Epistle from Art Camp 2018
Dear Friends everywhere,
Art Camp met for its fourth annual gathering at Friends Camp for a long weekend of connection, sharing, experimentation, and creative rejuvenation from Friday August 31st to Monday September 3rd 2019. Musicians, writers, illustrators, designers, painters, printmakers, and all kinds of creative folk converged upon South China, Maine to build relationships while asking one another the question, how are art and spirit intertwined?
Artists came hungry for community and connection with their creative and spiritual peers, for a renewed or deepened connection with Quaker practices, the outdoors, and the magic of summer camp, and for such valuable time to spend with their creative practices in a place of acceptance, playfulness, and joy. On the first night together, artists were called to create a “brave space” together in which we are each responsible for both holding space that allows others to feel safe enough to be vulnerable, and also to be vulnerable ourselves, in what we share with each other, new things we try, and what we create. Answering this call, artists dove into new ways of making they’d never tried before during a series of morning programs and afternoon workshops: printing cyanotypes with the power of the sun, collecting and arranging natural materials into a sculptural installation, tying gift bows, and playing a generative writing game, to name a few. The three days were grounded by worship in the Pine Grove each morning, one of which combined collaborative writing and drawing in place of vocal ministry. Afternoons were sunny and relaxing, with many heading down to waterfront on China Lake to enjoy the last bits of summer, and others taking claiming time and space to sink into their creative practices. Walking through camp, you would pass by a couple of fiddlers by the pond, someone shooting hoops, another drawing the flowers outside the dining hall, a designer on their tablet gazing at the meetinghouse, where inside someone works at a knitting machine and others wedge clay, while a couple of writers carved out a comfy nook in a rec hall. One evening the group enjoyed a Friends Camp tradition called vespers, and walked across the street to a field to watch the sun set over the lake in worshipful silence. Small groups met each night to give space for more intimate community-building, and then Friday night ended with a campfire with plenty of singing.
The soiree on the final evening of Art Camp felt like a culmination of all of the brave sharing and making that had happened during the weekend. Many artists laid out their work on tables throughout the dining hall: a pile of knitted swatches, a handbound book of poems, a series of block prints, some short stories, paintings, drawings, and even some digital renderings of buildings at camp. We munched on cheese and crackers as members of the group performed new songs they’d written that weekend, taught us new rounds to sing, read their own poetry, told jokes, and performed a very impressive jump rope trick. There was a clear sense of trust in how all the work was shared, and that we were seeing and hearing work that was still new and tender. It was also clear that for each person participating, this was a valued opportunity for affirmation and experimentation.The warmth emanating from the community during and afterwards was confirmation that the brave space we’d collectively created was working its magic on us. It is our hope that this magic will last, and continue to work upon us as we return to our communities and keep creating, until Art Camp 2019.
Love,
Maggie Nelson
Art Camp met for its fourth annual gathering at Friends Camp for a long weekend of connection, sharing, experimentation, and creative rejuvenation from Friday August 31st to Monday September 3rd 2019. Musicians, writers, illustrators, designers, painters, printmakers, and all kinds of creative folk converged upon South China, Maine to build relationships while asking one another the question, how are art and spirit intertwined?
Artists came hungry for community and connection with their creative and spiritual peers, for a renewed or deepened connection with Quaker practices, the outdoors, and the magic of summer camp, and for such valuable time to spend with their creative practices in a place of acceptance, playfulness, and joy. On the first night together, artists were called to create a “brave space” together in which we are each responsible for both holding space that allows others to feel safe enough to be vulnerable, and also to be vulnerable ourselves, in what we share with each other, new things we try, and what we create. Answering this call, artists dove into new ways of making they’d never tried before during a series of morning programs and afternoon workshops: printing cyanotypes with the power of the sun, collecting and arranging natural materials into a sculptural installation, tying gift bows, and playing a generative writing game, to name a few. The three days were grounded by worship in the Pine Grove each morning, one of which combined collaborative writing and drawing in place of vocal ministry. Afternoons were sunny and relaxing, with many heading down to waterfront on China Lake to enjoy the last bits of summer, and others taking claiming time and space to sink into their creative practices. Walking through camp, you would pass by a couple of fiddlers by the pond, someone shooting hoops, another drawing the flowers outside the dining hall, a designer on their tablet gazing at the meetinghouse, where inside someone works at a knitting machine and others wedge clay, while a couple of writers carved out a comfy nook in a rec hall. One evening the group enjoyed a Friends Camp tradition called vespers, and walked across the street to a field to watch the sun set over the lake in worshipful silence. Small groups met each night to give space for more intimate community-building, and then Friday night ended with a campfire with plenty of singing.
The soiree on the final evening of Art Camp felt like a culmination of all of the brave sharing and making that had happened during the weekend. Many artists laid out their work on tables throughout the dining hall: a pile of knitted swatches, a handbound book of poems, a series of block prints, some short stories, paintings, drawings, and even some digital renderings of buildings at camp. We munched on cheese and crackers as members of the group performed new songs they’d written that weekend, taught us new rounds to sing, read their own poetry, told jokes, and performed a very impressive jump rope trick. There was a clear sense of trust in how all the work was shared, and that we were seeing and hearing work that was still new and tender. It was also clear that for each person participating, this was a valued opportunity for affirmation and experimentation.The warmth emanating from the community during and afterwards was confirmation that the brave space we’d collectively created was working its magic on us. It is our hope that this magic will last, and continue to work upon us as we return to our communities and keep creating, until Art Camp 2019.
Love,
Maggie Nelson