Cal Seerveld at CIVA in Michigan

At the recent CIVA (Christians in the Visual Arts) conference held at Calvin College in Michigan, Senior Member Emeritus Cal Seerveld was part of “The First Generation” opening panel plenary session, chaired by Nick Wolterstorff, with Marleen Hengelaar (Hans Rookmaaker’s daughter), and earlier presidents of CIVA Ted Prescott and Sandra Bowden. They discussed how Christian artists and the Church interacted 35 years ago, what has changed, and how are things now. The next day there was a Q&A time for persons to ask questions and make comments.

On the last evening of the conference at the concluding Arts Festival Cal was surprised to be given an award by CIVA President Cam Anderson, the Johnson Founder’s Award. It was very meaningful to Cal because he had interacted with Eugene Johnson back in 1979 when Patmos was ending in Toronto after ten years of existence, and he was beginning CIVA with colleagues at Bethel College, Minnesota. Cal was a plenary speaker for the CIVA conference when it was held at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, in 1997. That address, “From Ghost Town to Tent City: Artist community facing Babylon and the city of God” is printed in his book Redemptive Art in Society (Dordt Press, 2014).