In the 14th-17th centuries, our world had The European Renaissance.  In the 1920’s and 1930’s the U.S. had the Harlem Renaissance.  These were periods of the greatest creativity with the arts, music, literature, visual art… People during these periods worked in a community creating artistic breakthroughs that would dramatically change our societies.  One of the reasons why I think these are such incredible periods of history is because both began after long periods of struggle.  The European Renaissance came after The Dark Ages.  The Harlem Renaissance was born with a generation of African Americans who had seen slavery come to an end.

Yesterday, Lewis reflected on Nashville’s most imminent struggle, recovery from a devastating flood.  He commented on the thousands of people, including artists who are taking steps to bring hope to this community.  In a way, I am seeing this season in Nashville as the beginning of a new renaissance of creative compassion for this city.  Our community is banding together using, their gifts to help others in desperate need.  (E.g. Take a look or purchase this STELLAR designed T-Shirt, where 100% of proceeds benefit flood relief.)

Lewis left asking the question, will the creative community continue to serve Nashville in the weeks, months, and years to come?  Right now, the heartache and struggle of the flood is right in front of us.  What will happen when things begin to feel more “normal”?

Regardless of the type of trauma taking place, I have heard people describe a specific experience happening months after the traumatic event (I have also had the same experience on several occasions).  When the certain disaster first occurs (whether be natural disaster, death, etc…) people pour in their care and concern.  Eventually, after several months pass, people begin to forget.  The victims oftentimes begin to feel forgotten and neglected.  They still need the compassion and care they received at the onset of the traumatic event.  Unfortunately, this need oftentimes goes unmet.

In Nashville, in the months to come, this same thing WILL OCCUR unless we make a decision NOW to continue caring in the months and years to come.

Lightfield was born with a desire to care for the community.  For the past year, as we have continued to develop this organization, the primary output of Lightfield has been filtered through this blog.  However, today will be the last of regular blogging until the fall.  It is our desire to inspire artists to leverage their creative abilities with the purpose of serving and impacting their communities.  And so, over the summer, that is exactly what we intend to do.  As the summer comes, Lightfield plans to spend the majority of their time connecting with artists in the city providing opportunities to help play a part in continuing this renaissance of creative compassion.

The challenge we are giving ourselves, and invite you to join is to start today asking yourselves these questions:  “How can I leverage my creative abilities to serve my community this next week, month, year…?  What are some CONCRETE PLANS that I can make?

We look forward to being a part of this renaissance, and we look forward to seeing you there!

-Jonathan