A YEAR IN THE ARTS

The residential Baha'i Academy for the Arts is held for a week each summer at Sidcot in Somerset.

It's an opportunity for professional and amateur artists to present the best of their work to the UK Baha'i community.

"I'm suffering from an overdose of excellence!" A father-of-two leaves a performance beaming. A teenage student observes: "I've come away with a lifted spirit. Another participant enthuses about making a "wonderful group of new friends and discovering new art forms."

Since its foundation in 1993, the annual Arts Academy has provided a nurturing, yet challenging, training environment for the spiritual, artistic and personal growth of its participants. Hundreds of former students have gone on to further their artistic interests. For some, the Academy has been life-changing. Formerly distracted, even despondent, youngsters have become dynamic centres of creative activity in their home towns. Such is the power of creating a learning environment which recognises the unique capacities and potential of everyone who attends.

A few miles down the road from Sidcot School, another artistic experiment unfolded during the year 2000 within the dramatic setting of the Cheddar Caves. "Who is Writing the Future?", a multi-media experience, was devised by impresario Jeremy Herbert, a Baha'i who, in setting up Declare International Productions, hopes to introduce audiences to profound ideas about the course of human history.

"Who is Writing the Future?" took audiences around a succession of caves where they experienced music, dance and film projections. The theme was where we have been, where we are now, and where we are going.

The result - a thought-provoking artistic interpretation of humanity's evolution from barbarism through the turbulent conflicts caused by unresolved prejudices, on towards a vision of a future where co-operation and tolerance are the hallmarks of an increasingly mature human race.

The Academy for the Arts is the highlight of an annual calendar of artistic events organised by Baha'is. Art is regarded as more than just a rewarding pastime or an entertaining means of escape from everyday concerns. Baha'u'llah, the founder of the Baha'i Faith, encouraged artists and craftsmen to "advance the affairs of mankind". Artistic activity is commensurate with worship, and taps the great reservoirs of human potential.

Artistic expression has always been central to Baha'i community life. From its earliest years, music has played a crucial role in meetings of worship. Some of the 20th Century's outstanding artistic talents openly identified themselves with the Baha'i teachings - the potter Bernard Leach, the painter Mark Tobey, the jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, the outstanding Afro-American poet Robert Hayden. Baha'i ideals were also publicly admired by such literary luminaries as Leo Tolstoy, Kahlil Gibran, Rabindranath Tagore, Henry Miller and Romain Rolland.

This tradition of high profile supporters of the Baha'i Faith continues in the United Kingdom in the present day. During 2000, two Baha'i jazz musicians thrilled audiences at Ronnie Scott's in London - the reed player James Moody and the Brazilian singer Flora Purim. Both learned of the Baha'i teachings from Dizzy Gillespie and both see their music as a ladder to uplifting the human spirit.

Another Brazilian Baha'i, the distinguished artist Siron Franco, also made an impact on London audiences with an exhibition of his beautiful and mysterious cocoon sculptures at the Elms Lesters Painting Rooms in Soho.

Other Baha'is who enjoyed critical and popular acclaim during the year were the Iranian stand-up comedian Omid Djalili, recently awarded "Time Out Comedian of the Year" and the contemporary music outfits - Merz and Lunar Drive.

But it is at a grassroots level that artistic activity can touch people's lives most deeply. Members of Baha'i Youth Dance workshops, notably Express Freedom in the north east of England, take their series of dances depicting the dangers of drugs, racial prejudice, gender equality and other social issues onto the streets of inner cities.

In Canterbury, the Baha'i-inspired Art and Faith exhibitions bring together people of different faith traditions to show how their work has been inspired by their belief. In Northamptonshire, a multi-racial choir demonstrates that differences of culture, age, religious background and class can be overcome by the simple power of singing together. In the Midlands, the members of Unity in Diversity take performances teaching citizenship into schools providing a much valued service to teachers and pupils.

Through all of these activities, Baha'i artists hope that their optimistic vision for the future of humanity will touch people's hearts more effectively, and inspire in their audiences a sense of their own potential.