Worship Arts conference guest artist ‘obsessed with creativity’
BY DEAN SIMPSON
Joel McKerrow ‘speaks the language’ of creatives.
The Melbourne-based creative specialist is this year’s ‘Artist in Residence’ for the Community Arts Engagement Conference (C^E24) to be held in Melbourne on 16-18 August.
Hosted by the territorial Worship Arts Australia team, the weekend event will bring together creatives from across the Australia Territory and beyond.
“Joel is a writer, educator and spoken word artist, and we are very excited to have him contribute creatively to C^E24,” said Jason Simmonds, the team’s Community Arts Engagement Coordinator.
“He’s an engaging performance poet who will bring together much of the learning across the weekend in a form that is easily digested and engages people through story. Joel has extensive experience working with students, teaching the creative process of both poetry and story-writing, and he has a unique way of communicating that connects with people’s imagination and heart.
“So, we are very excited to get inside Joel’s head over the weekend and learn how we can creatively transform Australia one life at a time, with the love of Jesus through music, the arts and creative practice.”
Joel is a lecturer at ACOM, part of the Sydney College of Divinity, and his depth of spiritual insight shines through his storytelling.
He admits he is “obsessed with creativity, story and imagination, and the way they might just change everything”.
In addition to acting as the conference “poetic scribe”, Joel will present a workshop entitled ‘Subversive – Creativity and Social Change’.
“The society we live in is a story-telling society,” he said. “The values upheld, the shape of relationships, the search for meaning ... all of these things are influenced by the stories that we listen to.
“Our creativity, therefore, when it seeks to tell a new story, actually has the potential to change the society around us.”
The Worship Arts Team believes that the arts provide a great way to engage communities and, in doing so, build caring and healthy communities where people can encounter Jesus.
Learn more about Joel here
Registrations for the community arts engagement conference close at midnight on 1 August (interstate registrations have now closed). Find out more about the conference and register here
