From the Editor's Desk
by Kimberly Vrudny
Kimberly Vrudny is an associate professor of systematic theology at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she has been a faculty member since 2001. She received a bachelor’s degree in art history and religion from Gustavus Adolphus College, a master’s degree in theology and the arts from United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, and a Ph.D. in historical theology from Luther Seminary. She is the author of Beauty’s Vineyard: A Theological Aesthetic of Anguish and Anticipation (Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, forthcoming 2016), as well as co-editor of two books on theology and the arts. She has written numerous articles and chapters that treat the theological dimension of social realist art and photography. She served as an assistant and associate editor of ARTS for sixteen years before becoming the journal’s senior editor in 2013.
Regular readers will notice the redesign of ARTS, which is to be credited to associate editor John Shorb, who advocated for a more minimalist template for the journal and to which I hope our readers will respond well. This redesign is being launched at the beginning of our twenty-seventh year of publication, which seems momentous for a small journal of this kind. Thank you for continuing to support the production of this academic journal.
In this issue of ARTS, we are featuring an interview that John Shorb conducted with Los Angeles artist Lynn Aldrich, who makes sculptures out the objects of everyday life. She speaks with John about the role of faith in her works that treat environmental themes and the problems of mass consumerism. The issue opens with Elizabeth-Jane McGuire’s exploration of the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams, whose own spiritual journey maps convincingly to compositions he was writing in the early twentieth century. We also are pleased to publish in this issue poetry by Ahna Phillips, Robert Cording, Bonnie Thurston, and Maryanne Hannan—and we are grateful to the editorial work of Mark Burrows for his curation of these poems. Amy E. Gray contributes reflections of her dual calling to Christianity and to art. She traces the evolution of her works of cut paper and thread for our regular “in the studio” column. Maria Fee writes about artist Natalia Goncharova’s prophetic stance in Russia on the eve of the Revolution and encourages modern-day artists to follow Goncharova’s lead by addressing the most pressing concerns of the modern day in their art. Sabrina D. MisirHiralall offers a piece on the pedagogy of mindfulness in her article for our “in the classroom” column, in which she speaks of insights by Vietnamese Zen Master Thich Hạnh that she then applies to Kuchipudi Indian Classical Hindu Dance. Mark McInroy rounds out the issue with notes on four new titles in theology and the arts.
CALL FOR PAPERS
Please consider submitting an article for publication consideration. Articles are accepted on a rolling basis, with issues coming out each winter (November), spring (March), and summer (July). We accept articles in the categories of theology and the arts in the study, studio, sanctuary, and classroom. Once each year, we devote issues to a theme determined by the editors. Following our successful issue devoted in 2015 to critical race theory and the arts, the winter issue of 2016 will feature articles treating Islam and the arts. In 2017, the winter issue will focus on theological and artistic and/or aesthetic approaches to immigration—a pressing issue of our day. And we are considering a “popular culture”-themed issue for the winter of 2018. We hope to receive articles about theological themes in Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Divergent, and the Star Wars series of films and books, as well as in works chosen by our readers. We are also interested in receiving articles that treat theological themes in films by Pixar and Dreamworks. Please follow our submission guidelines as outlined on our website: http://societyarts.org/arts-journal/author-guidelines. I do ask authors to be mindful of the requirement that all references to oneself should be removed from the mansucript submission for the purposes of blind review. Attention to that requirement saves time as I prepare manuscripts to undergo review.
ARTS IS ON AMAZON
Finally, at its meeting in November in Atlanta, the SARTS Board of Directors discussed the relative pros and cons of making the academic content of ARTS more freely and widely available. Thanks to our intern, Mary Janisch, all content since 2013, as well as the content of issues that were published only online, is now accessible to everyone through the “online edition” link on our SARTS homepage. We are also pleased to announce that all back issues of ARTS that are still in print are available for purchase on amazon.com/shops/theoarts. Please visit the shop to peruse back issues and to order copies—especially for your classes. The entire backlist can be viewed, too, on our website, with links to the issues on amazon: http://societyarts.org/arts-journal/back-list.
Kimberly Vrudny is an associate professor of systematic theology at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she has been a faculty member since 2001. She received a bachelor’s degree in art history and religion from Gustavus Adolphus College, a master’s degree in theology and the arts from United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, and a Ph.D. in historical theology from Luther Seminary. She is the author of Beauty’s Vineyard: A Theological Aesthetic of Anguish and Anticipation (Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, forthcoming 2016), as well as co-editor of two books on theology and the arts. She has written numerous articles and chapters that treat the theological dimension of social realist art and photography. She served as an assistant and associate editor of ARTS for sixteen years before becoming the journal’s senior editor in 2013.
Regular readers will notice the redesign of ARTS, which is to be credited to associate editor John Shorb, who advocated for a more minimalist template for the journal and to which I hope our readers will respond well. This redesign is being launched at the beginning of our twenty-seventh year of publication, which seems momentous for a small journal of this kind. Thank you for continuing to support the production of this academic journal.
In this issue of ARTS, we are featuring an interview that John Shorb conducted with Los Angeles artist Lynn Aldrich, who makes sculptures out the objects of everyday life. She speaks with John about the role of faith in her works that treat environmental themes and the problems of mass consumerism. The issue opens with Elizabeth-Jane McGuire’s exploration of the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams, whose own spiritual journey maps convincingly to compositions he was writing in the early twentieth century. We also are pleased to publish in this issue poetry by Ahna Phillips, Robert Cording, Bonnie Thurston, and Maryanne Hannan—and we are grateful to the editorial work of Mark Burrows for his curation of these poems. Amy E. Gray contributes reflections of her dual calling to Christianity and to art. She traces the evolution of her works of cut paper and thread for our regular “in the studio” column. Maria Fee writes about artist Natalia Goncharova’s prophetic stance in Russia on the eve of the Revolution and encourages modern-day artists to follow Goncharova’s lead by addressing the most pressing concerns of the modern day in their art. Sabrina D. MisirHiralall offers a piece on the pedagogy of mindfulness in her article for our “in the classroom” column, in which she speaks of insights by Vietnamese Zen Master Thich Hạnh that she then applies to Kuchipudi Indian Classical Hindu Dance. Mark McInroy rounds out the issue with notes on four new titles in theology and the arts.
CALL FOR PAPERS
Please consider submitting an article for publication consideration. Articles are accepted on a rolling basis, with issues coming out each winter (November), spring (March), and summer (July). We accept articles in the categories of theology and the arts in the study, studio, sanctuary, and classroom. Once each year, we devote issues to a theme determined by the editors. Following our successful issue devoted in 2015 to critical race theory and the arts, the winter issue of 2016 will feature articles treating Islam and the arts. In 2017, the winter issue will focus on theological and artistic and/or aesthetic approaches to immigration—a pressing issue of our day. And we are considering a “popular culture”-themed issue for the winter of 2018. We hope to receive articles about theological themes in Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Divergent, and the Star Wars series of films and books, as well as in works chosen by our readers. We are also interested in receiving articles that treat theological themes in films by Pixar and Dreamworks. Please follow our submission guidelines as outlined on our website: http://societyarts.org/arts-journal/author-guidelines. I do ask authors to be mindful of the requirement that all references to oneself should be removed from the mansucript submission for the purposes of blind review. Attention to that requirement saves time as I prepare manuscripts to undergo review.
ARTS IS ON AMAZON
Finally, at its meeting in November in Atlanta, the SARTS Board of Directors discussed the relative pros and cons of making the academic content of ARTS more freely and widely available. Thanks to our intern, Mary Janisch, all content since 2013, as well as the content of issues that were published only online, is now accessible to everyone through the “online edition” link on our SARTS homepage. We are also pleased to announce that all back issues of ARTS that are still in print are available for purchase on amazon.com/shops/theoarts. Please visit the shop to peruse back issues and to order copies—especially for your classes. The entire backlist can be viewed, too, on our website, with links to the issues on amazon: http://societyarts.org/arts-journal/back-list.
