Glen Workshop

Situated in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the Glen Workshop is equal parts creative workshop, arts festival, and spiritual retreat. The Glen’s arresting natural environment is contrasted by its casual and inviting crowd of artists, writers, musicians, art appreciators, and spiritual wayfarers of all stripes.

2019 Glen Workshop Theme
AS IRON SHARPENS IRON
The Promise and Peril of Friendship

Friendship between artists can be a fraught affair. We encourage each other. We also compare. We stew. We goad each other on. We fall out and make up, or not. We inspire each other. We let each other down. When the writer of Proverbs noted that “as iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another,” he was observing not just the value of community, but also its potential for interpersonal coercion and even violence within our most intimate bonds.

At our best, we make each other better. At our best, we live out our faith’s ideal that believers are part of the same body, that we are to seek peace, to humble ourselves and be reconciled, to build each other up in love. This week we’ll engage the challenges of artistic friendship, not just the good times but the struggles—and the possibilities for reconciliation.

Each Glen Workshop has a theme that creates a throughline for the week. It’s an opportunity for focused reflection and creative expression that can be engaged in myriad ways by faculty and students alike during our time together.