Society for the Arts, Religion and Contemporary Culture

The Society for the Arts, Religion and Contemporary Culture, commonly known as ARC, was founded in October 1961 by Marvin Halverson (b. 1913), an American Protestant theologian sometime of the Chicago Theological Seminary (and the author of "Great Religious Paintings", New York, H. N. Abrams, 1951). Its avowed purpose and program are based on the principle of the interlinkage between religion and the arts. The list of its members includes the names of W. H. Auden, Erich Fromm, Paul Tillich and Marguerite Yourcenar.

The Society meets three times a year, normally in New York City, on the first Saturday of February, May, and November.

References

*Finley Eversole, ‘Foundation for the Arts, Religion and Culture’, "Theology Today", vol. 24, No. 3 (October 1967).
*Betty H. Meyer, "The ARC Story: A Narrative Account of the Society for the Arts, Religion and Contemporary Culture" (New York, Association for Religion and Intellectual Life, 2003).

Alfred Barr, Jr., Founder-Director of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, was ARC's founding president. Other Fellows of the Society included Joseph Campbell, Cleanth Brooks, William J. Conklin, Denis de Rougemont, Mircea Eliade, Erich Fromm, Adolph Gottlieb, Philip C. Johnson, Douglas M. Knight, Sidney Lanier, Marianne Moore, Robert Motherwell, Luther Noss, Frank Thompson, Robert Penn Warren and Amost N. Wilder.

ARC published a periodical "ARC Directions", sponsored public lectures, and commissioned arts projects.

Submitted by Finley Eversole, Director of ARC, 1966-69

ee also

*Kunstreligion