First Annual Art & Wonder Festival Comes to Belmont
This weekend marked the first annual Art & Wonder Festival at Belmont, which showcased music, dance, film, writing, studio art and photography celebrating the Christian story.
"We want people to be uplifted and find more meaning and value in their faith and creativity and art," said Nick Baird-Chrisohon, associate director of programming for the Creative Arts Collective, the group which organized and hosted the festival.
The event encompassed vendors, food trucks, interactive art, art exhibitions, live performances, movie screenings and sessions from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday.
"It really did a good job of touching on so many different forms of art," said Cassie Scales, a Franklin, Tennessee citizen who attended the festival with her husband and two young sons. She said her family enjoyed the festival's Kids Zone.
"They were so engrossed in every activity that we tried in the kids zone. My five-year-old discovered a love for the violin," said Scales. "It's hard for us to find activities that are family friendly, where both my husband and I enjoy it and the kids enjoy it."
The Creative Arts Collective for Christian Life & Faith is an organization created in 2024 by Belmont employees. It explores the intersection between Christianity and art and provides opportunities for Christian artists.
The Art & Wonder festival started as just a couple of sentences briefly mentioned in the Creative Arts Collective's grant proposal to the Lilly Endowment.
"In the original plan that created the Creative Arts Collective as a whole, the festival - there was a lot of idea behind it - but it was only a sentence or two," said Nicole Koester, events and special projects coordinator for the Creative Arts Collective.
The concept started as a modest celebration and then just kept growing. Belmont's theme for this year is "Unleash Hospitality With Love," and the university wanted to incorporate themes of hospitality into the festival by inviting the greater community, said Baird-Chrisohon.
Lots of collaboration went into the planning, said Baird-Chrisohon. The Creative Arts Collective partnered with the College of Education to create the kid zone, then the college invited the Music Education and Theatre Education departments to join. The rest of the festival grew just the same.
"It's so cool what we've been able to get just by asking the question of who's willing to join us," said Baird-Chrisohon.
Belmont freshman Omairh Ismaili said she appreciates the opportunities given to the Belmont community for collaboration and creativity.
"They've given students the opportunity to put themselves out there by getting on stage and performing music," she said. "Belmont is definitely a space to be creative and just put your own artwork out there, whether that's cooking or singing or writing music. It's what Belmont's all about."
That was one of the goals for the festival – to give the community a chance to share their own art, experience others' and encounter God through it, said Koester.
"I'm just really excited for people to be able to experience art in a whole bunch of different ways, because I think everyone experiences God in a lot of different ways," said Koester. "We want to create opportunities for people to see the awe and wonder of God and see that through different kinds of art."
Written by Olivia Abernathy
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