About us
ARTS+ was started by leaders of Christian art initiatives who recognize the importance of being connected. It comprises a group of visionary arts advocates and leaders who collaborate in order to catalyze forward progress in the arts landscape across Europe and beyond.
Inspired by “Hope for Europe,” national round tables were formed, first in Switzerland. In 2009 the European Arts Summit at Schloss Mittersill hastened an expansion of the European-wide network and a sharpening of the vision.
The ARTS+ network and vision continues to expand across Europe and beyond focusing on the spheres of the Church, Artists, Academia/ Education, and the Marketplace.
Above all we are a relational group of arts visionary leaders who are intentionally trans-denominational and open for trans-cultural connections. Embracing common core values, we are unified in our desire to see God glorified in the Church life, educational endeavors, the public square, and mission initiatives.
MISSION
ARTS+ is a network of Christian art initiatives which enables Regional, National, Continental and Global Round Tables for the purpose of information exchange, mutual encouragement, and co-operation.
“The intelligent public is [...] waiting to hear from art what it does not hear from theology, philosophy, social theory, and what it cannot hear from pure science. Out of the struggle at the center has come an immense, painful longing for a broader, more flexible, fuller, more coherent, more comprehensive account of what we human beings are, who we are, and what this life is for."
(Saul Bellow, Nobel Prize Winner in Literature, 1976)
MODUS OPERANDI
The focus of ARTS+ is to act as a catalyst in the formation and nurturing of Regional, National, Continental and Global Round Tables. These comprise Christian faith-based art initiatives across all art forms and denominational borders, who are active in art education, mentoring of artists, art & church projects, media, missions, etc.
The ARTS+ has gathered together over the last 14 years in a different countries across Europe, with the aim of encouraging the ongoing formation of National Round Tables. This has resulted in synergistic collaborations in the fields of Church, Market Place, the Academic World, Creative Mission Strategies, and Artist’s Mentoring and the development and expansion of Round Tables from the Regional and National reach to a Continental and Global reach.
ROUND TABLES | INTRODUCTION
Based on the pan-European model, the development and formation of Arts Round Tables at Regional, National, Continental and Global levels is a core activity. ARTS+ recognises the importance of bringing arts leaders together for mutual awareness, encouragement, prayer, and potential collaboration.
Round Tables are for key people who both work and network in the 4 spheres of ARTS+: Artists, Academy, Church and Society. Round Tables help foster connection and dialogue for networkers, initiators, artists, creatives, pastors, educators and visionaries (e.g. artists with a vision of connection, church leaders with influence etc.)
Find a list of the current Round Tables here.
CATEGORIES
MEET THE TEAM
Executive Leadership Team
(ExELT)
John
Baker
(UK)
John organised the European Arts Summit 2009 in partnership with Beat Rink, Colin Harbinson and Jim Mills. Since then he has organised all the Annual Meetings of Arts+Europe and pursued, with the Leadership Team, the formation of RoundTables of Artists in various European countries. He and his wife, Heather are members of The Royal Academy of Art in London and are avid Gallery visitors wherever they travel. John pursues photography as an artistic outlet. He is a Board member of QVI.
Jill
Ford
(UK)
Country Representative
Arts Programme Leader and Lecturer at All Nations and Strategic Global Arts Networker at ARTS+/WEA since September 2022. Jill has a background in music, theatre and performing arts and experience in teaching, performing, conducting, directing and orchestral playing. She has designed and developed the Arts modules for the All Nations curriculum at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. She has introduced a variety of creative projects and events at the college, including multicultural worship. Jill has recently completed a Doctorate in Worship Studies at the Robert Webber Institute in Jacksonville, Florida.
Jim
Mills
(USA/BEL)
Dr. Jim Mills along with his wife Anne
oversee the arts network of Creative
Arts Europe. Jim chairs the USA non-
profit Creative Missions Int’l (CMI) and
is an ordained minister. He obtained
His Doctor of Ministry in Intercultural
Studies in Scotland & the USA in 2012
focusing on a Christian world-
View and the arts. Jim currently
serves as an adjunct professor
for Visible Music College & Störling
Conservatory of Dance in the USA.
Beat
Rink
(SUI)
Beat has founded with his wife Airi, “Crescendo International” and has lead this movement since 1985. He is a theologian and ordained pastor of the Swiss Reformed church and has also a M.A. in literature and history. He has written several books and also his own poetry. He is president of ARTS+ Switzerland.
Steve
Thrall
(USA/F)
Country Representative
Pastor with a heart for artists. Steve is the former director of the Pavé d’Orsay arts space in Paris.
He also serves as an adjunct professor at two universities and along with his wife Miki is running an Artists Retreat Centre in Normandy.
Verena
Schnitzhofer
(AT)
Country Representative
Admin Person for Arts+Europe. Verena works as Executive Assistant for the Quo Vadis Institute
(Salzburg, Austria) which inspires and connects thought leaders in the guilds of e.g. Arts, Healthcare, Business and Religion to rethink and shape the future of Europe. Since 2019 Verena is part of the Austrian RT Leadership team.
Zdravka
Samsonova-Stefanova
(BG)
Country Representative
Founder and director of “Ellion Arts” – Christian artist organization for culture and intercultural dialog in Bulgaria. Zdravka is Art-historian, curator of fine art exhibitions and manager of art events and art festivals.
Since 2022 she coordinates
the RT Bulgaria.
Krisztina
Tarjányi
(HUN)
Country Representative
Actress, Leader of the Sostenuto Department of the Crescendo Summer Institute, works with Crescendo International and Crescendo Hungary.
Since 2020 Krisztina is coordinating the RT Hungary.
Amy
Williams
(USA/HUN)
Amy is a dancer and a theologian who is passionate about connecting artists and the church. Originally from the USA she now lives in Budapest representing the Inspiro Arts Alliance (formerly OMArts) in Europe.
Extended Leadership Team
Heather
Baker
(GBR)
Support team
Wife of John Baker who assists him in his Arts+ organising and hosting.
Dianne
Collard
(USA)
Advisory Board
Dianne serves as the Europe Director for Artists in Christian Testimony International
She is also the Founder/Director of ArtsCharlotte in the U.S.
She is an international speaker and the author of
“I Choose to Forgive.”, which is available in eleven European languages.
Bill
Drake
(USA)
Advisory board
Bill serves as the International Director of Catalytic Ministries for Operation Mobilization.
Külli
Hansen
(EST)
Extended
Leadership Team
Colin
Harbinson
(USA)
Advisory Board
Colin Harbinson is the international director of StoneWorks - a global arts initiative for cultural restoration, and the recovery of the imagination in the life and mission of the Church.
Emilee
Irwin
(USA/France)
Extended
Leadership Team
Emilee is a missionary in Paris, France with Greater Europe Mission (GEM) where she has served since 2017.
Locally, she is involved in local arts ministry and in church planting.
She also serves as GEM’s Arts Impact Zone Leader, forming partnerships and providing resources for the mission’s artists and musicians serving across Europe.
Charles
Kelley
(USA/Latvia)
Extended
Leadership Team
Charles is a Painter and President of Bridge Builders International.
Astrid
Künzler
(SUI)
Extended
Leadership Team
Performance Artist, Choreographer, Cultural Worker. Astrid in the leadership team
of Arts+Switzerland.
Leen
La Rivière
(NL)
Extended
Leadership Team
Chairman Christian Artists, author of 28 books about the arts and faith. Founder of The Continental Singers groups in Europe; Speaker; Lector of the Masterclass Cultural Leadership; Chairman of the national music council.
Edgars
Mazis
(LV)
Extended
Leadership Team
Baptist Pastor, based in Latvia and Teaches at the Baltic Pastoral Institute.
Natalie
Meeks
(US/LV)
Extended
Leadership Team
Hector
Ramirez
(ESP)
Round Table Leader
Founder and director of Ars Escuela de Música y Artes Escénicas in Madrid for 12 years; Hector is now the artistic director of the Ars Vitalis Forum, together with his wife Lilli and their son Danny. Hector has directed classical plays and written and produced his own plays. He has a passion for helping Christian artists reflect on the nature of the creative gift, understand our postmodern paradigm, and be the light we are supposed to be in the mainstream culture.
Tamás
Tarjányi
(HUN)
Support Team
Opera singer and general director of the Crescendo Summer Institute, Hungary. Works with Crescendo International and Crescendo Hungary.