Lake Ridge Community Church in Chestermere, Alta., is using art to cheer up its city.
Why we decided to make posters of our city
The Covid-19 pandemic put our community in a formal state of emergency for an extended period of time, and this has been a source of anxiety for many of us. While our congregation ended public services, we started to dream of new ways to shape our imagination, offering new ways to see each other and our city, even in the hardest times.
We gave ourselves the freedom to be creative. One of our projects was to professionally record the sounds of our city and share them as a high-quality soundscape album, capturing birds and children playing, a reminder of the life all around us.
We also decided to create some vintage-style travel posters because we do not usually see our city as a tourist destination. By reframing our little lake as something special, we thought others might begin to see that our home is indeed beautiful, meaningful and worth our care. Jesus loves our city, and we think the Church can be creative in reminding us of that.
How we went about it
We found an artist online who creates this vintage-style travel art and captures places around the world in this minimalist way. She was willing to create two images for us which we edited and turned into these posters. It took only about a week and soon we had two images ready. We shared them on local social media and offered them freely to anyone who wanted to print them, share them or just enjoy seeing our little city in a new way. The response was tremendously positive.
If you don’t have a creative bone in your body
In many ways we do not have to be creative, we have to be curious. I have been curious about old travel posters for years and wondered if perhaps we could find a way to make one for our city. Right now artists around the world are struggling and many are happy to take on new projects. By collaborating with creatives we can help them, and make things that bless and celebrate our own neighbourhoods. If you’re looking for an artist to help, www.Fiverr.com is a great place to start.
POSTERS: PLESION.STUDIO
Why art, neighbours, posters and good feelings matter, especially right now
The Church has been, at many times in history, a patron of the arts. We are a storytelling Body that shares the hope of Jesus and God’s love for our neighbours. The arts inspire us to turn to God and the good world He loves. In the struggle of this pandemic, the Church has an opportunity to articulate the gospel in new and tangible ways in a time when hope seems far off. God is endlessly creative in showing up in our lives, and this is Good News.