Worship and the Arts

 

 

The Arts Committee A subcommittee of the Worship Committee, the Arts Committee was formed in 2008.

It was organized to take care of the following:          

• Banners and artwork, their storage, procurement, preservation and display

• The changing art exhibits in Westminster (four per year) and occasional Art Forums

• Vetting of gifts to the church of art/furniture/etc. (with the ability to accept or decline)

• Inviting speakers/have workshops involving the arts. 

• The changing of children's art in the lower entry

• To encourage creativity of congregation members

• Foster other ideas related to the arts

Special Events

The committee sponsored a day retreat on arts and spirituality in 2009 and oversaw the making of the eight hand-cut paper "Creation" banners in 2010. The upcoming Nov. 6 visit of poet Allan Wolf is also organized by this committee. Funds for these projects come from the Ruth White Fisher Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1985. 

 

 

THE RUTH WHITE FISHER ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS

Ruth White Fisher was a nutritionist by profession but her first love was art.  After a career in nutrition, she spent many years painting and being a leader in the art scene in the Blacksburg area. In 1961 she established the Palette Art Gallery, which was a self-supporting cooperative gallery for many years.  Ruth was a charter member of the Blacksburg Regional Art Association and the Palette Art Gallery Association.

 

Ruth and her husband were members of the Blacksburg Presbyterian Church from 1936 until their deaths.  Ruth served as teacher of the college age Sunday school class, chairman of dinners, circle chairman and vice-president of the Women of the Church.  She was given a life membership in the Women of the Church in 1977.

 

At the time of her death in 1984, then pastor George Telford encouraged her husband to establish an endowment fund for the arts in her name.  This fund has allowed BPC to commission two major works of art for the building and to pay for worship banners, the chancel stained glass windows, and other pieces.  The fund was also used in 2007 to bring Catherine Kapikian of Wesley Seminary in Washington D.C. to Blacksburg to guide the members in ways of making the building a more worshipful and dynamic space.  We will continue to use the proceeds from this endowment to enrich the experiences of the BPC family.