Welcome to the Home of Arts in the Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey! We launched a diocesan chapter of the Episcopal Church and the Visual Arts (ECVA) in October 2004.

The ECVA, a national Episcopal organization, supports artists, individuals, congregations, and scholars in engaging the visual arts in the spiritual life of the church. It encourages visual artists to use their creative gifts for the glory of God. It hopes individuals will explore the opportunities visual arts offer in their spiritual journeys. It urges parishes and cathedrals to incorporate visual arts in their programs. And it fosters conversations and research in the visual arts, theology, and culture.

Here are some of our exhibits and activities that ECVA New Jersey has sponsored in the last few years:

• The Art of Recovery featured works by artists of Catholic Charities' Partners in Recovery program and the A-Team of the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen (TASK). The artworks were exhibited at Trinity Cathedral's Synod Hall in 2006.
  
  
• We sponsored an exhibition, Overcoming Racism, exhibited initially at the Anti-racism Conference No More in My Church! in 2005, then at the 222nd Convention in Cherry Hill and at Trinity Cathedral in 2006.
  
  
• We hosted a retrospective of the photographic works of William Earl Perry at Trinity Cathedral, from October 2005 until January 2006.
  
  
• In Spring 2005, we sponsored an exhibition — New Life — at Trinity Cathedral.
  
  
• Our New Jersey ECVA chapter began with a celebratory dinner and exhibit at Trinity Cathedral in Trenton in 2004, which featured the works of talented men and women in the diocese.

We're delighted you've visited us online. We look forward to welcoming you as a member!

Yours in Christ,
Ruth Tietjen Councell
Chair, ECVA New Jersey

A World of Possibilities
An Exhibition of Paintings by Isabell Villacis
6 November 2010 – 5 January 2011
Trinity Cathedral

Isabell loves to paint. But she can't do it alone.

Since birth her physical abilities have been severely limited by cerebral palsy. With the innovative new Art Realization Technology (ART), the door has been opened for Isabell and others with virtually no use of their arms or legs to express themselves through visual art.

Sitting in her wheelchair, Isabell is fitted with a target laser, an instrument originally designed for military use. With the laser light strapped to her head, she moves the beam around on a canvas, showing a tracker (a person who puts the paint on the canvas) where the paint should go. The choices of color, shape, line, and even texture are all made by the artist.

Isabell's world is filled with dreams and possibilities.
ECVA NJ is pleased to honor her and the people at ART who help to make those possibilities into realities. To learn more about ART, please visit their web site at www.artrealization.org

If you wish to purchase a painting from this exhibition, please contact Ruth Councell at ruth@councell.net. Twenty-five percent of the sale price of the paintings in this exhibition will go to ART in Princeton.