What would happen if the church supported artists and these artists trusted the church enough to give up any financial rights to the art they would make under the patronage of the church so that this art could be disseminated to the global church at no charge and through the process of all of this nobody stood to make any money? I really don't know, but let's find out.
I'm flying to Nashville this coming Sunday afternoon to be a part of a recording project with Michael Card and two other Seattle worship leaders/artists, Molly McCue & Kurt Dyrhsen. The name of this project and is BYFOR and is the brain child of Michael Card and Lance Mansfield. We will be recording a CD of music for Lent and all of this is loosely being done under the auspices of the question found at the beginning of this post. It is an experiment, but a potentially revolutionary one. And I am honored to be one of the guinea pigs.
The church as patron-of-the-arts is not a new concept. It just happens to be a concept that hasn't had much success in the past 200+ years. The one thing that really holds this idea together also happens to be the one idea that seems to be the most scary. All of the music will be released under the Creative Commons license. The particular way in which our project is set up makes it really difficult for anyone to profit. The reason this just might work is that it is focused on musicians and artists who are already working within the church. But it certainly pushes the limits of what it means to be community, what it means to be an artist, what it means to be church...
I don't think that this kind of model will work for everyone, but I do think that it has the potential to work for many, many artists in the church who are currently hamstrung by studio and recording costs (i.e. ME!)
After the record is finished, Michael will travel up here to Seattle for a series of concerts that we'll all be a part of. Stay tuned for more info.
So hopefully I have at least piqued your interest. I will try to update you throughout the week and fill you in on the goings on. It is certain to be an interesting week.
Comments