Art and Faith: Endings and Beginnings

Art and Faith: Endings and Beginnings

A Retreat at the Columba Hotel on Iona, 2-7 November 2024

Dr Debbie Lewer

At a time of year when the light is fading and much in nature is dying, join us to explore a wide range of visual art from the Middle Ages to the present. We will be thinking about art that visualises endings and beginnings of many kinds: death and birth, destruction and creation, collapse and renewal, crisis and hope. We will consider how creative artists often wrestle with how to start – and when to end. We will also pay special attention to the richness of art made in old age, after a lifetime of experience. Many of art history’s most riveting and theologically rich works deal with loss and endings, and with transformation. Bringing art and faith together, this is a chance to discover together the longer, subversive story of the generative potential of what appears to be dead, defunct, or derelict. Both in the stark beauty of Iona in winter, and in our sessions, we can take time to train our eyes to see how life in abundance can spring from apparently finite or broken resources.

This is a retreat for anyone with an interest in art or faith. No experience or expertise is necessary, and all are welcome. There will be options for joining with worship at the Abbey on Iona for those who would like to.

This retreat is available to book online now.

About DR DEBBIE LEWER

Dr Debbie Lewer is Senior Lecturer in History of Art at the University of Glasgow. She specialises in 20th-century German art and in the rich relationship between art and theology. Outside the university, she is a popular speaker on retreats, at festivals and in churches and theological colleges.