Link up!
An Opportunity to Collaborate
I recently received an inquiry to the Christ in Media Institute from someone asking help in finding others who are interested in his media specialty, so they might work together to find new ways of spreading the Gospel.
This page is an opportunity for people like that. In the comments section below, describe your interest specialty and if you wish, include contact information. Others who share your interest can then get in touch with you.
Return to original language with "show original" button at top left.
Discussion
I am writing this as an invitation to those interested in working with me on creating video games. In this message,
I will detail my credentials and my plan for making this ambition possible. Culture as a whole is suffering from a
lack of stories with traditional values and what is praised is an abomination parading as kindness. I believe that
if the country as a whole is to recover it must regain good media created by loving people, with a will to entertain
and discuss the topics from a God pleasing perspective.
From youth, I grew up during the rise console gaming. The Super Nintendo and Gameboy were part of my childhood. Overtime,
I have consumed many different types of content in the game sphere, from board games to their video counterpart. At Bethany
Lutheran College, I gained a bachelors degree in Liberal Arts just this last may. This degree focused on a large range of
topics, centered around giving my a firm leadership foundation for directing video games: digital and traditional painting,
sculpture, history, psychology, screenwriting, acting, ect. I have been met with great achievements for my beginner talent
level and have also grown to be an expert in learning and research. These strengths and weakness are why I call for aid.
Since a video game project requires so many different talents, it would take years to develop a decent project. At the same
time as performing a full time job and soon to get married, I realize I don't have much time before I must abate my ambition.
My disgust in the stories of the day and a call to be creative, however, continues to encourage me to remain in this ring.
So here is my plan:
As many who are interested, I call for programmers, story writers in dialogue and worldbuilding, artists for environments and
characters, business managers for consulting, an accountant, and any interested in creating music and sound effects.
The beginning will be a rough start, I plan to start off by creating quite games that can be created then sold in a couple of
weeks at a time. This, I believe, will jump start an income and begin to raise awareness of our group. This does mean that the
work won't pay at first, but will have little risk due to lack of time investment (comparatively) that I am asking.
If you are interested/want to know more, contact me at: tlomen@blc.edu
Thanks to the organizers for setting this forum up. My request is to find others who would be interested in being contributors to a website I am designing for bringing art more intrinsically into ministry. My vision is to have a growing resource for pastors, teachers, staff ministers, and lay people to confidently teach and promote art for a richer artistic environment in our churches and schools. This would take the form of regular articles on how to put that into practice, including but not limited to: art education theories, Bible study plans, how to use members' artistic abilities to beautify the church, news about WELS/ELS artists, and an art history curriculum framed from a Christian perspective. To do this, I need to build a base of content and eventually regular contributions.
In my years at Luther Prep (2008-2012) and MLC (2012-2017) I was disappointed with the lack of high-level art courses, because I felt that creativity and appreciation of art are important skills and knowledge for anyone to have, especially called workers. I also dreamed of teaching art, but had no substantive way to prepare for that in the traditional venue. I was involved with MLC's Student Art Advocacy Group and helped to found its successor, Art in Ministry, but unfortunately as far as I know the group has not gained any further traction in adding an art education major to MLC. Now as a second-career student at BLC studying graphic design, I hope to empower those in the public ministry to be able to confidently teach and promote art, and encourage people of all paths of life to use their gifts to benefit the church. By linking artists, art educators, general education teachers, pastors, staff ministers, and lay people together, perhaps we can build a tradition of creativity and collaboration within the ministry, and bring about a resurgence of quality liturgical art in our Synods.
Currently I am in the website drafting phase (You are free to check into the progress at artinministry.com). I am collecting content from my Art History II classmates as a base for the art history curriculum section. Eventually I would like to interview art teachers, pastors, and artists on pertinent subjects and write articles of those interviews. I am excited for the work already being done to build Christian art up by WELS/ELS creatives at Hearts & Hands, Bread for Beggars, and the WELS Creatives curriculum--this is not intended to take their place, but to serve as another resource that digs into the nitty gritty, paint-speckled details of applying art to ministry. "I don't know anything about art--how can I support my precocious fourth grader in our weekly art block?" "I get that art history is important, but my students are so bored. How can I get them to connect to the artworks?" "What is a Christian way to frame the prevalence of nude figures in art history?" "What kind of paintbrushes do I buy? How does one even hold a paintbrush correctly?" "I have a teen who loves art, but she's still learning. Do we publish her art in our bulletins anyway?" "Our church entrance walls are empty. Do we buy art prints? Commission a local artist? Paste Sunday School coloring pages?" "Is there a Bible study series on Christian symbolism in art history artworks?" "How can we use the universal language of art to evangelize in our community?"
If any of these questions spark ideas in your head, if you have opinions about anything related to art and ministry, if you want to promote your art portfolio--reach out to me at hollyrmarquardt@gmail.com. I'm excited to see how we can build up the artistic community in our Synods!
Holly Marquardt