What’s it all about?

Here at Venn we understand that art and art-making is important for being human, for society, and for the fullness of life with God and others. When it comes to the arts and Christian faith however, we’re convinced that for too long the arts have been developed in isolation, excused from questions of purpose, disconnected from Christian learning and tradition, and at odds with community and the life of the Church. Through Venn’s Centre for the Arts, we’re helping to change this by creating rich and compelling learning contexts for artists and art lovers alike to explore God’s purpose for the arts.

Who is it for?

Venn’s Centre for the Arts comes alongside artists, both developing and established, who want to enrich their practice and understanding. We also help people who love the arts and want to learn more about the importance of art to human flourishing or the life of the Church. It’s for people who are hungry for a learning conversation shaped by Scriptural immersion, theological reflection, practice and prayer.

The Centre for the Arts will help you address questions such as:

• What’s God’s purpose for the arts? How can we best understand art-making?
• How can I pursue my arts practice with wisdom and hope?
• How should I think about things like imagination and craft, originality and tradition, and the artist and community?
• Who can encourage me in my faith and art practice? How can I be part of a learning community engaging with faith and the arts?
• How can the Church better understand and support artists?

Through our teaching and resources, Venn’s Centre for the Arts is creating new ways for you to engage these questions. We understand them—we’re artists ourselves.

Image: Mary Spacapan @m.spacapan

Short Courses & Conversation Evenings

Our short courses are designed to help you engage deeply with a key aspect of faith and art-making. Delivered in person over the course of 1-2 days, these are rich, demanding, and inspiring learning contexts.

In addition to this, we hold conversation evenings on topics relating to the arts and art-making, from philosophy of the arts through to art history and practice.

Interested in hearing about upcoming events?

REGISTER YOUR INTEREST HERE >>

Theological enrichment for working artists

As artists, we know first-hand how helpful reflection and renewed understanding is to our art practice. Even more, we know the value of reflection on Scripture and of theological understanding: it’s our experience that these transform and ground the arts. We’re artists, but we’re also teachers. And so we’re well placed to offer theological enrichment for working artists in the form of one-on-one conversation.

Interested in theological conversation for working artists?

REGISTER YOUR INTEREST HERE >>

Note: we warmly recommend that you engage with our resource Letter to an Artist (see below) ahead of any conversation.

Common Ground Digital Magazine

Venn’s bi-monthly magazine Common Ground regularly features original work by visual artists, musicians, poets, and writers, along with reflections on new and historic art. The digital magazine and associated special print offerings has become a forum for artists and writers to enrich the wide-ranging conversation about faith and the whole of life, and we welcome expressions of interest about contributing to the magazine.

Two issues of this magazine are solely dedicated to art and art-making: CHRIST AND THE ARTIST published in October 2023, and ON ART AND ART-MAKING in December 2023. Drawing together essays, interviews, and original art, they together form a valuable local resource on the arts and Christian faith.

Interested in receiving Common Ground free to your inbox?

SIGN UP HERE >>

Venn Store

Venn’s store of resources also includes the special print essay Letter to an Artist: on Faith and Making Art. In this beautiful small book, John Dennison reflects on the nature of art-making and its place in God’s purposes. It’s a great introduction to the big questions of art and faith, framed as a generous and wise response to an artist friend.

Want to buy or gift a copy of Letter to an Artist?

PURCHASE HERE >>

What are people saying?

“I have felt supported in my art practice and personally through my brief contact with Venn. My experience of being listened to, understood, and embraced as an artist is something that I’m deeply grateful for.”

Amanda Watson, Visual Artist; Associate Editor, Journal of Visual Art Practice; Research Associate, Waikato Institute of Technology Te Pūkenga. 

“Venn’s teaching has helped me develop a working theology of artistic practice and understand my artmaking as deeply faithful. Most importantly, perhaps, Venn’s work has encouraged me to practice wholly in an art world that I love and feel called to work in, with a weight of support behind me. It is difficult to keep faith in the art world. Sometimes, it feels like hanging on by a thread. Venn is one such thread in the Church where I feel least alienated as an artist—a rare and invaluable experience.”

Frances Wright, Visual Artist.