Silver Lake News

Fall 2009

Greetings, all you Lakers, from your co-directors. We are pleased with the completion of our sixth year and summer of Outdoor Ministry, welcoming more than 1,100 conferees and almost 200 volunteer deans, counselors, chaplains, and Artists in Residence this summer.

As we embark on a new course of Julia Cameron’s “Artist’s Way,” we reflect with delight on our flourishing Artists in Residence program these past several summers. Born out of the belief that an artist in our midst enhances our experience as a community, and invites and opens channels of possibility — even if they have minimal direct contact with the conferences — this program has changed both the artists and the space, and Silver Lake’s Outdoor Ministry, in its wake. An artist at camp, creatively working, exploring a discipline, whether it’s painting, music, printmaking, sculpture, photography, composition or drawing, changes the energy, summons the sacred, and plugs us into some “spiritual electricity,” as well as invites us to play.

Artists apply and propose a simple hope or vision for their week of residency, then occupy the Silver Birch Lodge, built in the late 1890s on Silver Lake (formerly known as the Crawford Property). They either offer a workshop or “interest group” to a conference or multiple conferences or staff group, or they offer an exhibit or showing of their work to the conferences at the end of the week, or both. They also leave an example/sample or piece of their work at Silver Lake as an installation for future enjoyment. Thus their work speaks to us, moves us, inspires us and even provokes thoughts or feelings long after the artist has left. The personal becomes public, the poetry is shared, and our young people see first-hand the results, workings, and possibilities that lie within of the creative force available to each of us.

We invited famous artist and Low Road neighbor Jasper Johns, whose work is often described as Neo- Dadaist, to become a Silver Lake Artist in Residence. He is best known for his painting “Flag”(1954), which he painted after having a dream of the American flag. His painting “False Start” was sold for $80 million dollars, making it the most expensive painting by a living artist.

Johns declined the invitation but has said, “In the place where I was a child, there were no artists, and there was no art, so I really didn’t know what that meant.” Silver Lake has become a place where young people can discover what that means.

Silver Lake has become a place of art, a place of nurturing creative expression where artists reside, one week at a time, and where young people can come to know what that looks like, a glimpse of what that means. I once saw a sign that said, “Art may not change the world, but a world without art is not worth changing.” That is why we have artists in our midst. If you are interested in applying as an Artist or sponsoring a Fellowship of the program, please contact us. Meanwhile, we’ll let you know where our own “Artist’s Way” journies lead.

Peace,

Anne Hughes
Tim Hughes
Co-Directors, Silver Lake

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Content of the Fall 2009 Issue

A Week at Silver Birch Lodge to Strip Away the "Stuff"

Passing the Baton

Annual Appeal Update

Silver Lake Celebrates, Dedicates New Buildings

2009 Now for the Future Silver Lake Donors

Now for the Future Campaign Making Strides

News from our Friends...

Generosity Corner

Silver Lake on Facebook

Upcoming Events at Silver Lake