X Initiative has brought together over 40 nonprofit arts organizations in the former Dia Art Foundation building for a un-art festival titled “No Soul for Sale”. The festival is filling a void between exhibitions, with the next exhibition by X opening July 9th.

Using taped lines in the building’s cavernous space, different organizations are organizing a series of creative experiences including solo shows, group exhibitions, screenings, and lectures/discussions. In these difficult economic times, the empty pause between is being filled with the creative potential of human experience.

No Soul for Sale is an excellent reminder of the accessibility hardwired into the arts. Despite a selective economy surrounding the fine arts, creativity can be embraced with little more than a stick and a patch of dirt, drum sticks and a plastic bucket, or pen and paper.

I wonder if we will surface from this recession more creative or just desperate for the same care free consumption we have indulged in for the last half century?

Not being prophetically gifted, I can only hope that the unique blend of technology and limited resources we are faced with is a catalyst for a flowering of creativity. The recession is a great opportunity to reboot our society with a more sustainable perspective. We need to learn how to live abundantly with less, which I believe, will lead us down the road toward relationship investments and a creative exploration of the world God has so graciously given us.

Photo: Yana Paskova for The New York Times
Reference: New York Times "No Soul For Sale"