TheoArtistry’s projects bring together the expertise and interests of artists, theologians, and commissioners of art.
Click on the project image for more information.
Text & Image Scheme (2021)
Cancer Fiction Library Project (2019-2021)
Student-Led Collaborations (2018/19)
TheoArtistry Festival
Poets' Scheme (2018)
Composers' Scheme (2016-17)
Musical Collaborations
ITIA Art Exhibition (2017)
Projects Gallery
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Text & Image Scheme (2021)
'Art as Revelation' collaborations and exhibition
This scheme aims to create a space for artists and postgraduate researchers in theology to collaborate, exploring the relationship between spiritual and religious text and art. This will deepen the research students’ understanding of the creation of text-inclusive art, and enable the making of original images for scholarly analysis.
Drawing on the previously successful University of St Andrews-led TheoArtistry scheme for poets (2018) and composers (2016/17), as well as the student-led collaborations (2018/19), the Text&Image collaborations will team artists with postgraduate researchers to explore areas of overlap between spiritual and religious text and art. The aim is to deepen our understanding of the process and the reasons that lead visual artists to include text in their compositions, in order better to understand art addressing religious and spiritual themes, and art more in general.
This TheoArtistry scheme was co-ordinated by Dr Nicole Ruta and Dr Rebekah Dyer.
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Cancer Fiction Library Project (2019-2021)
This project aimed to investigate how the arts can be used to meet cancer patients’ need and desire for spiritual care. New forms of care that help patients to find meaning in their experiences of cancer are urgently required, as patients’ spiritual needs are overlooked in contemporary healthcare practices. Designed and led by ITIA doctoral student Ewan Bowlby, the Cancer Fiction Library project has led to the creation and pilot-testing of new spiritual care resources for cancer patients.
Working in collaboration with Maggie’s Cancer Care Centres, Ewan trialled two innovative, arts-based forms of spiritual care nationally across Scotland. The Maggie's Fiction Library is a library of novels, films and television series, and an accompanying guidebook. This resource has been available to use in Maggie’s Centres in Dundee, Edinburgh, Kirkcaldy, and Lanarkshire since February 2020. The Maggie's Fiction Library Guide invites people affected by cancer to use this library of fictional stories to explore their personal experiences of cancer. A series of guided group discussions has also been trialled in collaboration with Maggie’s Centres. These groups have provided evidence of the value of using popular artforms to initiate and enrich the communal discussion of cancer patients’ spiritual concerns. Through these trials, the Cancer Fiction Library project has shown how the arts can support and enrich a cancer patients’ search for meaning by reflecting and reframing patients’ experiences and introducing them to new perspectives on their situation.
During the first Covid-19 lockdown in England, Ewan worked with the Northumberland Cancer Support Group (NCSG) to explore how the arts could be used to sustain a sense of community and connection amongst cancer patients forced to shield. An online “Virtual Reading Group” was designed using research from the Cancer Fiction Library Scheme. Novels and television series provided a means of drawing support group members together to discuss spiritual concerns during the pandemic. This revealed how the arts can support a collaborative process of spiritual discovery amongst vulnerable, isolated patients.
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Student-Led Collaborations (2018/19)
TheoArtistry's student-led partnerships focused on developing creative methodologies in theological research.
The 2018/9 partnerships emphasised process rather than product. Each partnership kept a record of their collaboration by creating a ‘scrapbook’ of notes, research and/or creative responses on their chosen theological theme. They rounded off their research by producing some form of critical reflection on their collaborative experience.
This TheoArtistry scheme was co-ordinated by Dr Rebekah Dyer and Dr Caleb Froehlich.
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TheoArtistry Festival
On 5th-6th March 2018, TheoArtistry will host a two-day symposium celebrating, and reflecting critically upon, the inaugural two TheoArtistry musical projects. Featuring the launch of the ITIA-St Salvator’s Chapel Choir CD Recording ‘Annunciations’, and the launch of the TheoArtistry Film Documentary. -
Poets' Scheme (2018)
In March 2018, six world-class poets gathered in St Andrews, Fife to reflect on selected biblical texts through poetry.
Partnering with ITIA theologians, the poets' creative work occurs in dialogue with biblical scholarship and theological research.
The Poets' Scheme takes place during StAnza, Scotland's International Poetry Festival. Each poet will present a draft of their new poem as part of the festival.
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Composers' Scheme (2016-17)
In TheoArtistry’s inaugural project, six outstanding young composers were chosen to work with Sir James MacMillan, Dr George Corbett, and researchers from the School of Divinity at the University of St Andrews.
Through their work on this project, each composer explored theological and creative tensions on the theme of 'Annunciations,' providing new insights for theology and the arts.
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Musical Collaborations
Composers and researchers teamed up with St Salvator's Chapel Choir to produce a new choral recording in 2018. -
ITIA Art Exhibition (2017)
ITIA students, faculty, and friends were invited to submit visual art, writing or music inspired by the theme "The World ‘behind’ and ‘in front of’ the Work.” -
Projects Gallery
Gain a glimpse of our current and past projects with snapshots in the TheoArtistry Projects Gallery.