This past summer, when our five jurors gathered to review and deliberate over the submissions to the Faith & Form/ IFRAA International Awards Program for Religious Art and Architecture, it wasn’t clear what the impact of the economy might be. One possibility was that the number of entrants would be lower, and that appeared to be the case. Typically there are about 200 submissions in all categories. This year’s 168 entrants marked a 15 percent decline in submissions; the categories with the biggest dips in submissions were the visual arts. Fewer submissions may have been a product of fewer projects reaching completion, or more submitters deciding to sit this year out to save on the entry fees. Projects can be submitted within five years of completion, so if not this year, the logic might have run, maybe next, when things are a bit more secure financially.
One building type the jurors missed seeing more of was the megachurch. Given the role that megachurches play in contemporary worship, the jury encouraged more designers of such buildings to submit their projects. Of those submitted, the strongest ones made no bones of the fact that they were metal boxes; their designers found artful ways to express this fact. What advice did the jurors offer for future submitters to the awards program? Show artwork in its context – within the worship environment – and how it works in the space. Submit more projects to the Sacred Landscape category: the jurors are aware that much work is being done in this realm, but the number of submissions was not strong.
What gave the juror members pause? Two issues stood out. Several jurors remarked that in the projects submitted, a lack of attention seemed to have been paid to communal gathering in worship spaces. One juror remarked on the clear demarcation between the liturgical actors and the assembly; the spatial gulf between the two appeared to have widened. Jurors also detected a general lack of coordination between interior architecture and the liturgical arts – “The art looked like something that had been added at the last minute,” one juror remarked. Much of the art appeared to be mass produced, pulled from catalogues, and not commissioned for the worship environment “There seems to be a growing loss of arts in the church,” a juror observed, which is a reversal of the role that religious organizations have played for thousands of years in inspiring and employing the arts. Other jurors opined that art used as an instrument of education in religious environments seemed weak.
The best projects, in the view of the jury, maintained a remarkable consistency throughout – from building exteriors, interiors, and furnishings, to the landscape. The strongest projects in the arts were created for specific environments, art and architecture working hand in hand.
