Summer School Shepton Mallet 2023

In Person and Flexible Imaging the Story held at St Mary’s Church, Shalford, Surrey, UK in February 2022.

Online Imaging the Story course in 2021. Suzanne Halvorson participated in an online course with 3 others. Suzanne describes how her arts practice was transformed and inspired from doing the course.

The course participants came from Indiana and Kentucky, USA. A review by Suzanne is below.

Imaging the Story Review - by Suzanne Halvorson

As a friend of Gilly Sakakini, I had long anticipated the coming of the book Imaging the Story, co-written with Karen Case-Green. I first met Gilly at the Grünewald Guild, a liturgical art guild in Washington state, where we were both teaching. Subsequently, in 2010, I participated in a Guild Art-focused trip to the UK that Gilly led. The founders of the Grünewald Guild, Richard and Liz Caemmerer, were also on the trip to Old Basing and surrounding inspirational art sites. It was a life-changing retreat for me.

I had longed to do an in person small group study of the book, but because of Coved we were only able to do it virtually. This was a first, as the book study is designed to be done in person. It took a long time to find just the right participants. There were four of us, 3 weavers and a potter, all teachers of our art forms. We were from Indiana and Kentucky.

All of us are women who have a strong faith base. All of us were looking to connect our art and faith in a way that this book challenged us to do. We met about once every 3 weeks via Zoom. We did the art assignments when appropriate but also used the inspiration we received from the book to help spark our own studio practice.

At the time I was teaching a virtual Tapestry class for Indiana University. I am mostly a weaver of scarves and vestments, so Tapestry is something that I have studied, done, and taught, but it is outside of my comfort zone. This book encouraged me to push boundaries, be open to the New, and challenge myself to create pieces not for sale (I am a production weaver) but for my own exploration and joy.

The group found that the biblical pieces of the book helped inspire us to open ourselves to the Love that flows through us when we create. I wasn’t always aware that my making is a channelling from God through my hands to the threads. Being open to this new way of creating changes who I am as an artist.

I learned to see differently, to be in search of and to celebrate the beauty of God’s creation in nature, art, the ordinary. I learned that God is the ultimate maker and designer of everything, and that I am one with God and surrounded by Love. A favorite prayer for me is, “I and my God are One”. I learned that it helps me to pray before and during my weaving process. The work I do is ultimately not for my recognition but for the Glory of God, who formed me as a weaver, teacher, and lover of beauty.

I want to thank Gilly and Karen for the gifts of love and insight that will keep on giving me and the members of my study group guidance as we do our art practice. We did not want to stop meeting, so we are now studying Art and Faith: A Theology of Making, by Makoto Fujimori. Gilly is a friend who I will treasure always, and because of her I am the artist I am today.

“I learned to see differently, to be in search of and to celebrate the beauty of God’s creation in nature, art, and the ordinary. I learned that God is the ultimate maker and designer of everything, and that I am one with God and surrounded by Love.” - Suzanne Halvorson

In Person Imaging the Story course in 2017. After attending Imaging the Story at St Mary’s Old Basing, Hampshire, UK, participant Liz Duke wrote this reflection:

Imaging the Story presents a window of opportunity in the busyness of life to stop, listen to, discuss and reflect upon different aspects of the biblical narrative. Exciting possibilities for personal and corporate responses unfold as examples of biblically inspired literature, poetry and art are considered. 

There is a practical element to each session which is focussed, yet relaxed and great fun, providing an opportunity to explore words, objects and art materials in a prayerful way and then to use them creatively in response to a given theme. The culmination of this motivational and inspiring course is a rich and diverse exhibition of students work.

Imaging the Story definitely encourages individuals and groups alike, to move with a more considered and creative mindset,  in seeking to prayerfully interpret and express the truths of God's word. This has the potential to affect and enrich one's personal faith journey and that of small groups and our church communities.  The exciting prospect of Christians expressing the Gospel in creatively diverse and engaging ways is the impact that this could have in our wider communities!

Small Group Imaging the Story run by Steph Lester in 2017.

Final Year Ordinand in the Church of England at St Mellitus College, North West

In Autumn 2017, I used Imaging the Story as the focus for a fellowship group I run: ‘Word for all’. I chose to use this book as it gave the group an opportunity to see the Bible in a different way. I used the leaders' notes as an outline, along with the chapter contents. The group was mostly elderly and would not be up for reading the chapter themselves or doing all the art work, thus I adapted the course to work for them.

Each week I picked out the key texts mentioned in the book, the key art work, and the key discussion points. I also added further art work to encourage conversation and perspective.

So one week might look like this …

• Opening prayer

    Explain what is being looked at today

• First Bible reading

    Ask a question: What do you think this scenario looked like?

• Look at three images relating to the Bible reading.

We used questions from the book to create conversation or simply asked which image they liked the most and why or how they relate to that image personally.

We would then move on to the next biblical text mentioned and look at the pictures related to it.

Where necessary I would use some of the explanations in the book to communicate why certain pictures or imagery was significant.

These sessions were simple, and I used the topics mentioned in the book. Those who attended loved it and loved seeing new ways of interpreting the Bible. I purposely did not tell them when and who the images were made by because the group had a habit of turning the session into an Art History lesson, which I wanted to avoid.

Once we had finished the chapter topics in the book, I ran one last session to encourage participants to be creative. I wrote the key things we had discussed in each session and asked each person to create a piece of artwork from the session that had stood out most to them.

Though this book works excellently following the guidelines prescribed, it can also work well in a smaller group setting with fewer resources if you are willing to adapt the book as I did.

Images from Old Basing, Hampshire, Summer 2017

 Shepton Mallet Summer School 2023