The Society for the Arts, Religion, and Contemporary Culture, or ARC, was founded in October 1961 by three people: Alfred Barr, the art critic and founder of the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, the theologian

Paul Tillich Paul Johannes Tillich (August 20, 1886 – October 22, 1965) was a German-American Christian existentialist philosopher, religious socialist, and Lutheran Protestant theologian who is widely regarded as one of the most influential theologi ...

, and Marvin Halverson, an American Protestant theologian sometime of the

Chicago Theological Seminary Founded in 1855, the Chicago Theological Seminary (CTS) is the oldest higher education institution in the City of Chicago and was established with two principal goals: first, to educate pastors who would minister to people living on the new west ...

and the author of a 1951 booklet, ''Great Religious Paintings''. Its aims and program are based on the deep and complex relationship between religion and the arts. Its first board of directors included these three as well as

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theologian and parish minister,

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, principal developer of the merger forming the

United Church of Christ The United Church of Christ (UCC) is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination based in the United States, with historical and confessional roots in the Congregational, Calvinist, Lutheran, and Anabaptist traditions, and with approximatel ...

, mythologist Joseph Campbell], Truman B. Douglass; Congregationalist parish minister and theologian

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, and Stanley Romaine Hopper, theologian and co-founder of the first Theology and Literature program in the United States. Among the more than 300 Fellows of the Society have been

Mircea Eliade Mircea Eliade (; – April 22, 1986) was a Romanians, Romanian History of religion, historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. He was a leading interpreter of religious experience, who establ ...

Denise Levertov Priscilla Denise Levertov (24 October 1923 – 20 December 1997) was a British-born naturalised American poet. She was a recipient of the Lannan Literary Award for Poetry. Early life and influences Levertov was born and grew up in Ilford, Ess ...

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, and

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. During the late 1960s most of the individuals involved in the published discourse pertaining to the field of

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were either fellows or members of SARCC. Another major focus of the Society has been the role of myth in culture resulting in two publications. For decades SARCC hosted several symposia, workshops and performances per year oriented around the relationship between the arts and religion in the modern context. In the 2000s it organized several day-long conferences on "The Role of the Arts in Religious and Theological Education", hosted at Yale Divinity School, Pacific School of Religion, Lancaster Theological Seminary, And Union Theological Seminary. It later organized a three-part conference on "The Influence of Technology on the Arts and Religion." A summary of this last series, written by former President Erling Hope, is title
"Between God and Google: Reflections on the Technology Project of the Society for the Arts, Religion and Contemporary Culture
and was published in 2012 by

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journal. It published two periodic newsletters, "ARC Directions", and later "Seedbed". Previously it has published a periodical entitled "ARC Directions." In 2017, under the stewardship of Executive Director Callid Keefe-Perry and President Erling Hope, SARCC merged with The Association for Theopoetics Research and Exploration (ATRE), and rebranded itsel
ARC: Arts Religion Culture
Its activities and programming have grown widely since then, with renewed interest in emerging art forms and artists, and in social engagement around deteriorating discourse and conditions of racial, gender and economic injustice. Its 2019 annual conference took place in Oakland, CA. Tamisha A. Tyler assumed Executive Co-Directorship with Keefe-Perry in 2019, and Ashley Theuring was elected president. The archives of SARCC are maintained at the

Andover-Harvard Theological Library Harvard Divinity School (HDS) is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school's mission is to educate its students either in the academic study of religion or for leadership roles in religion, gov ...

{{cite web, title=Society for the Arts, Religion, and Contemporary Culture, 1961-2003, url=http://div.hds.harvard.edu/library/bms/bms00555.html, publisher=Andover-Harvard Theological Library, accessdate=26 November 2012.

References

*Finley Eversole, ‘Foundation for the Arts, Religion and Culture’, ''Theology Today'', vol. 24, No. 3 (October 1967). *Betty H. Meyer, ''The ARC Story: A Narrative Account of the Society for the Arts, Religion and Contemporary Culture'' (New York, Association for Religion and Intellectual Life, 2003). Religion and the arts Arts organizations based in the United States Religious organizations based in the United States Organizations based in New York (state) Organizations established in 1961 1961 establishments in the United States

See also

References