ARC Partnership

ARC and The BTS Center are pleased to announce a strategic partnership that will enable them to explore possibilities for (1) making creative resources more accessible to historically marginalized communities and (2) how to better support a diverse population of rising and creative faith leaders. ARC and The BTS Center are committed to supporting those emerging into leadership, especially those whose approaches engage the arts and work toward justice.

Lakisha Lockhart, president of ARC, shares that “effective faith leadership in the 21st century must captivate and inspire minds, hearts, and the imagination for the just flourishing of all people” and that she is “excited about the possibilities this partnership can open up and expand for those committed to a creative and full-bodied expression of their faith.”

With the support of the BTS Center, ARC can expand and extend their capacity to create and deliver creative, innovative content, and collaborations. Robert Grove-Markwood, Executive Director of The BTS Center, notes that “this partnership will help us form new relationships and discover diverse new program partners doing the kind of ‘holy work’ The Center wants to identify, support, and amplify.” He adds that “there is a deep resonance between ARC’s commitment to uniting spiritual and creative practices toward the flourishing of all creation and our vision: human hearts renewed, justice established, and creation restored.”

ARC is a national nonprofit organization committed to supporting individuals and organizations whose work unites spiritual and creative practices in the work toward justice. Founded in 1962 by Martin Halverson, ARC was led in its early years a team of visionaries that included Alfred Barr, the founder of the Museum on Modern Art; Paul Tillich, the Protestant theologian; and Joseph Campbell, one of the world’s foremost experts on myth. Today, ARC is entering a new phase of growth. With diverse leadership in place and plans for innovative projects, ARC is emerging as a leader in creative approaches to theological education.

The BTS Center, organizational successor to Bangor Theological Seminary, is a Maine-based nonprofit whose mission it is “to catalyze spiritual imagination with enduring wisdom for transformative faith leadership.” The Center equips and supports faith leaders for theologically grounded, effective leadership in 21st-century communities of faith and practice by creating events and resources, and supporting projects and research inquiries in the fields of religion, spirituality, practical theology, and ministry.

Both organizations are excited to see how their resonant commitments unfold into shared work.

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