Do you feel led to contribute to the art supplies and such? Any contribution is welcome and is tax-deductible when itemized as allowed by the tax code. It should be noted "dedicated funds" for "spiritual retreat and outings."
Some of the points for consideration:
1. This is a spiritual retreat, and in the past (especially before 2008) this looked like one of those "oooh, look at those poor bums, I didn't know they could paint!" type of activity. And the outcome, given the low expectation, was apparently infantilized and mediocre. My goal has been to raise the standard while greatly enhancing the experiential side of it. The retreat affords one of those rare moments where people are not hassled and moved along amidst noises of the city.
2. This event moved from being Christian to being interfaith and ecumenical, even though it is still predominantly Christian (though now mostly mainline Protestant oriented). The organization's policy now specifically prohibits proselytizing, and therefore finding something that everyone can find some meanings is crucial.
3. Not everyone has a same level of artistic skills, creativity, attention span, or aesthetics. The past approach in the group project was something I found to be untenable, as it often meant everyone got a "square" or whatnot (like a quilt piece, or a tile) and each worked on it during the same amount of time allocated. It also made a very uncoordinated piece that lacked coherence, harmony and overall unifying theme. Since it is displayed in public areas, I also felt that some degree of anonymity and privacy is appropriate, and the previous approach did not serve that ends.
4. I feel that an introduction of ritual elements serve a number of good practical purposes.
- A ritual takes participants into a kind of otherworldly realm detached from and free from the ordinary realities.
- A ritual, as a constructed space, is not only symbolically meaningful but it can even allow for a greater ecumenical "neutrality" -- I am constructing, for instance, an invocation using a fictitious name of a deity to avoid privileging any specific religious path, instead of using "God," "Goddess," "Allah," "Jesus," and so on.
- It also bonds the participants together in a good sense of community and camaraderie, something impossible under the previous models experimented.
- And most importantly it is a spiritual retreat and I feel that this could be integrated into the overall theme of the retreat.
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