Inspiring Creativity and Faith: The Dedication of Gordon’s Adams School of Music and the Arts 

On Friday, October 4, Gordon’s Homecoming 2024 festivities kicked off with a dedication service for the Adams School of Music and the Arts, which was established earlier this year. Students, faculty, staff and alumni packed the A. J. Gordon Memorial Chapel to celebrate the Adams School’s programs through live music, dramatic readings, video and art. The service celebrated the beauty these programs bring to the lives of students and staff and recognized the light that art and music can create in a dark world. 

A Rise to Artistic Excellence 

After a welcome and invocation by Chair of the Board of Trustees Dr. Carrie D. Tibbles, President Michael Hammond noted that the College’s founder, A. J. Gordon, was a pastor, teacher and musician, and he ensured that the arts were a vibrant part of the curriculum and student experience of his school. As early as 1920 holy music courses were offered at Gordon. In 1943 the Fine Arts Department was established. Since then professors like Ann Ferguson, Dr. Alton Bynum, Bruce Herman, John Skillen and Norman Jones have brought outstanding education for art, theatre, music, communication arts and more to Gordon and its students.  

Gordon College’s arts programs carry an impact beyond the classroom. The Gordon College Choir has traveled throughout the country to perform; students from Christian colleges all over America study abroad in Orvieto, Italy; and over 3,000 patrons from New England come to campus each year for theatre productions, gallery exhibits and the annual Christmas Gala. The Music Department is one of only 19 schools in New England fully accredited by the National Associations of Schools of Music.. The Theatre program was named by the Princeton Review as one of the top 20 colleges with theater arts programs in the country. “The arts always move out from campus to make a difference in people's lives and draw them closer to God,” Hammond said.   

He and Dr. Sandra Doneski, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, then thanked Stephen and Denise Adams, the generous donors for whom the School is named, and recognized Dr. Sarita Kwok, the inaugural dean of the School, for her leadership. Dr. Sharon Galgay Ketcham prayed that the School would become known not only as one of the best performing arts schools in the nation, but would also “shed light on how music and the arts speak to our souls and change lives in ways that don't always make sense to us until we embrace God as the Creator who empowers us to create in order to know him better and to make him known to others.” 

Art with Impact 

After a performance of Dan Forrest's "And Can It Be?" by the Gordon College Choir, a video produced by Lightmark Creative (a video production company founded by and employing Gordon communication arts alumni) and a reading of Psalm 145 by Professor Norman Jones, Dr. G. Walter Hansen delivered a challenge to the assembly. Currently professor emeritus of New Testament interpretation at Fuller Theological Seminary, Hansen and his wife, Darlene, have supported Gordon’s art and music programs for over two decades, including establishing the Lothlorien Chair of Fine Arts. 

Hansen explored how art effects change in people for the better. He referenced a painting by Bruce Herman from an art gallery in Orvieto years ago, which showed a man hunched over, with a crumbling city in the background. “When I first saw it, I was upset because this figure was in the position that I am in on the rare occasions when I'm sobbing,” Hansen said. “But then I look at it, and I see Jesus weeping over the whole city of broken humanity, sinking into self-destruction and despair. Then I looked again and saw the arms of this man reaching down building the city of God out of dust.” 

Hansen was so moved by the painting, he bought it and hung it in his office in Chicago for years. Every time someone visited the office, they talked about the painting––and about Jesus. One friend of his, Brian Jenkins, talked about the painting so much that the two grew to become close friends and brothers in Christ. When Hansen moved out of Chicago, he gave the painting to Jenkins out of the compassion and love they had developed for each other. 

“Music and art have the power to draw us into communion with beauty and with one another in our broken world,” Hansen said. “An artist’s work opens a discourse with viewers. When we look at art and talk about art together, we are changed, transformed by the awesome wonder of God's creation and the amazing love of God for his people.” 

An Inspirational Calling 

After a performance from the cast of the spring musical Godspell of the song "All Good Gifts” and an upbeat, jazzy rendition of “Joshua fit the Battle of Jericho” by the Coy Pond Piranhas, the program closed with a benediction cementing the Adams School’s mission to use the arts to bring light to a dark world and inspiring attendees, proclaimed artists or not, to remember the divine calling to create. 

“Your music and art will renew our minds to have the mind of Christ. Your music and art will unite our hearts with love for God and for one another. Your music and art will send us out into our broken world to bring the peace of God. May our God, the Creator, Christ the Redeemer, the Spirit who comforts and empowers, enliven your hearts toward the creativity of the arts, open your eyes to the miracles of every day and inspire your soul,” said Hammond.