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Your website killing your Witness?

An insightful set of reasons seekers and others searching for Christian witness on the web may be well turned away by your church/parish website. The articles lessons apply across the board. If they can’t stand a quick visit to your sight to learn more, they are not going to show up in the pews.

From Econsultancy: 25 reasons why I’ll leave your website in 10 seconds

What makes people press the back button, shortly after visiting your website? Why do they bail out so quickly? And what can you do about it?

I’ve been thinking about this and realised that there are many more negative factors than I’d originally anticipated.

Taken at individual level some of these factors might not be enough to make visitors back out, but when combined together they may give off entirely the wrong impression.

It’s not easy to create a beautiful, brilliant user experience, and the reality is that most sites have issues of one kind or another. But keep an eye open for the following – often avoidable – negative factors and try to eliminate them, to create a stickier website for users…

Christian Witness, , ,

Church closing by vote and without abandonment

From the Cleveland Plain Dealer: Broadway United Methodist Church in Slavic Village to close

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Broadway United Methodist Church, formed as a Sunday school in Cleveland’s Slavic Village neighborhood in 1872, is preparing to celebrate its last Christmas. The 92-year-old church building, which once held hundreds of worshippers at Sunday morning services, now draws an average of 20 people to the old wooden pews.

On Nov. 17, only 17 members gathered in the sanctuary for Sunday worship. After the service, they cast ballots on whether to close the cash-strapped church, which in recent years disbanded its choir, closed its preschool and spent its endowment funds.

The vote was 16-1 to close.

“We sat there and held hands,” said Donna Lorenz, a member since 1980. “Some were crying.”

Member Lea Ann Russell said that other than the sniffling, there was dead silence after the vote was announced.

“I was so worked up,” she said. “But we knew it was coming to this. When you can’t pay the bills, it’s just not right to try to keep it open.”

Church’s closing another blow to Slavic Village

Broadway United, which sits near a huge empty lot that was once St. Alexis Hospital, torn down a few years ago, will hold its last Sunday service on Dec. 26.

The closing is yet another blow to the Slavic Village neighborhood, devastated by the foreclosure crisis and plagued with boarded-up houses.
“We’re at a place in time where change needs to happen,” said the Rev. Yvonne Conner, the church’s pastor. “This is part of a society reshaping itself. It’s part of the cycle. It happens whether we like it or not.”

Broadway United is 3rd Methodist church in area to close this year

Broadway United is the third United Methodist church in central Greater Cleveland to close this year as city neighborhoods and inner-ring suburbs continue to lose populations to outer-ring suburbs and exurbia.

“It’s an indication of what’s facing older, industrial communities,” said Cleveland City Councilman Tony Brancatelli, noting that Slavic Village also lost three Catholic churches in the recent downsizing by the Cleveland Catholic Diocese.

The two other United Methodist churches that closed this year are Masters in Euclid and Brooklyn Memorial on Cleveland’s near West Side.
That leaves the Greater Cleveland area with 62 United Methodist churches, said the Rev. Orlando Chaffee, superintendent of the denomination’s North Coast District, which stretches from Chagrin Falls to Elyria and from Lake Erie to Brunswick.

Church has rare copy of da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper’

Broadway United, built by Bohemians in 1918 and known as “Old Broadway,” is an imposing Gothic stone structure, featuring priceless stained-glass windows and an actual-size copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” above the altar.

The 15-by-30-foot painting, unveiled in 1924, was commissioned by the Stafford family, wealthy members of the church.

In 1957, according to church history, restoration artists working on the original 15th century painting in Milan, Italy, came to Old Broadway to study colors and details of the rare copy.

Pastor Conner said that after the church closes, the sanctuary and art will be maintained and preserved for special events such as weddings, funerals and musical concerts.

The church building also includes offices of the United Methodists’ North Coast District, which will remain, as will some of the church’s outreach programs.

“The good news is that they’re not abandoning the neighborhood,” said Brancatelli.

Broadway United Methodist was center of neighborhood

Howard Benes, 83, of Independence, grew up in the neighborhood and drives from his suburban home to Old Broadway every Sunday for the 10:30 a.m. service.

He remembers when the church was full. He remembers the basketball team, the harmonica club, the drama club and the pork, sauerkraut and dumpling church dinners.

“When I was a kid, I was there seven days a week,” he said.

Benes, a retired Cleveland firefighter, said his happy memories of Old Broadway are helping him deal with the sadness of the closing.

“I hate to think of the Christmas service,” he said. “It’ll be the last one, but there’s not much I can do about it. With everything, there is a beginning and, unfortunately, there has to be an end.”

Much like in the PNCC, this closing was done after worship and prayer, and by the vote of the membership. The membership and pastor also took responsibility for how this change was to come about, not as an abandonment of buildings and neighborhoods, but by maintaining a presence — the sanctuary will be maintained and used for special events and outreach programs will continue. Any closing and transition is sad and difficult, but done with the voice and vote of members, and with good planning and commitment to Christian witness, the Church itself lives on.

Christian Witness, PNCC

A prayer for the Third Sunday of Lent from Luciano Bruno

Fratelli e sorelle, preghiamo il Padre affinché colmi la sete di verità e di amore che anima il nostro cuore, donandoci lo Spirito di Cristo che sostiene la nostra speranza nel suo amore infinito.

Preghiamo dicendo: Ascoltaci Signore.

  • Perché la Chiesa sappia parlare al cuore di ogni uomo, risvegliando in ciascuno il desiderio di Dio e placando la sua sete con la parola del Vangelo, preghiamo.
  • Per coloro che attingono alle fonti inquinate del peccato, perché sorga in loro la fede di Cristo e il desiderio di una conversione che li trasformi in uomini nuovi, preghiamo.
  • Perché coloro che sono emarginati e oppressi trovino nella solidarietà dei cristiani la speranza di un mondo di giustizia e di pace, preghiamo.
  • Per i sapienti e i dotti, perché assumano un atteggiamento di umiltà, riconoscendo in Cristo la vera guida verso la salvezza e l’acqua viva che disseta ogni sete di senso, preghiamo.
  • Per noi, perché ricevendo il dono di questa Eucaristia domenicale, sappiamo essere cristiani autentici e testimoni credibili dell’amore e del perdono di Dio per ogni uomo, preghiamo

From Rev. Luciano Bruno to the PNCC in Italia Facebook page.

Christian Witness, Events, PNCC, , ,

Soups and sermons in downtown Scranton

Elm Park United Methodist Church’s Lenten worship experience, “Soup and Sermon,” which begins on Ash Wednesday, will bring a number of area clergy to the pulpit for the noon downtown services.

The Rev. Rees Warring, a retired United Methodist clergyman, will present the first message on Ash Wednesday. Bishop John F. Swantek, who is a retired Polish National Catholic Church official, is scheduled for Wednesday, March 16; the Rev. Richard Malloy of the University of Scranton, Wednesday, March 23; the Rev. Douglas Postgate, pastor, Carbondale/Jermyn United Methodist Church, Wednesday, March 30; the Rev. Gladys Fortuna-Blake, pastor, Daleville and Maple Lake United Methodist Church, Wednesday, April 6; the Rev. Beth Jones, Scranton District superintendent, Susquehanna Conference of the United Methodist Church, Wednesday, April 13; and the Rev. C. Gerald Blake Jr., pastoral associate, Elm Park United Methodist Church, Wednesday, April 20.

This worship experience in Elm Park’s chapel, at Linden Street and Jefferson Avenue, will run from 12:05 to 12:30 p.m. A light lunch will be served in the church’s dining hall from 12:30 to 1.

“Soup and Sermon” planners have designed the services to allow worshippers to have lunch and still return to other obligations within an hour.

Art, Christian Witness, Poland - Polish - Polonia,

Art for February 27th

Landscape of Podolia, Józef Chełmoński, 1910

And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, `What shall we eat?’ or `What shall we drink?’ or `What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek all these things; and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well. — Matthew 6:28-33

Christian Witness, PNCC, , , , ,

Welcome to the PNCC!

From Bishop Thaddeus Peplowski of the Buffalo-Pittsburgh Diocese in Acts: New Hope – New Vision – New Growth

This second decade of the Twenty First Century promises a sturdy and sure foundation for the Polish National Catholic Church. We enter in the 114 Anniversary of the organization of the Church and the 104 Anniversary of the Consecration of the First Bishop, Francis Hodur in valid and licit Apostolic Succession. The fact that we have preserved our Holy Orders in an unbroken line with the first Holy Apostles, has ignited the flame of a New Hope and an enlightened vision for the future growth and expansion of the Polish National Catholic Church. Our battle cry for success continues to inspire people in other nations to follow our lead in preserving the concept of National Catholic Churches in which: “By Truth, Work and Struggle, We Shall Succeed!”

I have just returned from a successful missionary visit to both Germany and Italy where there are both former Anglican and Old Catholic Parishes and Communities that are disillusioned over the questionable validity of some doctrines and sacraments that are being practiced in those Churches. They respect the decision that our bishops took in 2003 at the Bishop’s Conference in Prague in breaking official ties with European Old Catholic Churches. There are many clergy and lay members who feel the same way and want to be in union with our church. They are asking that we listen to their pleas and offer some type of accommodations that will allow them to be in Communion with the Polish National Catholic Church. The purpose of the “Union of Scranton” was proposed so that they might find a haven that will continue to maintain the traditional Old Catholic teachings and practices.

In Germany, I was invited to visit a former Old Catholic Monastic Abbey that follows the Cistercian Rule and they are looking for union with an on-going traditional Old Catholic Church. The Polish National Catholic Church is the only Old Catholic Body that fits that criteria, so through the influence of Father Roald Flemested of the Nordic Catholic Church, they were directed to contact me. We met with Abbot Klaus Schlapps at St. Severn’s Abbey in Kaufberuren, Bavaria. This Abbey also serves about 100 members of a Parish Church St. Lucas in the town of Kaufberuren. There are priests, brothers and nuns who make up this Order and serve five other Old Catholic Congregations in Germany. There are also possibilities of accepting other groups in France, Switzerland and five Parishes in Cameroon, Africa. The talks appear to be very positive for establishing relations that could include them in the Union of Scranton.

We traveled nine hours by train from Bavaria through Austria and the Swiss Alps to the famous city of Turin, the permanent home of the Shroud of Turin. Our missionary endeavor was successful there for now have three Parishes in Italy: St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish in Luca with Fr. Claudio Boca as Pastor; Merciful Jesus Parish in Turin with Fr. Giuseppe Biancotti as its Pastor, and Holy Spirit Parish in Sabaudia with Fr. Luciano Bruno as its Pastor. Another Parish is in the process of being organized near Pizza by Father Gastone Bernacchi, whom I ordained on Saturday, January 15th. Two of these Parishes were formerly Old Catholic Congregations under the Bishop of Switzerland. Inquiries are also coming from other former Anglican and Old Catholic Communities who see in the PNCC the traditional catholic teachings and Apostolic Orders that are vital signs of being a part of the true Church of Jesus Christ.

Too often we America National Catholics take our Church for granted and feel that we belong to a small, little known denomination that no one knows or cares about. The Polish National Catholic Church however, is greatly admired by people throughout the world as being a Church of great faith and conviction, and they seek to be one with us because we maintain the traditional signs of a true Church, for we are: One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic in preserving a very orthodox and traditional faith. For these very reasons, we should continue to have Hope and New Vision for the future growth and expansion of the National Catholic Church’s expression of the true faith.

In 2011, let us take the example of our newest mission fields where people are very open and positive about expressing their joy of being a part of the PNCC and because of their new or refound faith, they are not afraid to talk to others about what the Church means in their lives. We need to stop standing along the side lines and criticizing what is happening and get out into the mainstream of life and tell others about the Church. Our words and actions are positive seeds that will cause the PNCC to grow not only in new mission fields, but also blossom and bear fruit right in our own hometown congregations. All it takes is faith, and God will do the rest.

Christian Witness, Perspective, PNCC, , , ,

The concept of assent in a democratic Church

The Polish National Catholic Church rightly takes pride in the fact that its people, all its people, function as its legislative body. Per the Constitution of the PNCC:

ARTICLE VI — CHURCH AUTHORITY

SECTION 1. The authority of this Church is vested in three branches, namely: legislative, executive and judicial.

…

SECTION 3. In administrative, managerial and social matters, this Church derives its authority from the people who build, constitute, believe in, support and care for it. It is a fundamental principle of this Church that all Parish property, whether the same be real, personal, or mixed, is the property of those united with the Parish who build and support this Church and conform to the Rite, Constitution, Principles, Laws, Rules, Regulations, Customs and Usages of this Church.

SECTION 4. The administration, management and control over all the property of the Parish is vested in the Parish Committee elected by the Parish and confirmed by the Diocesan Bishop, and strictly dependent upon and answerable to the lawful authorities of this Church.

The Church is democratically governed, that is, its people make the decisions and express their will at Holy Synod, both the quadrennial General Synod and at Diocesan Synods.

One of the problems frequently seen in other Churches, with similar democratic forms of governance, is the constancy of faith, morals, Tradition, doctrine, and liturgy (within liturgical Churches) under a democratic decision making processes. Are there limits to democracy, and can democracy trump all things?

In a democratic Church, are you one vote away from deciding Jesus is not true-God and true-man, from denying the Virgin birth, from turning the resurrection into a fuzzy myth narrative of confused and poor disciples who carried along the beautiful message of Jesus because it was oh so special to them?

There are those, even within the PNCC, who take Bishop Hodur’s teaching on the democratic nature of the community of Church as a license to make everything subject to democratic process. This form of thinking places the individual in charge of the Church’s teaching, and frees them from the constraints of ‘all that old stuff we’ve gotten way past.’ They use enlightenment arguments, Bishop Hodur arguments, other Churches are doing it arguments, it suits me better arguments, and its unfair/unjust/un-democratic arguments. They only argument they fail to see is the Catholic argument, the linkage to the universal constant within which we strive to overcome what is personal to reach what is Divine.

InsideCatholic, a strongly apologist website which easily resorts to the “heretic” and “exommunicated” argument does make a solid point in Episcopal/Catholic Conversion Is a Two-Way Street:

The developing story of the new Apostolic Constitution for Anglicans continues to unfold in the media, boosted by the Anglican Communion’s instability due to the Episcopal Church and their co-revisionists in the Anglican Church of Canada. Less reported has been the equally well-trafficked path away from Rome and toward the Episcopal Church.

In 2009, Episcopal bishop and gay celebrity Gene Robinson crowed that his New Hampshire diocese was brimming with disaffected Catholics, drawn to the promise of a more inclusive church. While Bishop Robinson’s celebration was premature … he was not misrepresenting the source of some new pew occupants.

“Pope Ratzinger,” Bishop Robinson declared, referring to Benedict XVI by his given name in a late-2005 speech, “may be the best thing to happen to the Episcopal Church . . . . We are seeing so many Roman Catholics join the [Episcopal] church.”

Roman Catholics and Episcopalians have swapped places for years, easily facilitated by related liturgical forms and practices. Unlike other Reformation-era churches, the Church of England, then a geographic arm of the Roman Church, maintained the forms and hierarchies of its parent. The Anglo-Catholic wing of Anglicanism is the closest to its source, in many cases conducting services that are more recognizably Catholic than the post-Vatican II Mass. Some American conservatives see Rome’s embrace of theological orthodoxy — reasserted by Benedict and his predecessor, Pope John Paul II — as a compelling alternative to an increasingly listless Episcopal Church.

Similarly, liberal Catholics tied to their forms of worship enjoy the option to embrace the Episcopal Church’s “Catholicism Lite” without the inconvenient frowning upon birth control, abortion, or whatever the latest sexual lifestyle innovation might be.

The point being that if Church is merely choices, one may find the most comfortable outward portrayal of Church for oneself. One may find that place where a loose set of choices is constantly put up for personal and collective vote as the mood strikes today. It is a stunning lack of constancy and perseverance on the narrow road (Matthew 7:13-14).

As with any linear analysis of possible alternatives, one can find the place of balance. In the PNCC the balance point lies at the junction between democracy and assent. Democracy is a governing principal, and self determination over what one gives to build the Church. No one can take the parish, or the Church itself, away from those who “build, constitute, believe in, support and care for it.” In the same manner, no one can use the power of the vote to take the Catholic out of the Church, similarly taking catholicity away from those very same people.

At the XXIII General Synod, a perfect example of balance was on display. The Church Doctrine Commission presented two papers, “To Live in the Spirit of God,” which addressed Church teaching on current moral and bioethical issues, and “Eschatology in the PNCC: A Clarification.” Both were presented, not for a vote, but for the assent of the faithful.

In accord with the Constitution of the PNCC:

ARTICLE VI — CHURCH AUTHORITY

SECTION 2. In matters of Faith, morals and discipline the authority of this Church lies in the hands of the Prime Bishop, Diocesan Bishops and Clergy united with them. This authority is derived directly from God through Jesus Christ, agreeably with the words of our Savior: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20).

“Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 18:18)

The Church’s Catholic nature of Church precludes votes on doctrine and its Holy Tradition. As PNCC faithful, we are bound to conform our lives to the Church’s teaching, not as a matter of choice but as a matter of becoming.

Of course, we are not all there, conforming our lives and our choices perfectly to the Church’s guidance. It is difficult to lay down ones life (John 15:13). We all struggle in the gulf between our sinfulness and perfection, the gap between what is earthly and Divine within us. As we travel that road in growing closer to God’s desires for us, as we climb the ladder, we are called to become, to strive for that which is promised to the faithful. That promise is best fulfilled under the guiding and protecting hand of sound orthodox doctrine and Tradition — not a fuzzy assumption that we are any more right today in our personal choices than people have been for 2,000 years.

Yes, a Church can have a democratic form of governance and hold its Catholic faith through assent.

Christian Witness, Perspective, PNCC, Political, , , , , ,

Idle hands are the devil’s tools

From The Southern: Teens rocked by unemployment

Katie Pemberton is one of the lucky ones.

Pemberton, a Benton Consolidated High School senior, had no trouble landing a job the Franklin County election office, a requirement for her participation in the BCHS work program.

“I’ve been working here since the end of August, and I’ve had other jobs before,” she said. “It was really pretty easy to find one.”
Others weren’t so lucky, according to program coordinator Sandy Blackman, a BCHS teacher.

In years past, the school-to-work program had an enrollment of 15 to 20 students who attended school half a day and worked, for pay, at jobs in the community the other half of the day.

“We now have six kids,” Blackman said. “The jobs just aren’t out there.”

While Blackman doesn’t always match students to jobs, she does send out a letter to local businesses describing the program and asking employers to consider hiring her students.

Before the start of this school year, she sent out 250 such letters.

She got only one reply.

“We’ve had businesses that hire a student every year, but not this year,” she said.

The national economy is likely the culprit in the disappearance of teen jobs, she said.

“The kids come to me to ask about job openings and there just aren’t any,” Blackman said. “Some businesses can’t afford taking on another employee right now.”

Not alone

Blackman’s students aren’t alone in their failure to find a job.

According to figures from the U.S. Bureau of Statistics, the national unemployment rate for teens ages 16 to 19 was 25.4 percent in December. While that number dipped slightly from the 26.2 percent unemployed at the start of 2010, it represents a huge increase from December 2006, when only 14.6 percent were unemployed…

And from Bloomberg Businessweek: The Youth Unemployment Bomb

From Cairo to London to Brooklyn, too many young people are jobless and disaffected. Inside the global effort to put the next generation to work

In Tunisia, the young people who helped bring down a dictator are called hittistes—French-Arabic slang for those who lean against the wall. Their counterparts in Egypt, who on Feb. 1 forced President Hosni Mubarak to say he won’t seek reelection, are the shabab atileen, unemployed youths. The hittistes and shabab have brothers and sisters across the globe. In Britain, they are NEETs—”not in education, employment, or training.” In Japan, they are freeters: an amalgam of the English word freelance and the German word Arbeiter, or worker. Spaniards call them mileuristas, meaning they earn no more than 1,000 euros a month. In the U.S., they’re “boomerang” kids who move back home after college because they can’t find work. Even fast-growing China, where labor shortages are more common than surpluses, has its “ant tribe”—recent college graduates who crowd together in cheap flats on the fringes of big cities because they can’t find well-paying work.

In each of these nations, an economy that can’t generate enough jobs to absorb its young people has created a lost generation of the disaffected, unemployed, or underemployed—including growing numbers of recent college graduates for whom the post-crash economy has little to offer. Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution was not the first time these alienated men and women have made themselves heard. Last year, British students outraged by proposed tuition increases—at a moment when a college education is no guarantee of prosperity—attacked the Conservative Party’s headquarters in London and pummeled a limousine carrying Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla Bowles. Scuffles with police have repeatedly broken out at student demonstrations across Continental Europe. And last March in Oakland, Calif., students protesting tuition hikes walked onto Interstate 880, shutting it down for an hour in both directions…

Couple disaffected youth, the hopelessness that the new economy has wrought (no, you never will catch up with your parent’s standard, much less gain any power) and throw in a few friends who learned the fine art of IED making in Afghanistan and Iraq, and — well you know who they’ll be targeting first.

Our challenge, particularly as Christians, is not to pull the wool over their eyes, or gloss over the struggle, but to show them that there actually is something else. We have the place where worldliness and all that comes with it is of little importance, where small community and self-reliance make for a good and positive life, the place where we work together, for each other and for the Everlasting. Should we teach them about iPods or I-we-and-Thee?

As it was in 1897, so it is today in the year 1910, that Bishop Hodur is a supporter of reform in the civil or the social spirit, he is for the nationalization of the land, of churches, schools, factories, mines and the means of production. He has stated this openly and states it publicly today, he does not hide his sympathies for the workers’ movement and he will never hide them, and he considers himself nothing else than a worker in God’s Church.

But the bishop is an opponent of erasing religion from the cultural work of humanity — indeed, Bishop Hodur believes strongly and is convinced that all progress, growth, just and harmonious shaping of human relations must come from a religious foundation, lean on Divine ethics, and then such growth will be permanent and will give humanity happiness. — Straz, 21 Jan. 1910.

Art, Christian Witness, Perspective, Xpost to PGF, , ,

It’s Not Just Black And White – Jailing Everyone

The Arizona State University Art Museum presents It’s Not Just Black And White by Gregory Sale – Social Studies Project 6, February 1 – May 14, 2011. The Season Opening Reception will be held Friday, February 18th from 7-9pm. Social Studies Project 6 will be installed in the Turk Gallery of the ASU Art Museum’s Nelson Fine Arts Center location.

With a population of roughly 6.5 million, (Arizona has) over 40,000 inmates. The state of Washington, with a population slightly larger than Arizona, has roughly 18,000. — The Arizona Republic, January 28, 2011

A recent Pew Center report indicates that in 2008, one in 33 adults in Arizona was under correctional control, which includes jail, prison, parole and probation. Twenty-five years ago, this number was one in 79. What has changed so much is not human nature, but the offenses for which we incarcerate and the imposition of mandatory sentences. — Rep. Cecil Ash, R-Mesa (Ariz.) quoted in the Arizona Capitol Times, December 11, 2009

It’s not just black and white is a three-month-long residency exhibition with Gregory Sale, a Phoenix-based artist who will work through artistic gestures to initiate and host dialogue, aspiring to give voice to the multiple constituencies of the corrections, incarceration and criminal justice systems. The ASU Art Museum gallery space will operate as a site for developing and displaying visual and mediated exhibitions, dance and other staged events, discussions and readings.

As the title It’s not just black and white implies, the intent of the project is to expose and examine the many often conflicting viewpoints, perspectives and values that are generated from serious considerations of justice and public safety. The project will provide the opportunity for the public to explore the impact of modern criminal justice through fact-based tours, dialogues and programs – offering more first-hand experience of the many strands that make up this complicated narrative.

ASU Art Museum Social Studies Initiative

The Museum’s Social Studies initiative is a series of residency exhibitions, begun in 2007, that explore this dialogue-based, process-oriented context by literally bringing the studio into the museum, and by engaging the public directly in the creative process of exhibition-making in the space where “the art object” is usually found.

The ASU Art Museum continues to transform museum traditions by returning to the original sociological function of the institution – to encourage the circulation of ideas embedded in the archive, to provide a safe place for curiosity and to create an exchange point for the flow of conversation between and among artists, curators, collectors, students, social and governmental institutions, and the public.

It’s not just black and white is supported by grants from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and Friends of the ASU Art Museum.

Other events:

Collecting Contemporary Art: The FUNd at ASU Art Museum
Curator: Heather Lineberry
Dec 18, 2010 – May 14, 2011
Location: ASU Art Museum
Cost: Free

Collecting Contemporary Art features a selection of works acquired in part or in whole by the FUNd at ASU Art Museum, an endowment established by the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation. From monumental found-object installations to print portfolios of etchings and lithographs, the international pieces share a current of experimentation and an exploration of social and political concerns. The exhibition charts the Museum’s collecting goals and exhibition history over the past 15 years, with significant representation of Latin American and Latino artists, artists from Arizona and artists in residence at the Museum. Artists represented include Kim Abeles (Los Angeles), John Ahearn (New York), Abel Barroso (Cuba), Sandow Birk (Los Angeles), Xu Bing (China), Deborah Butterfield (Montana/Hawaii), Enrique Chagoya (born in Mexico, active in the U.S.), Colin Chillag (Phoenix), Sue Coe (born in England, active in the U.S.), Jon Haddock (Tempe), Kcho (Cuba), Los Carpinteros (Cuba), Aimee Garcia Marrero (Cuba), Paulo Nenflidio (Brazil), Adriana Varejao (Brazil) and Kurt Weiser (Tempe).

Citadel: An Installation by Patricia Sannit
Curator: Peter Held
Feb 5, 2011 – Apr 9, 2011
Location: Ceramics Research Center
Cost: Free
Opening Reception: Feb. 18, 2011, 7-9 p.m.

Patricia Sannit, a Phoenix-based artist whose vessels are influenced by cultures worldwide, is literally breaking new ground for her installation Citadel — with the assistance of scores of community volunteers. Citadel is a 10-foot diameter structure inspired by an Iraqi archeological site called the Citadel at Erbil, in the Kurdish region. Sannit’s new direction explores the layering of time and history through the medium of clay.

Re-Thinking the Faculty Exhibition 2011
Feb 19, 2011 – Apr 30, 2011
Location: ASU Art Museum
Cost: free
Opening Reception: Feb. 18, 2011, 7-9 p.m.

This year, the faculty show takes a new direction. It represents the beginning of an exciting set of possible partnerships, exchanges and experiments between the School of Art and the ASU Art Museum. It’s also the first instance of the museum’s rethinking and revitalizing the way we do things, as part of our Re-Thinking the Museum initiative.

Art historian and writer Robert Atkins was selected to open Re-Thinking the Museum as juror/curator of the ASU School of Art Faculty Biennial Exhibition. During the month of November, Atkins reviewed submissions, visited artists’ studios and discussed opportunities for site-specific installations as he selected work for the 2011 exhibition.

Arizona State University Art Museum
Mill Avenue at 10th Street
Tempe, AZ 85287-2911
Telephone 480-965-2787

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