the Sacred in Museums”
Date: March 15, 2017
Cost: £35
Location: Stevenson Lecture Theatre, British Museum, London
Organizer: British Museum
Description: This day of discussions on the role museums play in caring for and presenting religious art and artifacts included the lectures “What Is Sacred?” by religious historian Karen Armstrong and “Beyond Belief: The Role of Museums in Interpreting Religion” by Rickie Burman, development manager of London’s National Gallery. In other sessions, visitor experiences at diverse venues were discussed: the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic in Cornwall, the Creation Museum in Kentucky, and the British Museum during its “Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relics, and Devotion in Medieval Europe,” an exhibition shaped by consultation with community groups.

I found out about this event, and the first one above, through the Religion in Museums blog, maintained by Crispin Paine and Steph Berns. Paine is a founder-editor of Material Religion: The Journal of Objects, Art and Belief and coeditor (with Gretchen Buggeln and  S. Brent Plate) of the recently published book Religion in Museums: Global and Multidisciplinary Perspectives (read the introduction here). Berns is a researcher in the fields of museum studies and the sociology of religion.