About Plymouth

Sacred Ground opens July 12: a new kind of Plymouth art show

By Chris Bohnhoff
Plymouth has a long tradition of
exploring spirituality through the
arts: its music, Literary Witnesses
and the visual art on display in the gallery and on the walls around the church are just three of the avenues through which the Plymouth community enters a place of contemplation and maybe even is confronted with new spiritual questions, via the arts.

Plymouth’s tradition also honors diversity in spiritual belief and expressions of belief. Each member is encouraged to find his or her own path, ask their own questions, seek their own answers.

Sacred Ground – sponsored by the Board of Fine Arts – is a new twist on our shared arts tradition. It’s a group exhibition that asks Twin Cities artists to explore moments or places particularly rich with divine presence, or a particular absence of the divine. Like the annual Members’ Art Show, Sacred Ground draws from a number of artists. But unlike the Members’ Show, the point of connection between the artists is not their connection to a church; it’s the common thread of spirituality as artistic inspiration.

Sacred Ground was broadly publicized in hopes of gathering submissions from artists in all corners of the Twin Cities arts scene, in addition to the Plymouth art community. Also new is a juried format. All submitted works were evaluated by Plymouth member Kristin Makholm, who’s Director of Galleries and Exhibitions at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD), and by MCAD faculty member Carole Fisher, a Stevens Square resident and nationally renowned artist. In all, 35 artists from around the Twin Cities submitted 100 pieces in response to our call. From those, 35 pieces were chosen for the show. Some pieces are for sale.

The resulting exhibition is a chorus from a new set of voices, some familiar to Plymouth but many not, and an opportunity for friends of the arts to connect with Plymouth for the first time. The opening, coinciding with the Plymouth Summer Music series, should provide plenty of entertainment. We hope to see lots of new faces in Plymouth’s halls. Sacred Ground will open to the congregation on July 12, when there will be an artists’ reception following worship, and runs through Aug. 26.

We hope that you’ll come to the gallery and enjoy the creative offerings. You’ll see some familiar names and themes. You might also be challenged by some new ideas and interpretations on the theme of Sacred Ground. Please join us in celebrating creative expression as a means to confronting the complex and sometimes uncomfortable questions of spiritual life.

(Chris Bohnhoff and Gregg Daubert handled the arrangements and logistics for this Plymouth first.)

See Beyond, Steven D. Schwartz

See Beyond, Steven D. Schwartz, multi media, 18"x24"

Lift up my eyes to the hills, Bettye Olson Howard
Lift up my eyes to the hills (Psalm 121), Bettye Olson Howard,
viscosity print/oil pastel, 21"x26"