How Important is the Support for Arts in a Community?

When I was a teenager, I found a tremendous sense of meaning in the local music scene. Granted, it was a punk rock scene, and there happened to be many unseemly activities associated with it (my parents were right to be concerned). However, I knew better than to participate in anything illegal. I was just there for the music. As I look back, the music wasn’t all that good, but I felt like I belonged. My friends and I were creating music, and I have never quite felt the intensity of that kind of community again, not even in church. Eventually, the city I grew up in got tired of the noise and young people dressed in studded jackets and green hair, and they passed injunctions against local music shows.

My reasoning for mentioning this is that I was recently reminded of that feeling of community that I used to have. I had an idea for a non-profit. What if there were a non-profit that facilitated local art scenes? This venture would seek to promote the creation of local music and art by giving artists a place to do just that: play music, host art shows, and put on poetry readings. There is a redemptive focus for this idea. Christians would run it, but non-Christian artists, as well as Christian artists, can use the space.

The goal would be fostering a community where Christians are encouraged to create art and music and perform alongside those they are trying to reach. There would not be any overt proselytizing, but the mingling amidst the creativity and the changed lives of Christians could merge. There just isn’t enough good Christian art being created today. Nothing is wrong with K-Love or mainstream Christian pop music, but it does not speak to people like me; those are the people who need reaching, too. Only one rule would be enforced: No cover bands.