Union Avenue Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Celebrating Creativity and Spirituality Through the Arts

The Arts Group of Union Avenue (AGUA), since its inception in 1988, has played an important role in the ministries and evolving congregational life of Union Avenue Christian Church. AGUA is committed to providing the congregation and its surrounding community with opportunities to celebrate and participate in the arts.

AGUA celebrates artistic expression as God’s creativity working through our human lives. To that end, AGUA is responsible for many culturally stimulating activities that set Union Avenue apart from other churches. Because the programs sponsored by AGUA have gained a reputation for excellence over the years, our church family shares an extra sense of pride in the outreach efforts of this vital ministry.

Arts Programming That Suits a Diverse Audience

AGUA develops and selects its programs carefully to suit a diverse audience. The group’s art exhibitions offer visitors to the Gretchen Brigham Gallery the opportunity to study and appreciate a wide range of media of the finest quality. Its programming encourages participation by the young and old alike, and its program leaders have included members of the congregation as well as noted artists, scholars and authorities. Through the years, AGUA has sponsored group studies and visits to exhibitions ranging from a study of “Summer of the God’s,” examining the Scopes Trial and America’s continuing debate over science and religion, to a study of Jane Goodall’s memoir “A Reason for Hope” to an extensive study, lecture and exhibition tour for a program entitled “Van Gogh and God.”

AGUA has supported the development and artistic endeavors of Union Avenue Opera from its inception in 1995. The group provided an opportunity for a 100-year-old artist to exhibit her paintings for the first time. Most recently, AGUA has embraced and supported a collaborative after-school art program for students at Cole Elementary School, St. Michael’s School and the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts.

Even people who say they never visit an art museum or listen to classical music encounter the power of art each day. And there may be no classical tune — operatic or otherwise — that turns up in more varied places than the other-worldly “hit single” from Union Avenue Opera’s final production of its summer season, Lakmé, by Léo Delibes. We encounter this opera’s moving “Flower Duet” at the movies, on television shows, and in all manner of commercials, including those for British Airways.

The transcendent nature of art remains a powerful force in the twenty-first century and forms the theme for the 2009 Arts Group of Union Avenue multi-media summer exhibition. You are invited to use the familiar as either a focal point or a backdrop, and let your visual art transport the viewer to a new place. Capture a mood and send our souls soaring, just like the peaceful accompaniment to a jetliner floating through calm skies and wispy clouds … or a simple walk along a flowering river bank.

FLOWER POWER — August 9 – September 21, 2009, in the Gretchen Brigham Gallery