Advent exhibitions
There’s a range of interesting Advent exhibitions about at the moment – two Advent Beach Hut Calendars, several online ones, and a number of people blogging through Advent.
Gavin Mart writes about an Advent exhibition at LeftBank in Leeds, which he and Si Smith have curated. He makes some pertinent comments about how artworks are affected/inspired/etc by their venue, and how the venue can demand a different standard, or a different kind of work from an artist.
Its the kind of venue that whispers a challenge to any budding artisan. “come on, you know you want to…” . You know what that entails too, because to do anything worth any salt in the original beauty of the venue takes time and effort. You just can’t rush things in there, its stands out a mile against the magnificent architecture. Somehow our modern way of putting events together can sometimes lack integrity against the traditional, ‘they don’t build em like they used to…’ type venues.
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Maggi has kept a blog since September 2003, writing about theology and faith, the arts and literature, and a little about life and random nonsense...
In an increasingly secularised society few people have a good working knowledge of the Bible. Yet a great deal of our culture is built on stories or ideas that come from the Bible. Literature, art, music, language and even the fabric of our society - such as our justice system - are built on Christian concepts and biblical references. The Writing on the Wall provides a fascinating introduction to the Bible's best-known, and most influential, stories. Each chapter gives some background to the text of the Bible, and shows how the stories have become enmeshed in Western culture. Adam and Eve, the ten plagues of Egypt, The Prodigal Son and Mary Magdalene all feature - along with how the Bible has influenced everyone from Shakespeare to Monty Python, and Caravaggio to Banksy. 
Giving It Up explores the Lenten idea of 'giving up', taking it beyond the traditional idea of simply abstaining from something, and suggesting instead that what we need to give up is our existing ideas about God. With a daily readings for each day of Lent, from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday, it follows the heroes of the Bible who had to give up their own too-small ideas about God.
This is Maggi’s bestselling book of daily readings for each day of Advent, Christmas and Epiphany. Advent is the beginning of the Church year, and marks the anticipation of the coming Messiah. These readings explore how beginnings and endings in our own lives are illuminated by the different Gospel narratives of Christ's coming.
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