David James

David, together with his wife Nina, lead ATELIER Ministries, an initiative that seeks to support and raise the value of artists and creatives of faith as essential voices to both the church and the world.

David is an artist, a gallery director, and an educator. His art practice explores the sensitivity and control of figurative drawing to create images that express spiritual concepts. David holds an undergraduate qualification in Visual Arts majoring in painting and drawing, and achieved First-Class honours for his Masters degree in Art & Design.

David also facilitates ATELIER Collective – an online community of artists of faith.

David and Nina have three beautiful adult daughters and reside in Nelson, New Zealand.

Check out David’s work at this link davidjames.nz
Instagram: @davidjamesartist

Jill Miriama Smith

B.Ed., B,Th., M.Couns., M.A.Hons, Arts Therapy.

I am a New Zealander of Pakeha (England, Ireland) and Maori (Tainui, Ngati Maniapoto) descent. I have been married to Don for 50 years and we are blessed with a big family, with four children, their spouses, and 12 grandchildren. We live near Waiuku on a small lifestyle property south west of Auckland, and serve at Uplift Church in nearby Pukekohe, where we pastored for more than 10 years, but now contribute in a slightly less hands on way alongside Pastor Rupert Ross. My training and experience is in education, counselling, arts therapy, pastoral work, and prophetic ministry. I currently weave ministry and arts practice together and am focussed on exploring the convergence of faith/kingdom, the arts, and the prophetic; encouraging and supporting others in knowing God, knowing themselves, living freely and purposefully; and in hearing and responding to God’s voice, and effective prophetic ministry.

God is an artist. His creative works invite us to open up our senses to encounter something of who he is, hear his voice, and engage in conversation. Art invites engagement, touches people in different ways, and elicits varied responses. It can prompt new perspectives, surprise and delight, or perhaps shock and disgust. The response of hearers when God speaks can be just as varied. In the beginning God’s creative expression brought worlds into being, and as his image bearers, we have creative capacity too. In expressing this creativity, we can go our own way, do our own creative thing, or we can respond to the invitation to collaborate with him, flow in his river of life, partner with his work in the world.

To me, the creative flow and the prophetic flow are hard to tease apart, they seem part of the same river that flows from God. Now, as much as ever before, we need prophets and artists who engage and express God’s heart and mind in diverse ways. People who serve us by helping us become aware and attend to our own hearts, wrestle through our inner conflicts, engage with different perspectives, acknowledge conflicts, make connections, confront blind spots, understand mysteries, stand in awe, and more.

Engaging with the arts, whether looking at visual art, listening to music, watching films, plays, or dance, can help us lean in, and focus. The arts can help us attend with our senses and respond with our hearts. The kind of focus and skill needed to engage with art is vital in our spiritual lives and relationships too. Art making and art appreciation can be a kind of spiritual practice, a form of prayer and contemplation, a way of listening to God, and attending to our inner world, so needed in this time of disruptive change, fast paced lives, demanding jobs, and an abundance of noise.

 Check out Jill’s work at this link jillmiriamasmith.com

Workshop

Exploring the Convergence of Spiritual Practice and Arts Practice

My workshop at Majesty this year will create space to explore the themes discussed above through a hands on arts process – a convergence of spiritual practice and arts practice – a convergence of God’s heart and our own in a creative, Holy Spirit flow.

Charles & Janine Williams

Charles & Janine Williams have spent the past 20+ years using creativity as a tool to bring about social change.  From urban spacial design to shifting mindsets about street art or to using murals as an opportunity to tell the stories of the land.  Each project is unique & builds upon their belief that ‘art can change the world!’.

Married for 21 years with 4 adult/teen children & currently 3 whāngai, life is busy including travelling around Aotearoa & the world (pre-covid) involved in numerous street art festivals, projects & events. Involved in various forms of church & community leadership including pastoring at Faith City in Manukau throughout the past 20 years, they know first-hand the impact of prophetic creative application regarding communities, churches, seasons & spaces.

Business owners, full time artists, parents & lovers of Jesus – their passion is to share their journey & to encourage the artisans to value their craft remembering its importance in building the seasons to come.

Check out Charles & Janine’s work at this link charlesjaninewilliams.com

Workshop

God, Art & Business

Throughout history we have often experienced the divide – the church and the world.  But we are in a crucial time period where we must be in it yet not of it.  That means that our values and our systems are built to not seperate us but set us apart in a world looking for excellence and authenticity.

How do we do this effectively?  How do we use creativity to influence the world around us in a way that brings about the beauty of creativity within and to others?  In this workshop we share our journey and practically outwork an example together allowing participants to apply this in their own lives.

KAREN SEWELL

Karen Sewell is a visual artist who lives and works in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, New Zealand.  Sewell graduated with a Master of Fine Arts (with Honours) in 2016 from Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design.

She is interested in the intersection of art with spiritual experience. She aspires to create artworks that activate spaces for viewers to be able to experience liminal moments of awareness of the unseen and unknown,  or numinous experiences.  “Numinous” speaks to everything within the realm of our experience which cannot be quantified, explained, or contained.  Our intuition, and our feeling-states.  Our connection to the cosmos, and for some sense of the divine.  Viewers are invited to participate in the installations in some way, for reflection, rest or creative activity. Sewell works across media including sculpture, installation, photography, painting, and drawing.

She was the recipient of the Premier Award in the Waitakere Trust Art Award in 2011 and selected as a finalist in awards including: The Wallace Art Awards in 2013, The NZ Portrait Awards in 2012 and the Glaister Ennor Graduate Awards in 2016.  Sewell has exhibited work across New Zealand and internationally with a highlight being Luminary I Luminare in Personal Structures biennial exhibition at Palazzo Bembo, Venice, Italy, a collateral of the Venice Biennale.

Check out Karen’s work at this link karensewell.net

Workshop

Thinking on BEAUTY in the post modern era

In this workshop through both discussion and making we will consider questions such as why is our culture obsessed with beauty and why does contemporary art reject and despise it? And when we speak of beauty in the context of culture and the context of contemporary art, are we talking about the same thing? Taking inspiration from a recent exhibition at the Suter Gallery, the artwork ‘Eye, Beholder’ (found objects that are arranged together) and an element of my own method of making (involving treasure hunts), participants will be invited to head out locally on a ‘treasure hunt’ for found and discarded objects, environmental detritus organic and non organic, personal items or treasures – the often unnoticed stuff around us and with us. These will then be thoughtfully arranged together as a sampler.  Together we will consider the theological references, ideas about beauty and culture, as we consider our small collections of curated objects.

Dean & Jo McQuoid

Dean and Jo are passionate believers, who love to serve prophetically through worship and the arts.

They fell in love leading worship together 27 years ago, and have continued to serve through itinerant ministry nationally, internationally, and in their local church.

They have been a part of the Christian band scene, church leadership, worship directing, prophetic art, recording projects, evangelistic outreach, both internationally and throughout Aotearoa, and last year saw them release their first full-length album ‘The Strength of Stones’

At Orama, Dean is the Spiritual Formation School director.
Jo is the Event Manager and focus’ on all things fun! She is also spearheading the development of the arts, with a particular focus on the establishment of the new Woolshed art studio.

Check ot the McQuoid’s work and music at this link mcquoidsmusic.com
Instagram: @mcquoidsmusic