Transform seeks to inspire artists by engaging with and creating culture to authentically represent Christ in the world of art, media, and entertainment.

MISSION

Transform seeks to encourage generations of artists who don’t merely maintain their faith but also flourish and impact culture while working in the arts. In general, the art world perceives Christians as being irrelevant, exclusive, and narrow-minded while Christians see those in the art world as being liberal, elitist, and unrestrained. Transform aims to nurture relationships in these worlds with mutual respect, trust, and credibility as we pursue our art and our faith with excellence and authenticity.

Transform focuses on four key areas of personal development: artistic, spiritual, civic, and leadership. Artistic development is essential for establishing a credibility among colleagues. Spiritual development is critical to understanding how to navigate life, represent Christ, and serve others in any walk of life. Civic development is key to nurturing a heart of compassion for others and understanding the deep needs of the city in which one lives. Leadership development is a necessity to live a fruitful and faithful life in the arts.

VISION

TRANSFORMTHEN AND NOW

Transform seeks to encourage generations of artists who don’t merely maintain their faith but also flourish and impact culture while working in the arts. In general, the art world perceives Christians as being irrelevant, exclusive, and narrow-minded while Christians see those in the art world as being liberal, elitist, and unrestrained. Transform aims to nurture relationships in these worlds with mutual respect, trust, and credibility as we pursue our art and our faith with excellence and authenticity.

Transform focuses on four key areas of personal development: artistic, spiritual, civic, and leadership. Artistic development is essential for establishing a credibility among colleagues. Spiritual development is critical to understanding how to navigate life, represent Christ, and serve others in any walk of life. Civic development is key to nurturing a heart of compassion for others and understanding the deep needs of the city in which one lives. Leadership development is a necessity to live a fruitful and faithful life in the arts.

Transform began in 2001 on the campus of NYU as Kirk Irwin (Cru staff member) and Chad DeMiguel (NYU film student) responded to the need for a thoughtful Christian presence in the arts. The ministry quickly expanded to include other art schools in New York City.

In 2005 Leigh Ann Dull joined Kirk in New York City to lead Transform. That same year the Tribeca Arts Project for undergraduate art students began which catapulted Transform to a new place. This five-week project brought art students into the city from around the country to share their faith, understand a theology of the arts, and create art in community. Over the years many students have returned to their respective locations inspired and encouraged to take steps to engage their art peers with their faith beliefs.

In 2011 Transform began a year-long artist-in-residency program. Matt Guilford (Cru staff member) joined Leigh Ann in directing in 2012. Transform has now grown to have a presence in New York City, Kansas City, Dallas, and Orlando. Currently, the artist-in- residence programs are located in New York City and Kansas City. Many of our residents and professional artists have joined part-time staff. Each summer Transform hosts art projects of university art students from across the U.S. These projects aim to guide art/creative students to a deeper integration and engagement in their art and their faith. The summer project is a means of preparing young people to return to their campus and engage their spheres of influence with increased confidence in their artistic disciplines and in their reliance on God.

TRANSFORMIN ACTION

Transform seeks to engage the art world by creating space for authentic dialogue about art, faith and culture. This takes the form of art dinners, art exhibits, gallery visits, participating in community art projects and residencies in the US and internationally. Transform as a team of residents and staff maintains it’s internal community relationships, growth, leadership and direction through regular video contacts and local team interactions.

FOUR PILLARS

ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE PROGRAM

ARTISTIC DEVELOPMENT Assisting artists in stewarding their creative talents through different means of artistic growth. This is different for each resident and helps to catapult them into their careers while learning to live missionally as artists of faith, creating excellent artwork that impacts our culture. (Col. 3: 23-24)

SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT Assisting artists in understand-ing the integration of their art and faith so that they may live whole, undivided lives. We seek to ground artists in finding their sole identity in Christ. With this as their foundation they learn to be confident in engaging in conversation about their faith, help-ing others grow in their faith and encouraging others to do the same in an ever-changing cultural landscape. (Genesis 2:9 & Matt. 28:19)

CIVIC DEVELOPMENT Assisting artists to become people of compassion who not only know what it means to live within an urban environment but also how to serve the deep needs of the city. (Jonah 4:11)

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT Assisting in the development of artists who can faithfully step into positions of influence where their leadership represents the life of Christ in culture, reflects the values of the Kingdom of God, and equips others to do the same. ( 2 Tim. 2:15)

Transform seeks to engage the art world by creating space for authentic dialogue about art, faith and culture. This takes the form of art dinners, art exhibits, gallery visits, participating in community art projects and residencies in the US and internationally. Transform as a team of residents and staff maintains it’s internal community relationships, growth, leadership and direction through regular video contacts and local team interactions.

KEELEY MANCA JONESActor/ModelNew York, NY

Actor/ModelNew York, NY

CLAYTON JONES

Multimedia ArtistNew York, NY

NAOMI KUO

SingerNew York, NY

ERIN FARRARPainter

New York, NY

MISSY CARGO

MARK PATEIllustratorDallas, TX

SculptorNew York, NY

ROSE SIGLINArt Historian

Kansas City, MO

OLLISHA PAMPLIN

STAFF TEAM

TRANSFORM 2015-2016

CeramicistDirector

LEIGH ANN DULL MATT GUILFORDIllustrator

Associate Director

ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE

TRANSFORM 2015-2016

Hometown: Modesto, California

Martha Graham once said, “Nothing is more revealing than movement.” As an artist whose expression is the medium of movement, I am able to communicate and contribute to my community by transcending what words cannot express. Through dance, I hope to personally understand and move people toward an engagement with the world that ought to be. My art is deeply informed by faith and inspired by human interaction and nature. My work is an intimate process – a journey – reflecting Martha Graham’s statement “Dance is just discovery, discovery, discovery.”

FRANCESCACIPPONERI1st year residentPlacement: NYC

performer -actingsinging

dancing

Hometown: Miami, Florida

I’m driven to maximize self-expression in my art making – utilizing whatever medium or form necessary. It reflects my raison d’etre: to keep the past in view, in order to better understand the present and wrestle with the future. The source material within my aesthetic exploration comes from a multitude of places: Japanese Animation and video games experienced during teen years, biblical stories and saintly figures from childhood, tragic biographies found on Wikipedia of philosophers during college and personal narratives encoded in symbolisms encountered throughout my life. Whether it is painting small, intimate portraits of people I know, creating monumental, symbolic representations of my past in non-traditional media, or birthing comical archetypes of myself through a digital pen, in my effort to communicate ideas, I make every stroke, every line, every swathe of color on canvas, paper or digital media count.

CAROLINEMARIECOLBY1st year residentPlacement: Kansas City

painting, illustration,mixed media

Hometown: San Francisco, California

As a multidisciplinary artist, fascinated by the arcane, ambiguous, liminal, and the uncanny I create nontraditional sculpture, installations, and two dimensional works. My current works explore ambiguity, the surreal, and the near narrative, as well as investigation of art theory. A curious preoccupation has led me to delve deeply into the sacred text of Judeo-Christianity and Biblical prophecy. By concep-tualizing and translating portending forms, events, woes, persons, and providential characteristics into visual compo-sitions. I produce incarnational work, where ideation yields to medium and medium yields to spiritual providence. It has been said that, "One thing art should be is prophetic." With this as a guiding principle, my aim, through my work, is to serve as a contemporary prophet of sorts – always listening for the Divine.

GREGLANWAY1st year residentPlacement: NYC

interdisciplinary artistand designer

Hometown: Monaca, Pennsylvania

In my art-making I think about the human condition – the physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual state of man. I am interested in unearthing the common threads that bind us together across races, cultures and generations. I believe these threads consist of our biggest questions, deepest longings, common struggles and fears and our physical make-up and design. Through my process of hand-sewing, cutting out and reattaching, I also think about God’s hand in the cosmic drama of creation, death and revitalization and how this drama pertains to man.

JOSEPHINELEE2nd year residentPlacement: Kansas City

visual art - paintingdrawing

Hometown: Lubbock, Texas

As an author, poet, and spoken word artist, I am captivated by the strength of words and the influence they possess in people’s lives. These elements attracted me at a young age and have not released me. As an art form, language and the written word are approachable, directly relatable, and tangible. My work explores the subjects of womanhood, faith, body image, surviving, depression, and light, light, light. In my fictional writing, I employ humor as a method of exploring dark subjects. Through the development of absurd characters and quirky scenarios, I am able to present dark subjects honestly while making the stories more palatable. Through my work, my hope is to shed light into the dark places within the human experience – a light to remind us all we are not alone.

MAEMADISON

PARKER1st year residentPlacement: Kansas City

writer - fictionpoetry

The first time you said love, it slipped from your tongue like a loose knot and your parents tried hard to teach you how to tie knots, but they eventually gave up and bought you velcro shoes. Now when you say love, it is masked by that clinging sound of a good thing being torn apart.

The first time ugly loaded its canon through your teeth an apology followed and ricocheted inside your bones. The space between is a reminder of where you don’t fit. More empty for the apologies to reload and trigger all up and down the spine.

Mother was a new one. It hung between the silence like Christmas lights or snow. You leave the Christmas light on all year long now. A home that never has to cry.

Hope came out the way all hope does. Silent. Necessary. The letters sat in your hands long before, but it takes a definition to first give it a name.

God inserted himself last. Said, “I need you to taste more before you can swallow me.” Unlike other words that become stale bread or maybe the communion cups of a fake wine of a fake blood you are still swishing that name around. It is a mouthwash you can’t bring yourself to spit down the drain.

Hometown: Fair Oaks, California

I am fascinated by the endless expressive possibilities of dance. Through inspiration, imagination and creativity, dance is able to capture the full range of the human experience. As a dancer my art form allows me to physically create a series of captivating movements which unfold stories containing the wealth of the human experience. My inspiration is drawn from nature and underscores my belief that it's creator is the ultimate artist. Through movement, I seek to understand and experience hope. As with all art forms embodied in culture – dance is a means of discovery. My hope is that my audience and patrons would come to a greater understanding along with me.

AMYPETERSEN1st year residentPlacement: NYC

performer -singingdancing

acting