Art House + Cosmic Betterment
For such a time as this.
For many reasons, I thought today might be a good time to share some of the Art House America resources available to you. Art House America is a collective of people committed to caring for one another and the world by living artful, faithful lives. In short, a big cosmology: Faithfulness to Creator With Us, all people, earth and cosmos—imagining and creating artifacts for the benefit of everyone, everywhere, and in everything. What I call, cosmic betterment. That’s a full cup right there. Even a sip changes the world for good.
Why Share Today?
You might be looking for some goodness, some likemindedness without conformity, for encouragement to “keep on keepin’ on” (as plenty of folk, including MLK, used to say at another tumultuous time in history—1960s).
Briefly, Art House is something Andi and I founded here in Nashville in 1991 (with the help of many others). It has grown far beyond our original intent and imagination. I won’t go into detail here. Instead, let’s get to the people, places, and resources you might find helpful and encouraging. Bless you all—as in, may you know goodness, resources, and imagination to put good into the world—toward the end that you counter and overcome anti-life, become more fully human, love your neighbor, and together, express mutual gratitude and thankfulness.
Art House America Literary Blog Archive
Here you’ll find hundreds of essays, poetry and interviews curated by Andi Ashworth, Jenni Simmons and Jennifer Strange between July of 2010 and April of 2018. A place for inspiration, encouragement, play, and thoughtful commentary. Please excuse any broken links (we are working on it).
For foundational Art House concepts, Why Everything That Doesn’t Matter, Matters So Much: The Way of Love in a World of Hurt is still the definitive resource.
Art House North
Go HERE for a complete list of Art House North events. Note: Many events are local to the Art House location, others include online participation, and some are cooperative partnerships between Art House locations that have an online participation component—you’ll just have to dive in and see what’s avail to you.
Finally, you might also be interested in joining Art House North cofounder, Sara Groves over on Patreon. Many AHN events, details and signup, are interlinked with Sara’s site.
Art House Dallas
Let me begin with this immediate opportunity for artists in the Dallas/DFW area. To celebrate our 15th anniversary, Art House Dallas is thrilled to announce a special 2026 project-based granting opportunity for Dallas-area artists. Since our founding, we’ve been dedicated to cultivating creativity, supporting artists, and strengthening the cultural fabric of our city. This milestone year offers a meaningful opportunity to deepen that commitment.
We will award 15 project-based grants, ranging from $250 to $5,000, to artists across a variety of disciplines. These grants support new, original work that contributes to the artistic and spiritual vitality of Dallas. Whether you’re developing a visual art series, composing new music, crafting a literary project, or creating multidisciplinary work, we want to champion your creative vision.
Just a few more of the many programs available in person and online. The first, Art House Exchange is geared toward fostering creative community at large. If you’re in DFW, come on! Wayward Coffee Co. in the design district.
Click image below for a comprehensive list of all that Art House Dallas has available in person and online. It’s a lot! Their spiritual formation program is beautiful.
Lastly, here is a short list of long-time Art House affiliated friends and neighbors doing good and providing generative resources:
Steven Garber: Brand new book for this moment in time. Hints of Hope: Essays on Making Peace with the Proximate. I’ll be talking more about how important this book is. For now: “We all want to make sense of life―the good, the painful, the miraculous. How do we hold on to hope, in a world that is both beautiful and broken?”
Our friends at The Rabbit Room in Nashville are always up to good. They even publish Andi’s book, Real Love for Real Life. Art House founding team member, Douglas Kaine McKelvey, in partnership with Rabbit Room Press and our Square Halo friend, artist Ned Bustard, have created the world’s most useful/beautiful series titled Every Moment Holy. Read the various versions morning and night—or all day. Your life will be better for it.
Need a safe space, a getaway retreat? Inspiration to “hold on to hope?” Here’s what you need even if you don’t know it. Laity Lodge outside Leakey, Texas is one of the truly special places on earth. No exaggeration. If you’re able, go immediately.
Birmingham, Alabama? Our Art House sister org, Inspero, is a wonderful resource for goodness and community. Learn about their work and play here.
Looking for wisdom, needing discernment? You can’t do better than these two beautiful people, Denis & Margie Haack from Ransom Fellowship. Pick any article or post. They all breathe life.
Mako Fujimura, is a longtime friend and partner at the nexus of Christian commitment, the arts, and generative living. Another wisdom and beauty source.
Bonus. I do not know Ava DuVernay. I wish I did! But I highly recommend her artful, thoughtful Substack.
This list could go on and on! But there you go. I hope you find something good, beautiful, and useful in this collection.
I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have generative power, together with all Creator’s set-apart people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of God With Us, to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God—the source of all goodness and creativity.
A good friend just asked for the lyrics to today's song. I thought I'd go ahead an post them.
Holding On and Letting Go
Written by Charlie Peacock ©2020, It’s Time To Art (BMI)
It was not what I had planned
Not what I had coming
Not the sins of the father
Or my own for that matter
It was a common trip and fall
With a bloody knee and tearing
Of the dress that I was wearing
Nothing more and nothing less
So don’t mistake my face as a mind gone quiet
I’m smiling inside, I’m thinking you should try it
I see the wings of history in flight
The paradoxical morning light
When darkness is the wake-up call
And our city laughs through the pain
All we want is ordinary gains
We don’t need a windfall, to invest our all
It is Lent and sickness seeps into everything conceivable
Yet all is well with my soul
I’m holding on and letting go, holding on and letting go
I’m holding on and letting go, holding on and letting go
I raise the child, I read the book
I’m less concerned with how I look
I kiss the man, I shape the clay
I’m the story of a woman at play
On any given best-case kind of day
There will not be time enough to love
Everything and every
One more word about conviction
Might be noble and beautiful
Or a mess of contradictions and fistfuls of rules
You can care through despair, care through shiny victories
Care through communion and care through unbelief
But you gotta care, always care
I’m holding on and letting go, holding on and letting go
I’m holding on and letting go, holding on and letting go
It's disheartening but utterly expected to see the Northeast absent from efforts such as these. Has anyone up here ever attempted to initiate anything like an Art House NE or some other related kind of community of Christ-following artists? I'm in the vicinity of Boston, an area that was written off long ago by musicians and parachurch ministries, so I'm used to it. But wouldn't a cultural epicenter such as New York be rife with possibilities? That wouldn't help me, of course. I'm just sayin'.