The mission of the McMane Arts Ministry is to create, encourage, and promote opportunities for people to experience and explore the dynamic flow between spirituality and the arts. The arts are understood to include visual arts, dance, music, drama, creative writing, or any other art form the Arts Ministry wishes to include in furthering its mission.
McMane Arts is engaged in three major areas:
Exhibitions – We bring a rotating art exhibit into the building for congregational and community viewing, hosting the art of as many as 70 artists at one time in our gallery space.
Worship – We provide and create fabric art and other visual art for sacred spaces, planning visual installations in the sanctuary.
Workshops – We plan experiential opportunities for artists and non-artists alike to experience various art forms, practices, and media, sometimes sponsoring an artist-in-residence.
In 2015, the church received a major contribution enabling us to commission two sculptures to be permanently installed on our grounds, the Conversation sculpture on the Plaza and the Peace Crane sculpture at our Pine Street entrance. An Arts Ministry Endowment Fund was established and named in honor of Rev. Martie McMane, Senior Minister of First Congregational Church from 2000 to 2016, in gratitude for her ministry and in honor of her commitment to the arts.
