Beauty Matters and So Do Those Who Create It

You’ll be like a well-watered garden, a gurgling spring that never runs dry. You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You’ll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again. Isaiah 58:11-12 The Message

HOW YOUR CONTRIBUTION HELPS FULFILL OUR VISION FOR BIRMINGHAM

InSpero believes in the power of creative community to help bring beauty, hope, and healing to our city and churches.

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WHO IS THIS CREATIVE COMMUNITY?

The artists and artisans, the painters and poets, the dancers and architects, the storytellers and musicians, the potters and actors, the chefs and those who set the table of hospitality, along the visionaries and risk takers and preachers, and so many more. It's those who see what is and what "ought" to be. Those who articulate truth in ways that move us. They are the prophets of our times. Like prophets of old, they experience isolation, self-doubt, criticism, or never getting the chance to be heard or seen. We make sure these artists and artisans know their work matters, that they matter, and we provide ways for them to give their good gifts to our city and churches.

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HOW HAS YOUR CONTRIBUTION HELPED INSPERO INSPIRE THIS CREATIVE COMMUNITY IN 2017?

Through your contributions, we've been able to enrich and strengthen artists through retreats and opportunities to collaborate, give scholarships to artists, to make beautiful events affordable for those who need them but can't afford them, to develop meaningful long-term conversations about the wounds of our city, and to help musicians develop connections in the city.  These offerings include:

• Annual creatives retreat at Pursell Farm
• Lenten retreat to prepare people to create through the season of Lent
• Time to share these creative Lent offerings (from dance to paintings to harp music)
• Thy Love Inspires, area musicians coming together to sing ancient and new hymns held at Bluff Park Community Church
• Third annual Magic City Storyteller event featuring fiction writers, poets and musicians
• Bridge Builders, ongoing intimate gatherings for artists to learn more about the racial wounds of our city
• Birmingham Music Makers, ongoing gathering of musicians to connect and encourage each other
• Social justice photo display by Vicki Hunt and her late father, a police officer and photographer during the Civil Rights movement in Birmingham. This discussion will lead to "Changing the Picture of Birmingham" artistic events in 2018
• House Concert with Allen Levi
• Advent Lectio Divina
• Christmas Vespers

Our next post will describe some of the beautiful events InSpero planned for 2018

PLEASE REMEMBER INSPERO, INC. IN YOUR 2017 YEAR-END GIVING.

Tax-deductible donations can be made to InSpero, Inc., a 501(c)(3) organization.
Click here to give online
Checks can be written to InSpero, Inc. and mailed to
246 Marwood Drive,
Birmingham, AL 35244

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