James Langley, Rest on the Flight to Egypt

Throughout history, the Church has looked to artists to proclaim the truth and beauty of the faith. Recognizing the power of art to communicate to the mind and spirit, the Church inspired and commissioned works of art and music as part of her mission to proclaim the Gospel, teach the faith, and worship God. Yet that effort has been hindered in the world today.

The secularization of the arts over the past century has discouraged expression of the Christian faith in contemporary works of art and has devalued beauty as a central goal of art. In fact, much art today popularizes ideas in opposition to our religious and ethical heritage. Constrained by pressures to conform to an increasingly nihilistic philosophy of art, Christian artists often feel out of place in the artistic community. Some withdraw from it, thereby limiting their artistic training; others attempt to combine Christian content with the modern aesthetic and its tendency toward the bizarre; still others avoid religious subjects altogether. Those who endeavor to produce authentic sacred works face great difficulties in finding an audience, a venue, or patronage.

Vonn Hartung, Forgive them, Father

Consequently, the public sees little contemporary Christian art of high quality. Because art shapes and embodies the central ideas of an age, the scarcity of a vibrant Christian presence in the contemporary world of artistic expression strengthens the hand of those who would exclude Christ from modern life. Without fine Christian works of art created by and for people today, the Church's mission to evangelize the world is seriously weakened.

Our Response

The Foundation for Sacred Arts strives to revitalize our culture by providing Christian artists and composers with the means to express the faith through their artistic works. By identifying exhibition venues, organizing formation and education opportunities, and encouraging networks of working artists and patrons, we hope to inspire a renewed art for our time. Contemporary art can speak to its own time in a way that great art from the past—timeless though it is—will not.

Roxolana Luczakowsky Armstrong, Pieta of Jesus and Mary with Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimethea, and the Holy Women

During the great artistic periods of the past, the Church did not rely solely on art from previous generations, but was eager to fill the world with new art in order to communicate the Gospel, whose truth is always new, always vital. Christ entrusted the faith to his Church that it might be carried to all future generations. To show that that faith remains both true and alive, we need gifted artists of today to produce great art for this century and for the future.

FOUNDATION NEWS
Redeeming Beauty: Religious Works of Contemporary Artists, the Foundation's current art exhibit, will open at the Cathedral Arts Project in Omaha, Nebraska on November 16. Click here to visit their website. Redeeming Beauty will be on tour through December 2008.

NEWS IN THE ARTS
July 4 , 2008:
Archbishop Raymond Burke founds the Institute for Sacred Music.
Read the interview on ZENIT