Thank you, Grace Wen, for contributing, organizing, co-curating, and running Satellite Gallery with me for the past three years. It was a fantastic journey orbiting Cleveland and the Waterloo art scene in our spaceship of art. Satellite Gallery went beyond the boundaries of our galaxy, with installations produced by emerging and established creative art explorers. The spaceship has landed and closed its hatch as Satellite Gallery, to be transformed into something beyond space. Early this summer, it will rise above and beyond all galaxies to house The Church of Art, where creative thinking will be revered above all.

Photo by Stephen Bivens

The Church of Art is more than a gallery space. It is also the name of a group and an ideology. I have gathered a clergy of art innovators who will work together as a team on public and underground projects, while also co-curating unconventional exhibits in this reinvented art space. The Church of Art (Joshua Bentley, Claire Livingston, Loren Naji, Tina Ripley and Megan Schimmoeller) is committed to showing and producing highly creative, edgy art that breaks barriers in today’s stagnant art scene. We are dismissing established methods of choosing artists based on education, resumes, artspeak and other gibberish. Our congregation will be exalted as it worships art that rises above convention and answers the question “What’s Next?” Our ideology takes art seriously and reveres creative thinking as holy, while keeping it enjoyable and fun.

Let Us Play!

The Church of Art

442 East 156^th Street