Trinity Christian College Praises New Arts Facility

Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights, Ill, dedicated its new Art and Communication Center at the start of the 2008-2009 academic year and the facility has remained busy and lived up to expectations throughout the fall and winter sessions.

The dedication marked not just the opening of a new campus building, but a place providing more opportunities for each student to learn how to become a distinct Christian voice in media and to be proactive in redeeming culture through the arts.

John Bakker, an art professor at the College for many years and chair of the department, said his vision when he arrived in 1982 was not only to build a new building, but also to build a premier art program among Reformed colleges. This had much to do with Trinity’s proximity to Chicago, a city with a thriving art scene.

Aesthetically, the structure is "crisp, clean, and oriented toward functionality," according to Bakker.

Although construction has not begun on the second phase of the facility, which would provide additional classroom and office space for the communication arts department, Annalee Ward, professor and chair of the department, already holds web broadcasting classes in the ARCC. Both Ward and Bakker said they look forward to collaborating more as departments upon the future completion of the second phase.

"The building is built for the future," said Ward.

An editing suite with state-of-the-art sound equipment provides hands-on learning to communication arts students and aspiring broadcasters like Ryan Kwaak of Oak Lawn, Ill. "Thanks to the new building and equipment, we’re putting together quality, community-focused webcasts that offer a positive alternative to the mainstream media," said Kwaak.

The main component of the communication arts department housed in the current first-phase structure is the Marg Kallemeyn Theatre, a black box theatre that maintains the intimacy of the former space but with much more flexibility in staging and seating and includes a scene shop, costume shop, green room, makeup studio, and light/sound booth.

"This theatre showcases what these student performers can do," says John Sebestyen, assistant professor of communication arts and theatre director.

For art students, the ARCC features space for studies in sculpture, photography, painting, graphic design, and print-making.

"The new space provides much more opportunity for large-scale sculpture projects and incredible equipment to work with," said Abby Christensen of Nampa, Idaho, an art studio/history major. "The space available for critiquing our projects creates a great atmosphere for discussion."

The work of both Trinity artists and visiting artists is exhibited in the ARCC's Seerveld Gallery. The gallery, named in honor of former professor Dr. Calvin Seerveld and his wife Ines, was dedicated during Homecoming festivities in February 2009. Seerveld, who is senior member emeritus of philosophical aesthetics at the Institute for Christian Studies, Toronto, spoke at the gallery’s dedication ceremony.

Alumnus and artist Sam McCune ('06), commenting on his pre-ARCC Trinity experience, explained that despite minimal resources then, Trinity has always been a place of intense intellectual growth and artistic formation.

"The professors taught art as a central element to culture and that for Christians to be apart from it would be relinquishing a part of their call to reform, transform, and claim the whole world for Christ," said McCune. "While my own art is usually not explicitly liturgical, I have constantly followed a view of artwork formed at Trinity: Art exists to glorify God."