The Art Ship

The art ship
The main focus of the Logos Hope ship is to spread bibles in countries where it's hard for people to get their hands on the good book.  This is a cool starting point. 
The main focus for the Art Ship is to spread the message of the gospel thru art all over the globe. This ship has christian artist on it who love to travel and make cool art at the same time. Not only do they get to make art, they also give workshops to share their expertise with other artists, christian or not. They will exhibit in the harbours where the ship is docked and do projects and intercambios with local church communities. There might be a possibility for hotel guests on the ship too, as the ship needs also to generate income.

I am looking for the right connections to start this big dream. I shared it with George Verwer, founder of the Logos ships. This was my letter to him:

Dear George Verwer,

My name is Avantia Damberg. I'm a Caribbean Christian contemporary artist living in Curaçao. I was very inspired and confirmed by a talk you once gave on the Logos Hope ship, when I was working there. It was in 2009 in Guyana. In 1996 I for the first time got introduced to the Logos ships because the Logos II was in Curaçao and I volunteered there. It's then when the seed for reaching out to many nations by ship was planted.

In your talk you mentioned how we could dear to dream really big. Because we have a big God and he has big dreams. He is the one that makes them happen anyways. I have lived in the Netherlands for 15 years where I did 2 studies and worked a bit and when I look back I can see God embroidering my life and it only gets more interesting!

My big dreams are to one day have an art ship with an art ministry: that goes around the world giving art therapy and gives workshops to christian artist worldwide. Not only that: it does art projects in slums and creates new places, we show exhibitions that teach about the Bible to either churches or in galleries, and (christian) artist can apply to join the ship for a short term to join us in these activities and built up their own portfolio and see the world. The tool to reach people for the gospel, is in this case art, to spread the gospel is the main focus.

I myself am an artist that loves to travel and make art while I travel. Most of my ideas I get while I travel too. For example: my work 'Meetingpoint' is being shown in Berlin, Germany and in Oostende, Belgium, and this work is inspired from a Bahamas pastor on the Logos Hope ship that was teaching about the Tabernacle. Making work about God's Word feels very long-term as God's Word itself, when spread, never is in vain.

God has interesting ways of confirming my or rather His dreams. I was already dreaming this, before I got on the ship. Before I went on the Logos Hope, I was working at an audiovisual department of the Dutch Navy. My Dutch boss, who I was working for and told my reason to quit said: ''So you are going to preach the gospel on this ship with books, but you should really have your own art boat and travel the world with your artist friends.''

My mouth dropped to hear my non-believing boss just tell me what my own dream was. I even haven't developed it like that yet in my mind, and there he was saying it!  Like this in continued each time traveling and art was involved: the confirmations continued each time.

Now I am writing you to see if you have any connections where I could find a ship (not as big as the Logo's Hope, but maybe more in the category of the former Doulos). Even if Operation Mobilization is interested to do a ministry like this, since OM already has all the experience and connections

I am praying to see who to share my dream with and who can be part of it. I certainly don't want to do this on my own strength. Only on God's strength and with others to join me. 

see a building on the top, at the right above?

There is also a building in Curacao at the coast of the sea, where large ships temporary park. This building used to be a quarantine hospital a very long time ago. It's a colonial building that has been empty since the 60's. Because of the stigma it has with sickness and death, it never got fixed. With the Logos Hope we parked there as well in 2009 and I walked up to that building. I prayed there for the dreams I have and I had a very exciting and peacefully feeling as if I already got the building! The building is public property. It belongs to everybody. I would love to continue to have it open for the people of this island. The government won't mind if I buy it for 1 symbolic dollar, hence it totally gets restored to it's original state. Which is very pricy of course. 

I envision this building to be the main office of the art ship, I also envision it as a cultural platform for artist-in-residencies, a gallery, an art library and an art cinema. Below I would love it to have a wood and metal workstation.  There is an organic restaurant-café and gallery-shop to generate income and some rooms are rented out for tourists. Everything is ecological and mostly self-made. 

So In this picture, you see a building on top. This is the colonial quarantine hospital with a long history of sickness and death, but also restoration. I would love to see it as a place for restoration again, but with the focus on our relationship with God.

quarantine |ˈkwôrənˌtēn|

nouna state, period, or place of isolation in which people or animals that have arrived from elsewhere or been exposed to infectious or contagious disease are placed : many animals die in quarantine.verb [ trans. ]impose such isolation on (a person, animal, or place); put in quarantine.ORIGIN mid 17th cent.: from Italian quarantina ‘forty days,’ from quaranta ‘forty.’So, I would love to have this building as a place of isolation in which people that have arrived from elsewhere and have been exposed to a hectic, chasing-of-the-wind life to find rest and peace with God here. Artist who stay here, can stay for 40 days and the themes that they need to approach in their art is always healing, restoration, reconciliation etc.I actually get lot's of ideas for this building, but my calling is to be an artist and so I have this approach. I also want to learn more about the healing ministry, since this is also a desire of my heart. It could be that this building could become a wellness center where massages are given, spa's etc. but also christian counceling.
Finally, I have a blog where i sometimes jot down parts of my dream and I also have my professional website.
Please have a look! and I hope to hear from you in the near future.Lot's of blessings,
Avantia Damberg

In the next blog... the response