Festival showings of 'Run with the Fire'

The Run with the Fire digital art exhibition will be shown at two events in the Art Festival for the Barking Episcopal Area and the Woodford Festival.

A Celebration of Poetry will be held on Friday 12th October, 7.30pm, St Paul's Woodford Bridge, Cross Road, Woodford Green, Essex IG8 8BT. There is no admission charge and the evening will include local poets, published poets, musical/storytelling interludes and a showing of the 'Run with the Fire' Olympic-themed digital art exhibition. Among those reading their poetry are: Tim Cunningham, Jonathan Evens, Jane Grell, Malcolm Guite, Alan Hitching, and Jennifer Houghton.

commission4mission Art exhibition - Saturday 13th October, 10.00am - 7.30pm, The Atrium, All Saints Woodford Wells, Inmans Row, Woodford Green, IG8 0NHNo admission charge. Exhibition of art works by members of commission4mission, an arts organisation which aims to encourage churches to commission contemporary art. Includes the 'Run with the Fire' Olympic-themed digital art exhibition. This exhibition will include work by Jonathan Evens, Alan Hitching, Mark Lewis, Janet Roberts, Francesca Ross, Henry Shelton, Joy Rousell Stone and Peter Webb. This exhibition is being held prior to an evening concert at All Saints by the Meljon Singers (https://www.facebook.com/events/246345185469093/).

Click here for more information about other events in the Woodford Festival.

Summer Art Workshops

Here are photos from some of the summer creative workshops run at St Aubyn Devonport as part of the Run with the Fire project run by Army of Artists.

Oxfam donation

The 'Run with the Fire' project has recently been able to donate £229.89 to Oxfam.

For more than 60 years Oxfam has been turning donations such as ours into positive action which is transforming the lives of some of the world's poorest people.

Together Oxfam and their supporters have helped farming families to get more from their land, given children the chance to go to school, and ensured that opportunities are open to everyone - even the most vulnerable - in communities around the world. They've also campaigned for changes in policies, both locally and internationally, which will ensure that poor people's efforts are properly rewarded.

'Run with the Fire' poem

Run with the Fire

Stripped down - free of weights and encumberance -
muscles taught and trained, eyes on the prize -
on track, no turning back - forgetting what is behind,
straining toward what is ahead, winged feet
bearing tongues of flame - inextinguishable flickers
of hope, the torch passed on through generations,
message of victory - peace, goodwill to all.

How lovely are the feet - run red-raw, blistered
and calloused, dust-encrusted yet lithe as leopards
and fleet as foxes - which pound the mountains,
hills, valleys and plains, echoing through history
from Marathon to London via Jerusalem.

Jonathan Evens

'Run with the Fire' in California

Manuel Luz, Pastor of Creative Arts at Oak Hills Church, Folsom, California writes that the church is displaying the Run with the Fire digital exhibition "alongside of our children's Arts Camp gallery, which was themed around the Olympics this year. We will be presenting it through the duration of the Olympics." Run with the Fire can be seen in the church's Art&Soul Gallery. They write that "Oak Hills is pleased to be a part of this international event. We invite you to spend some time in our church lobby viewing the amazing works of Christian artists from around the world." To see photos from Oak Hills' children's Arts Camp click here.

Be touched by the presence of God

Army of Artist's Run with the Fire community art exhibition and creative workshops have been attracting local press coverage in the Plymouth Herald. Click here for the latest story, here for a profile of Anita Collins, and here for the original article about their initiative.

Joy Lawrence writes:

"This is my kind of art: beautiful, touching, stunning, understandable – eat your heart out Tate Modern! ...

If you want to be inspired, encouraged, uplifted, dare I say – touched by the presence of God, take a visit to the Run With The Fire Exhibition at St Aubyn's in Devonport."

More 'Run with the Fire' press coverage

There has been further press coverage of 'Run with the Fire' through interviews with Steve Scott.
An interview Steve gave to Church and Art Network, in which Run with the Fire is featured, is included in their latest e-bulletin as a case study.
Steve has also been interviewed about his wide ranging career in art, music and poetry, including his involvement with Run with the Fire, in the current edition of Down The Line magazine. Steve is a British writer, poet, and musician whose songs have been recorded by artists including the 77s and Larry Norman. His musical and spoken word projects include Love in the Western World, Lost Horizon, Magnificent Obsession, More Than a Dream, The Butterfly Effect, Empty Orchestra, We Dreamed That We Were Strangers, and Crossing the Boundaries, in conjunction with painter Gaylen Stewart. In 2012, his songs became available on MP3 format, coincident with the release of a limited edition CD, Emotional Tourist: A Steve Scott Retrospective. He writes and speaks often on the arts in the UK and US, and is the author of Like a House on Fire: Renewal of the Arts in a Post-modern Culture, The Boundaries, and Crying for a Vision and Other Essays: The Collected Steve Scott Vol. One. He holds an MA in global leadership.
Steve has some fascinating things to say in this interview which can be downloaded by clicking here.

Both are in addition to the Transpositions interview with Steve which we featured in an earlier post.  Click here to read this interview.