Every year since 2012 we offer a residency to an artist who creates work that illuminates the cathedral’s annual theme, amplifying the cathedral’s vision, mission and goals. We have an Artist in Residence program because we believe in the power of art to inspire people and we want to make art accessible to everyone.
Our 2019 Artist in Residence: Alonzo King
Grace Cathedral has chosen internationally-celebrated choreographer Alonzo King as its Artist in Residence for 2019, when the cathedral’s annual theme is “The Year of the Body.” During the year, the cathedral community will consider a number of issues around the human body including: the imperative for all human bodies to be treated with respect, the wonder of our corporeal selves, and the spiritual elements of dance. As Grace Cathedral’s Artist in Residence, King will create a new work responding to the cathedral’s theme that will be performed at Grace in February 2020. He will speak at the cathedral’s conversation series, The Forum, on Sunday, May 12 and Alonzo King LINES Ballet will hold workshops to engage the cathedral’s many constituencies, including congregants, the yoga community, the Cathedral School for Boys, and The Community Preschool.
About Alonzo King
Alonzo King has been called a visionary choreographer, who is altering the way we look at ballet. King calls his works “thought structures” created by the manipulation of energies that exist in matter through laws, which govern the shapes and movement directions of everything that exists.
King has works in the repertories of the Royal Swedish Ballet, Frankfurt Ballet, Ballet Béjart, Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, Joffrey Ballet, Alvin Ailey, Hong Kong Ballet, North Carolina Dance Theatre, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and many others. He has worked extensively in opera, television, and film. Known for collaborations, seminal works include People of the Forest (2001), choreographed with Baka artists from Central Africa Republic and Long River High Sky (2007), with China’s Shaolin Monks. He has collaborated with actor Danny Glover, legendary jazz saxophonist Pharaoh Sanders, Hamza al Din, Pawel Szymanski, Jason Moran, Charles Lloyd, vocalist Lisa Fischer, architect Christopher Haas, and tabla master Zakir Hussain.
King is the Artistic Director of the international company Alonzo King LINES Ballet. Renowned for his skill as a teacher, King has been guest ballet master for dance companies around the globe, and in 2012, was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Corps de Ballet International Teacher Conference. King is a former commissioner for the city and county of San Francisco, and a writer and lecturer on the art of dance. He has been honored by the dance world’s most prestigious institutions for his impact on the cultural fabric of the company’s home in San Francisco, as well as nationally and internationally for over more than three decades.
Past Artists in Residence
Our 2018 Artist in Residence Sukey Bryan addressed the truth about climate change through her art. She explored the simultaneous power and delicacy of the ocean in Waterfront, her five panel oil painting, and made the cathedral’s façade come alive with the beauty of clay waves.
Her art brightened the cathedral during the opening Multi-Faith Service of Wondering and Commitment that opened the Global Climate Action Summit in September.
Bryan also worked with the Summer Arts campers and the Community Preschool to create Kelp Forest and Impressions of the Ocean, projects celebrating our oceans for National Ocean Month. She hosted Color Me Colossus, a fun family event where kids created life-size sea creatures in sidewalk chalk.
In 2017, Bryan created Sky Steps for Easter and Earth Day at the cathedral. This work of art robed the Great Steps in sky and cloud, and had a great impact on visitors. Images were widely shared on social media and The Economist magazine seized upon it to illustrate an article about faith, climate change and the upcoming Global Climate Action Summit.
For Earth Day 2018, during her residency, Bryan amazed with her installation Water Without, which depicted National Natural Landmark Burney Falls, the Shasta County waterfall that Teddy Roosevelt called “The Eighth Wonder of the World,” cascading down the Great Steps. For Pentecost, Bryan installed Fire Within.
Bryan has a BA in Fine Arts and English from Yale University and an MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art. She received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts to paint a series of works based on the environments of Iceland and the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. She has been an artist in residence at Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska. Bryan has also created public art installations for Stanford University. She lives in Palo Alto, California.
In 2017, “The Gift” inspired the cathedral’s first spoken word Artist in Residence, Sarah Kay, to write a poem in honor of the theme in addition to presenting and enlightening audiences at a range of exciting cathedral events.
Sarah has shared her poetry in venues and classrooms around the world. She is perhaps best known for her talk at the 2011 TED conference that has been viewed over ten million times.
Relive her performances with great images and videos on our guide to Sarah Kay’s residency at the Cathedral.
In 2016, the “Year of Home,” artists Benjamin Bergery and Jim Campbell created two light installations during their residency:
Jacob’s Dream: A Luminous Path, an installation of light and moving images currently hanging in the cathedral, was designed to evoke a pathway between earth and heaven, between the visible and invisible. They also premiered Miracle Fragments, a two-night-only light and sound event evoking different Biblical miracles.
Bergery, a media artist and cinematographer, and Campbell, a light artist whose work is in the collections of both the New York and San Francisco Museums of Modern Art, have previously collaborated on critically-acclaimed projects.
In 2015, the Year of Technology, artists Elaine Buckholtz and Floor van de Velde of Nighthouse Studio were invited to be Grace Cathedral’s 2015 Artists in Residence.
Buckholtz and van de Velde explore the medium of light and sound as ephemeral phenomena with the potential to unmask hidden aspects of architectural forms and to activate space. As the Artists in Residence, they premiered their work, Fields of Prayer, an integrative, immersive light and sound installation. They presented several live performances, and several exterior presentations of the installation.
Learn more about Elaine Buckholtz and Floor van de Velde.
In 2014, the Year of Sustainability, Oakland-based eco-chef, food justice activist and author Bryant Terry educated the community about how a more just, healthier food system supports healthy communities. He also delighted us with vegetarian menus and presentations as part of our 50th anniversary celebrations. Learn more about Bryant Terry.
In 2013, the Year of Music, New York visual artist Anne Patterson produced multi-sensory evenings of visual art and music, collaborating with renowned cellist Joshua Roman and composer and conductor Paul Haas, and created a stunning, music-inspired aerial installation with 20 miles of ribbon, titled Graced with Light. View a film about Graced with Light by Three Bridges West, and learn more about Anne Patterson.
In 2012, the theme was Grace. Actor and playwright Anna Deavere Smith became the cathedral’s first Artist in Residence. The premiere of her work in progress, “On Grace,” with accompaniment by cellist Joshua Roman, was presented over two nights in sold out performances.