Arts Patronage

How can the church support artists? We can reclaim our role as patrons of the arts.

Questions for Reflection

1) How would your church allocate money to the arts and creativity?

a. To enhance the devotional life of the church (eg in Sunday services)
b. In church comms (either to those inside the church community or to those outside of it)
c. For evangelism
d. For artists looking to engage with the wider culture

2) What do you think would happen if the church redirected all of the money they spend on a, b and c (in question 1) to d? What would we lose? What positive effects might we see?

3) How would you advise an artist who is committing a lot of time to making art but struggling to make a living from it? What questions would you need to ask?

4) Who do you know who is making art for a universal audience? How could you best financially support them?

For further study:

• Culture Care by Makoto Fujimura
• Culture Making by Andy Crouch
• Art and Faith by Makoto Fujimura
• Why Art Matters by Ally Gordon
• Mystery and Manners by Flannery O Connor
• Imagine by Steve Turner
• Art needs no Justification by Hans Rookmaaker
• The Mind of the Maker by Dorothy Sayers