Philip's Tunnel to Nowhere 3

This will be a quick one.

I noticed that they handled visual art much differently at Cornerstone than in 2004. As I recall back then it was just some gallery in a tent somewhere. I didn’t go there, despite what I’d imagine is a strong interest in vis. art relative to the population of Cornerstone attendees, and despite the fact that I thought it was really cool that they had visual art. So i can imagine that whatever it was, it was probably underutilized by the attendees.

In 2009 the visual art was set up as a public art display, not unlike art one might see in a subway station or similar in an urban context. It was set up in the approach to “the bridge,” so i passed through there a fair bit going from the Asylum to the Midway area. Apparently the theme was the parables of Jesus. It wasn’t clear to me whether all the artists were JPUSAns or not. Unfortunately i didn’t catch either of the guided tours at 10 am Thursday and Friday — they conflicted with seminars I wanted to catch. But at least I got to look at the art for a couple of minutes on my way down the walkway.

In general I think this sort of public art display is a very positive development, and I wonder how many years they’ve been doing this. (Perhaps I’m just not remembering something like this in 2004, but I don’t think so — a couple of people agreed that visual art didn’t use to be displayed this way at C’stone.) My only suggestion for perhaps broadening the visual art offerings would be to have another public space for works not directly related to the theme. For example, the woman at JPUSA named Doria (?) who’s done some really great paintings featured on the Asylum shirts probably wouldn’t get her work in something like this, unless she happened to do work on the theme of the year. I really like her work and would like to see it get attention outside the Asylum, so I’d like to see some display of non-thematic works.

That’s sort of a quibble, though, that shouldn’t detract from the bigger point: JPUSA has done a good job of getting visual art out there where the Cornerstone masses can see and interact with it.

I feel remiss because I never bothered to mention hanging out in Iowa with some people from The Asylum over the weekend April 17-19. It was enjoyable to see some old friends and acquaintances and make some new ones.

I have no idea if I’ll make it to Cornerstone, which is the de facto annual minimal requirement for staying connected to this network of people. Part of me feels like it’s a waste if I don’t get my self-image on sound footing. I’ll certainly consider going.