This fourth installment of summer workshops on the campus of Gordon College allows artists the opportunity to partake in concentrated work in a specific format, medium, or technique under the direction of master artists. Gordon’s contemporary Barrington Center for the Arts boasts studio facilities that allow for creative work in equipment intensive media such as computer-based or aided imaging, sculpture, textiles, photography and printmaking.

The CIVASummer Workshops actively combine faith and art in a welcome alternative to the host of visual art workshops now available. The picturesque and secluded setting of Gordon’s North Shore campus allows for intense focus in a given medium, as well as time to meditate on the intersection of art and faith. Each morning commences with the workshop community gathering together in the Barrington Center Gallery to consider meditations on art, faith, and creativity. This time of reflection and prayer has become a highlight and inspiration for participants. Students work throughout the day within their chosen medium or artform. Breaks and meals promote rich discussion among workshop participants and instructors. Slide and PowerPoint® presentations by the instructors allow the entire workshop community to experience their work and processes. Participants are also encouraged to share work through evening slide talks. Studios are accessible late each evening for further creative work.

Thursday afternoon and evening during the week participants embark on trips to select areas of Boston’s North Shore, or into Boston to visit places such as the Museum of Fine Arts, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the newly opened Institute of Contemporary Art, and the contemporary Newbury Street gallery district. One additional afternoon may be available for a tour of the exceptional Joseph Cornell exhibition at the Peabody-Essex Museum in Salem.

Workshops and Instructors

Art and Design in the Worship Space
Mark Joseph Costello, a Capuchin Friar from Chicago, will provide an opportunity for participants to create some or all elements of a small worship space. Costello works nationally as a designer and liturgical design consultant for a variety of denominations including Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist and Presbyterian. He is especially interested in multicultural communities and holds both an MFA in interior architecture and an MDiv. Students are encouraged to bring documentation (photos, plans, dimensions) of a given environment to be designed as a place for worship. Participants will create objects or elements for the space from their own area of expertise (painting, sculpture, glass, fabric, furniture and interior design etc.). In the spirit of Matisse’s jewel, the Vence Chapel, the week will be spent exploring the many design opportunities that can be well integrated in a worship space. Time will be given to reflect upon relationships between the artist, a faith tradition and a worshipping community.

Drawing the Figure
Joel Sheesley, Professor of Art at Wheaton College, will lead an extended study of the human figure focused on achieving accurate proportions and modeling the body in light and dark. Sheesley’s paintings have been exhibited in the city of Chicago and in numerous exhibitions elsewhere. His work is represented by Robert Kidd Gallery in Birmingham, Michigan and his present artistic interest concerns human engagement and representation of nature through art. Sessions in this course will consist of long poses of the model, and participants will work with multi-valued drawing materials on toned paper. Previous experience in figure drawing assumed.

An Encaustic Primer
Erica Grimm-Vance, Assistant Professor of Art at Trinity Western University, will direct a course in the ancient medium of encaustic. Her work in wax and steel explores themes of embodiment and liminality. With over 25 solo exhibitions and work in numerous private and public collections, including the Vatican Art Collection and the Canada Council Art Bank, Grimm-Vance is respected as one of the preeminent contemporary practitioners of this method. This workshop will be an introduction to primarily hot methods of encaustic, allowing students to sample the techniques. Processes may include layering and embedding objects and papers, incising, abrading and Alla Prima techniques. Participants will work on a series of 3 images utilizing the luminous transparency of the medium.

A brochure has been sent to current CIVA members and friends. A pdf version of the brochure is available from this website when you click on the pdf icon on the right side of this page.