Downey, Grant lend support to Christian entertainment education
Kim Chaudoin | 615.966.6494 |
Music. Movies. Art. Theater. Literature. Games. Television.
Entertainment is all around us and is a powerful force in society. The positive and negative impact of entertainment is the topic of much discussion and debate.
But on Wednesday, Jan. 21, one group of industry leaders came together to support and encourage Christian influence on entertainment at a special luncheon benefitting Lipscomb’s College of Entertainment & the Arts.
Singer-songwriter Amy Grant and Actress Roma Downey, an Emmy®-nominated actress and producer of “Touched by an Angel” and “The Bible” series, headlined the luncheon. Best-selling Christian author Karen Kingsbury also was among those in attendance at the event, which was held at Spark, Lipscomb’s satellite facility located in Franklin, Tenn.
“What today is about is how we together tell stories that mean something to society,” said Mike Fernandez, dean of the College of Entertainment & the Arts. “In this room, we have three women of strong faith in distinctly different areas of the entertainment industry who are really telling powerful stories that are shaping culture. This is a profound moment.”
Grant is the best-selling contemporary Christian artist in industry history. She has been recognized with six Grammy Awards, 25 Gospel Music Association Dove Awards and numerous other honors and has achieved two No. 1 singles on the pop music charts.
“What an interesting group of people in this room. Every one of us has a story. All the chapters of our lives are unique unto themselves. But we find ourselves in this chapter, right now,” said Grant. “I am so honored to be a part of the advisory board for the [forthcoming] school of contemporary music and to be a part of this program.”
Downey and Grant’s paths crossed when “Touched by an Angel” was in production from 1994-2003, and Grant participated in the recording of the show’s soundtrack.
“I am not a big TV watcher,” Grant recalled. “But I was so glad to participate. So glad that somebody was telling a story that piqued people’s curiosity about the world that we don’t see. And really that’s what God has always done with us. He knows how we are wired. We are wired to discover. We are wired to create. We are wired to reflect Him.”
The great-granddaughter of the late A.M. Burton, who was a former Lipscomb board member and one of the most influential figures in Lipscomb’s history, Grant attended Lipscomb Academy Elementary School and charted a new course for her family’s association with the institution by creating and headlining Lipscomb’s annual holiday celebration Lighting of the Green for the past 10 years.
A native of Ireland, Downey is president of LightWorkers Media, a United Artists Media Group Banner, through which she and her husband, Mark Burnett, produced the Emmy®-nominated miniseries, “The Bible,” for the History Channel.
“I couldn’t be more delighted to be here and to hear about all the great work you’re doing in these programs. I look forward to having graduates of these programs come to the West Coast so we can hopefully put them to work. I’ve been so blessed to be able to do what I do which is to tell stories and to combine that with what I believe. To be able to tell stories. To be able to tell these stories… the greatest story of our Lord,” said Downey.
“What we do in our work is to find entertaining ways to tell this story. And we as a Christian community in Hollywood and the entertainment business are seeing the winds of change blowing a little bit. I encourage all of you to be really, really noisy in what you’re doing. If we all join together, we really can change the world.”
Downey and Burnett also produced the feature film “Son of God” and recently produced NBC’s “A.D.,” a 12-week series based on the Book of Acts set to premiere Easter Sunday, April 5. The couple is also producing “Ben-Hur,” a reimaging of the classic story with MGM and Paramount, set to release in spring 2016, among other projects.
“I hope you feel the energy of this place and the energy of those who are in this room today. When I came to Lipscomb 10 years ago, I told our community that we just can’t be a great liberal arts university if we don’t have great art, music and theater. You just can’t. And it takes time to build. The reality is that we are moving deliberately and with commitment in that direction,” said Lipscomb University President L. Randolph Lowry to the packed room.
“We seek to fulfill this great challenge of being a great university and having a great arts college included in that. Thank you for claiming us and thank you especially for joining with us, not in creating a program like others have across the nation, but in creating the kind of college we want, with the purpose and mission to work diligently to bring a sense of values and faith into entertainment and the arts. ”
Fernandez came to Lipscomb seven years ago to lead the university’s theater program.
“God has blessed this program in a number of ways, mainly because we have a mission that is dedicated to telling stories that matter,” said Fernandez. “Stories that inspire. Stories that uplift. Stories that we feel are inspired by our Creator. That’s not always an easy task to accomplish. But it’s one that we seek to be intentional and artful and courageous in doing.”
Building on the university’s strong liberal arts foundation, Lipscomb’s College of Entertainment & the Arts was formed in September 2014 with Fernandez appointed as founding dean. It combined the university’s art, music and theatre departments with its fashion merchandising program and its graduate film and creative media program. New programs to prepare students for careers in contemporary music, digital entertainment, film, design, gaming and animation are planned for the near future.
The college is an integration of several disciplines formerly housed in the College of Arts & Sciences (now the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences).
The mission of the College of Entertainment & the Arts is to be a Christ-centered, innovative, entrepreneurial arts community committed to rigorous artistic training, creative collaboration and professional growth.
“We believe that you can honor God and be a leader in the entertainment industry,” said Fernandez. “To that end, we seek to train the next generation of believer artists who seek to uplift, challenge and entertain culture through their art.”
For more information visit www.lipscomb.edu/cea. Watch video about the College of Entertainment & the Arts. Watch another one by clicking here .
-- Photos by Kristi Jones