The Arts Center is located on the Central Coast of Mexico on the Bay of Navidad, Jalisco, Mexico
The Art center opened its doors in 1998.
Due to the overwhelming acceptance of the various workshops Nancy Lennie, veteran artist-educator, was led to expand the program into an area she has long been wanting to do.
May of 2000 she is offering classes in spiritual growth.
In her own words she recounts her mission:
When my husband and I made our home in British Colombia in 1993 and I became active in our chosen Anglican church, I sought a deeper life with Christ by becoming a student of the E.F.M. group that was going strong. Education for Ministry is a great lay program started by Sewanee School of Theology for those of us who see we need a responsible base before we tackle the work of the church. At the end of the first year we were asked to search for the area we would minister in the life of the church. I, being an art educator, saw my ministry in the field of art and theology. I planned to startworkshops in the area of art theology, and low and behold we moved to Mexico!
So now I am reaching my goal of creating classes to help people search for a deeper understanding of just what they do believe through the use of art .
Nancy Lennie has designed her workshops to fill this goal.
The way the class works is this she says:
We read a parable and a discussion is led on what it says to each of us in terms of art elements such as:-
what was the colors you felt best tells the story
what is the directional movement within the story, is it active or passive or circular
what elements of design and texture do you see (feel) that represents the story.
on and on with other questions about positive and negative space, repetition,rhythm...
In the field of art these are the questions we address as we design a painting.
I do not lead students in what they believe only in Art. The painting that they develop is a very good indication of what they know and think and believe.
After the painting is done we discuss them, not the techniques of art or the handling of materials but in how the doing of the painting spoke to them as they painted it.
This is a classic right brain approach to understanding , and then unification with the left brain through verbalization and writing to bring about a wholeness of thought to the conscious mind.
Through the discussions no judgments are made . each person talks about their own experience and during the week as the total number of pictures grow , so does the depth of the students understanding of where they are in their walk with Jesus.
Paul said in Romans 8 we pray without words,... this deeper form of prayer most likely shows Paul recognized our visual perceptive feeling side which most of us tend to push to the recesses of our lives in favor of the logical analytical side of things. In uniting both sides of our brain to complete the whole we can come to some pretty incredible insights into our belief systems.
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