of Faith
Cameron
Anderson
Terry
Glaspey
Luci
Shaw
CAMERON
ANDERSON
William
Edgar
Tim
Muehlhoff
Art Gallery
ered a group of like-minded people together, not just from evangelical traditions but also Lutheran,
Catholic, and Reformed traditions to address a problem that they all sensed. It was basically this; that
if one was serious about her faith and serious about her art, then often she found herself in a church
that appreciated her faith, but not her art or in the art world that appreciated the art, but not the faith.
In fact, most of those communities were sort of bewildered by the fact that anyone would want to be
deeply committed, in a personal way, to those two themes together. Of course, that is partially what I
wrote about in my book.
... then often she found
herself in a church that
appreciated her faith
but not her art or in the
art world that appreci-
ated the art but not the
faith.
A conference was formed. A group of volunteers
formed and that actually started in 1977, but we
became an official organization in 1979. That’s
the backstory. I would say that our original pur-
pose hasn’t changed much, which is really three-
fold: to serve artists in their creative calling, to
see their calling as a holy vocation serving the
church, and then engage the culture, especially
the art world. Those are the three things that we
are still largely committed to.
I am a member of your organization
as well and the curator at our church.
We are about to host a second traveling
exhibit from CIVA, Come to the Table.
All art in this article are pieces created by Cameron Anderson
EOF: Maybe you chould start off by you telling us a little bit about yourself. I know you’re
the Executive Director of Christians in the Visual Arts (CIVA). Why don’t you tell us
about that organization?
Anderson: I could say a bit about my background which connects to what I do right now. I am an
artist and a writer. I have a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts and a Master’s of Fine Arts in painting and draw-
ing. I taught art in a Catholic boys high school for a couple years, even though I am not Catholic by
background. And then for 30 years I served in a variety of roles and positions with a campus ministry
called “InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.” I left that organization about eight years ago to become
the Executive Director of Christians in the Visual Arts. That’s my background. The background
of the organization is that it was birthed in 1979 by a gentleman named Eugene Johnson; he and a
small group of others. Gene was the founder of the Art Department at Bethel University in St. Paul
Minnesota. He was a ceramicist, a painter, a theologian and evangelist; a very dynamic man. He gath-
Oh good. I was the sole curator on that. It’s a
lovely show. It might be one of our best traveling
shows.
On to your new book, “The Faithful Artist, a Vision for Evangelicalism and the Arts”. In
it, you cover the history of the evangelical church and the dynamic relationship with
the art community. Since you’ve done extensive research on that subject, as well as hav-
ing first-hand experience in your current job, maybe you could tell us a little about your
observations on the relationship of the art community and the church today?
I still think it is a pretty distressed relationship. The reasons why Eugene Johnson and others founded
CIVA are still pretty relevant today. But there is shifting ground in a couple respects. It is still the case
that the high art world is pretty suspicious about Christians who are artists and who really believe in
their Christian faith. You get treated ironically, or get treated in all kinds of ways, but if there is a per-
sonally held faith, there is still suspicion there.