BETHLEHEM, PA– (June 27, 2017) —The Adult Enrichment Workshop Series at the Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts, will present the third round of its popular Venture Academy series this summer. Venture Academy III- Religion & Art will feature explorations by Norman Girardot, Professor Emeritus of Comparative Religion, Lehigh University, and Emma Ackerman, General Manager of Touchstone Theatre. The Venture Academy is a program of guided explorations for the young of mind and heart. Each round of the program offers a unique theme.
Venture Academy III- Religion & Art is a series of multi-media explorations from the Painted Caves of Prehistory to the Digital Caves of the 21st Century will feature a live session on Tuesday evenings and a guided film session on Thursday evenings. What is holy, sacred, divine, spiritual, or spooky? Or in the case of art: What is the beautiful, the sublime, the abstract or the conceptual? Why do human beings do religion and art from the very beginning of culture until now? Is there some intrinsic evolutionary cultural and existential affinity between these two very basic human activities? Come with us on this collective mission as we embark on a journey to explore these open-ended questions about art and religion.
Sessions begin on June 27, 2017 (no sessions will be held during the week of July 3rd).
Participants can sign up for one or all sessions. Single Pass for all Sessions: $95 each, Buddy/Couple Pass: $85 each, One-Week Session: $30 each. Proceeds from the program benefit the Charter Arts Creativity Fund for Teachers, which provides $100-$500 grants that support a professional development need or a special teaching project involving students.
To Register, please call: 610-868-2971 ext. 3185.
The Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts is located at 321 East 3rd Street, Bethlehem, PA 18015.
ABOUT THE VENTURE ACADEMY III SESSIONS:
Week 1: Tuesday, June 27 (6:15-7:30pm) The Complete and Authoritative Tour of Holy Stuff , Emma Ackerman, General Manager, Touchstone Theatre
What’s holy in our lives—church, spirituality, music, or football? How about activism, veganism….Star Trek fandom? Emma Ackerman will guide you with this one-woman show about the things we hold sacred, the lengths to which we go for them, and the souvenirs we pick up along the way. 6:15-7:30pm
FILM: Thursday, June 29 (6-8pm): Peter Freidman & Roger Manley’s “Mana-Beyond Belief” A brilliant documentary film about the ubiquity and ephemerality of holiness West and East.
Week 2: Tuesday, July 11 (6:15-7:30pm)— In the Beginning: The Sacred Entanglement of Religion and Art, Norman Girardot, Professor Emeritus of Comparative Religion, Lehigh University
Consideration of Paleolithic and Neolithic origins of human culture as rooted in the Symbolic Explosion of language and image and the related technology of knowing and participating in the cosmic round of life via religion and art. 6:15-7:30pm
FILM: Thursday, July 13 (6-8pm): Nigel Spivey’s “How Art Made the World—The Day Pictures were Born”. A revelatory BBC documentary about the shamanistic and visionary origins of art and religion.
Week 3: Tuesday, July 18 (6:15-7:30pm) In the Middle: the Great Weater Divergence and the Grand Disenchantment, Norman Girardot.
Consideration of ‘religious art’ or ‘artistic religion’ in the middle ages down to the ‘invention’ of so-called real ‘art’ (and real ‘religion(s)’) in the Western Enlightenment and the rise of the modernist secular worldview; fine or high art as opposed to other kinds of ‘low’ art; art for art’s sake; art that replaces religion and the trivialization of ‘Christian art; and the religious ironies of abstract art.
FILM: Thursday, July 20 (6-8pm): Simon Schama’s “Power of Art: Mark Rothko”. A haunting documentary on the great New York abstract expressionist Mark Rothko and the religious ironies of modernist abstract art.
Week 4: Tuesday, July 25 (6:15-7:30pm) The End is a New Beginning: The Regenerative Vision of Outsider Art, Norman Girardot & 30-minute film, “ I Can Feel Another Planet in My Soul, Strange Visions and Wondrous Art: The Remarkable Story of Howard Finster”.
The rise of alternative visions of art and religion; the new entangled convergence of the sacrificial nature and regenerative power of outsider visionary art with special consideration of the visionary preacher-artist and crucified “Stranger from Another World” Howard Finster
FILM: Thursday, July 27 (6-8pm): Andy Goldworthy’s “Rivers and Tides: Working with Time”. The glorious entanglement of nature, art, spirit, and the sacred in the work of the amazing Scottish artist, Andy Goldsworthy.
ABOUT THE LEHIGH VALLEY CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL FOR THE ARTS (Charter Arts):
The Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts, opened in 2003, is an audition-based, tuition-free, public charter school that provides a comprehensive curriculum for high school students, grades 9-12, who have a passion for the arts. Students major in one of seven artistic areas: dance, theater, vocal music, instrumental music, literary arts, figure skating or visual art.
Charter Arts’ rigorous curriculum fosters both academic and artistic excellence. The school’s impressive PA School Performance Profile (SPP) Academic Score, AP and Keystone exam statistics, student SAT scores, prestigious artistic accolades, and graduation rate are a testament to the outstanding education Charter Arts provides.
The school offers a full complement of core courses at the College Preparatory (CP), Honors, and Advanced Placement (AP) levels. The course catalog consists of more than 200 courses ranging from traditional core courses (math, science, social studies, world languages, etc.) to college-level courses in the arts. Students spend a portion of their day in their artistic major’s courses, and a portion of their day in their academic courses.
Close to 600 students from across Pennsylvania travel into Bethlehem daily to attend Charter Arts. The student body consists of students who hail from towns as far north as the Poconos, as far south as the Philadelphia suburbs, and as far west as Lancaster County. Many students travel two to three hours per day to attend this innovative school.
In 2016, Charter Arts earned the distinction as a Title I High Achievement School for the second year in a row. On the Keystone Exams, Charter Arts students also earned the highest combined proficiency scores of all public and charter schools in the Lehigh Valley.
Charter Arts graduates pursue a wide range of post-secondary study and careers. The Class of 2017, made up of 116 young men and women, collectively earned more than $4 million in scholarships and grants to attend some of our nation’s most prestigious colleges, universities, and arts conservatories. While some graduates pursue the arts, many pursue a wide range of careers including education, science, engineering, nursing and medicine.
Charter Arts moved into its brand-new facility in the heart of the arts and cultural district in South Bethlehem, at 321 East 3rd Street, in the fall of 2015.
For more information about Charter Arts, visit the school’s website at www.CharterArts.org or call 610-868-2971. Charter Arts is located at 321 East 3rdStreet, Bethlehem PA 18015.
Information & Image Provided By:
Ann Gillette
Manager of Public Relations and Media
Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts
321 East 3rd Street, Bethlehem, PA 18015
www.CharterArts.org
