Arts Quest 2010

Alyssa Vinson, Erin Fail and Jessica Greenhaw strike a dramatic pose during a dance number at Celebration Church. Van’Go’photos Over sixty budding artists, dancers and musicians converged at Buffalo last week for "Arts Quest", the fourth annual Arts in Ministry Camp hosted by The Abiding Place Retreat and Conference Center. The Abiding Place directors Bob and Teresa Nix and Arts Quest director Jessica Greenhaw brought in 25 staffers from across the country to offer classes in various dance styles, sign language, voice, beginning and advanced guitar, beginning keyboarding, drums, song writing, videography, photography, drawing, graphic art, urban art, creative writing, radio and TV broadcasting, and theatrical drama. Celebration Church once again allowed the use of their facilities for the classes as well as for Friday night's performance, and four local homes were used for housing the students.

Campers express their praise in sign language and dance during a production number on Friday night. Van The high school and junior high participants enrolled in one of three "tracks" -- dance, music or arts/media -- for the majority of their classes, but could also cross over into other tracks to explore new interests. Their hard work culminated in a performance on Friday evening which spotlighted each group.

Each year, a highlight of the Art Camp week is the production of a video which incorporates many of the students' newly-acquired skills. This year's video, "A Heart for the Stretch", directed by Sean Fonseca of Albuquerque The video was debuted as the finale of Friday night's program, and will soon be accessible on YouTube (Sean Fonseca or "A Heart for the Stretch") and is already circulating on Facebook.
California singer/songwriter Bob Bennett brought his considerable talents to share with the next generation. Photo by Kayla Scott
Actors Ronnie Barton, Dana Wendell, Shannon Blowers and extras pour their hearts into the race scene from “Heart for the Stretch”, the video production number filmed at last week’s Arts Quest camp. Photo by Kayla Scott
Sean Fonseca led the team in creating this year’s video, “Heart for the Stretch”. Photo by Kayla Scott
Bob Nix and Leon High School senior Jake Leonard celebrate in the climatic finale of “Heart for the Stretch”. Photo by Kayla Scott