It all started two years ago when art professor Barry Krammes saw what Pasadena’s Art Center College of Design was doing.

They brought in an artist to be their visionary-in-residence, which in turn inspired Krammes to start a unique visionary-in-residence program at Biola.

The program annually brings a Christian thinker who has made significant contributions in the arts. The current visionary-in-residence for this school year is John K. Chan.

After discussions between Krammes, president Barry Corey and provost David Nystrom, Roberta Green Ahmanson was chosen to be the visionary-in-residence for the 2011-2012 school year.

Ahmanson as visionary-in-residence

Ahmanson is a writer, designer and philanthropist whose work focuses on understanding the role of religion and art in public life, knowing history to understand the present, and discovering how the arts shape the human experience.

In fact, Time magazine listed Ahmanson and her husband as two of the “25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America” today.

Previously, Ahmanson was a religion writer for the San Bernardino Sun and the Orange County Register.

“Roberta is committed to making this a very memorable year,” Krammes said. “The visionary-in-residence will be interdisciplinary and try to engage a variety of constituencies across the university so that it’s a discussion with different departments.”

Ahmanson plans to bring in special guest

According to Krammes, one of the people Ahmanson plans to bring in is the former head of the National Endowment for the Arts, a Christian who was the Poet Laureate for a time.

He will be here for a day, reading poetry among other things.

“We’ve never done anything like this or had an opportunity like this, so I’m seeing it as a sort of big festival,” Krammes said.

Next year’s theme

The theme for the year, suggested by Ahmanson, will be “Sanctuary: Sacred Space.”

“We have happily built for ourselves a culture in which space for reflection is harder and harder to achieve, and it doesn’t even occur to us that this is a need,” Nystrom said. “We push the idea of busyness when what we really need is time for reflection. It’s about figuring out who speaks into my life. Is it God or my television screen?”

Nystrom also said that if people don’t have time to reflect, they only have time to exist.

The theme is a corporate recognition that people should have space to ensure a balanced life.

Nystrom explained this progression of the year’s theme:

“As several of us talked about this, the theme of sacred space and the need to create space for God in our lives came to the fore. In 2 Chronicles 6:10-11, 18 and 21, Solomon attempts to capture the character of the holy. His description is artfully imprecise because the reality of God’s love and care and presence is beyond what human language is able to convey. So the theme for the 2011-2012 academic year offers us an opportunity to explore the physical, social, psychological and spiritual spaces in which we may draw near and experience the holy, the presence of God, God with us.”

Goals for next year

“Sanctuary: Sacred Space” is one of the many projects intended to provide intellectual and spiritual energy for the Biola community.

“More specifically, the goals include a desire to recognize and act upon our need for healthy spiritual rhythms in life both severally and as an institution,” Nystrom said.
This will be a project that will include more than just the art department.

According to Krammes, the English, history, film, communications, Torrey, music, theatre and journalism departments will all contribute to the collective effort.

“Roberta has given us a theme, so various departments are going to try to respond to that theme through the lens of their discipline,” Krammes said.

Cinema and media arts department chair Lisa Swain said that they are “certainly looking to find ways to incorporate the idea of sanctuary into a festival or actual content of a Biola film.”

Other departments adopting the theme

“IRIS next year is going to focus on this theme, and the Torrey Conference will also be dealing with this theme,” Krammes said.

These themes have been listed in the draft schedule of events for the next academic year.

He also said the Conservatory of Music is interested in holding a concert partially or fully devoted to the theme of Sacred Space.

The art department will produce a printed document highlighting the resulting interactions from the visionary-in-residency program with student artwork, poetry and essays from members of the Biola community.

York City. Art exhibits will open on campus, including 20th century British art from the Ahmanson Collection.

Krammes hopes to create an events calendar so that people will be aware of the different events throughout the 2011-2012 year.

This is a vision that will potentially include many departments, majors and people, and will serve as a way to focus Biola’s attention on one constant theme for the year.