Befriending Wilderness Symposium

While many artists experience the harsh realities of isolation, rejection, or indifference, the biblical witness provides Christian visual artists with an invitation to not run from but instead embrace seasons of wilderness. Unlike so many other paths, the Bible retains an abiding appreciation for wilderness as the place of surrender, renewal and transformation - for Israel, for Jesus and for the Church. Just like prophets and apostles before us encountered God in desert places, “Befriending Wilderness” aims to leverage Jesus’ counterintuitive call to and through the wilderness as a surprising form of inspiration to live into the beauty and wisdom of the Christian story.

Led by faculty and alumni from Biola University and Wheaton College, this seminar brings together artists of multiple generations to share stories of navigating the wilderness of contemporary art practice. Creatives of all types are welcome to listen and share, while aiming to strengthen the bonds of faith, community, and creative practice.

The event will culminate in a lecture by Dr. Jonathan Anderson, Biola alumnus and Associate Professor of Theology and the Arts at Regent College, whose recent book The Invisibility of Religion in Contemporary Art (Notre Dame, 2025) illuminates the landscape of religion and contemporary art in a way that is both timely and relevant to practicing artists of all stripes.

Registration is required for this event and is free for all guests. Click here to register. Programming will run from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. and will be followed by a public reception.