Recent Activities

   "The Woman Clothed with The Sun"

            From The Apocalypse

                   represented in

     the June Nineteenth Pageant at

            The Bryn Athyn Cathedral

Well, interestingly enough, I am looking at  1) establishing the Alpha &Omega Foundation 2) buying and renovating a church 3) setting up the Administrative Offices.

All of this is quite detailed, but you can expect that I will be addressing this in the future, once certain milestones are met.

I will fix the alignment issues, when I get to my computer.

AG

A Theatrical Development Centre

A Beautiful shot of a ballet dancer. I did a lot of ballet in college, mostly tech, but some dance.  I ended up working for The Boston Ballet, The Boston Opera Company and Gilbert & Sullivan at Harvard & MIT, but that was over thirty years ago. Now I'm working on building The Theatrical Development Centre. Here are some thoughts on that and how it relates to The Alpha & Omega Society.

As you will see below, I make mention of a Spiritual Retreat Community. I'm working on building Image of the Mind Studios and I am sitting up the studio space as The Theatrical Development Centre, but in my mind I have a vision for that concept to grow beyond my studio facility into a community facility. IMS is shaping into a micro-cosom of the larger community concept. Part of implementing that "Artist Community" is to form and establish "The Alpha & Omega Society" as a foundation with the purpose of constructing and maintaining a community compound centered around the Theatrical Development concept. Why theatrical activities at it's core? Well, theatre uses all the known Arts & Crafts to implement, so using the theatre brings together artists of all talents as well as management oriented people. Well, clearly, to bring people together requires a working space that will accommodate the work and living spaces required to be productive in this way. I have had this prevailing vision in my head for most of my life and everything I do is leading in that direction.

Image of the Mind Studios has gradually grown through various levels of operation, remaining as low key as possible and engaging in development of new works in a wide range of mediums. The result has been a gathering of supplies and equipment, all oriented toward an ever receeding objective. By that I mean that I have gathered supplies, such as video equipment (for example), only to find the industry moving at a speed that is hard to keep up with. So overall, I have developed an attitude and stance where, I do not strive to compete with advancing technology, rather, I am using whatever obsolete technology I have to set up a work space around that technology, presuming that at some point, when it is required, that technology can be upgraded. But in the meanwhile, I am using that equipment to define the parameters of the studio working space. In that way, the changes that occurr through advancement in technology can be put to use effectively. But I diverge.

My point here is to proclaim that I intend to transfer Image of the Mind Studios and all it's assets over to The Alpha & Omega Society when I depart this plane of existence. That being said, I must follow the path of establishing the A&O Soc. as a foundation operating under a Board of Directors. This hasn't been done yet. For my part I am very busy and the most I can do is to conceptualize the community, while I gather the resources to proceed. 

As it stands now, I envision the resources to establish The A&O Soc and the Spiritual Retreat Community coming from The Gnomes of New Hope. You can follow that blog and Image of the Mind Studios to see how that is proceeding. I have it in my mind to acquire between 25 & 100 acres in either Upper Bucks County or the Poconos. I'll go into that later, but if it is Upper Bucks County, then the facility in Southampton would play a pivoital role. If for some reason, I need to relocate the Southampton facility, then the Poconos is more likely. Frankly, I prefer Upper Buck County, because that wouldn't involve starting over again. IMS has had nine previous studio locations and I have it in my mind that the Southampton facility is the last time I have to set up, but that's not absolutely certain. It all depends on my cash flow. 

The Gnomes of New Hope is nearing completion. I have said that countless times and Everytime I say that there is more to do. In fact, it is only the Storybook that is nearing completion and it is the publishing layout that is complete. There is still much artwork that needs to be done for the remaining illustrations. But you can read about that on the Gnomes blog. The truth is that there are literally dozens of other projects in various stages of completion at IMS, but the facilities are dependent upon The Gnomes generating the capital to move forward and in fact, The Alpha & Omega Society is contingent upon The Gnomes of New Hope generating an excess of capital, an excess beyond what is required to maintain the Southampton operations. That is the point of The A&O Soc. A place to deposit income from the projects emminating from The Theatrical Development Centre and to distribute those funds to maintain a community environment where artists can live and work on common goals. Those goals are the projects approved by the Board of Directors to receive the support of the whole community, projects submitted and developed by the whole community. Very much like the old Studio System, but, hopefully on a more communal and less dictatorial basis.

Of course rules must be set down and followed, so it may well fall back into the old methodology tried time and again by others, but hopefully, tying the Theatrical Development Centre to a Spiritual Retreat will help us achieve the Elisian Dream.

Facebook page

I just set up a Facebook Page for The Alpha & Omega Society. I will use that page for discussions about establishing the Foundation and setting up a Board of Directors, while I will use this page for posting about various projects.

Even though "I Am Alpha & Omega" is a theatrical project, designed to put the essence of New Church Revelations into the context of entertainment and bring them into wide awareness, that effort is not the sole purpose of the A&O Soc.

Other significant projects related to the establishment and spread of the Church are also part of the mission.

All such efforts will be determined by the Board of Directors and building the Foundation's resources will also be a primary function

Distribution of funds to support the projects which are approved will be wholly contingent upon the proceeds of Foundation core resources and/or the instructions of contributors.

Further discussions will continue both here and on the Facebook page

AG

A Retreat Community

For a very long time it has been a desire of mine to establish a Retreat Environment, one that is structured to blend the ideas of an Artist Colony with a Church based modus operandi. Particularly, based on New Church philosophy.

One of the other long term ideas I have had is; The Theatrical Development Centre. In fact, I have the TDC attached to Image of the Mind Studios and I am continuing to refine that concept, by designing the studio space to ultimately conform to that concept.

As I mentioned, the journal I was working on that contained  extensive designs for an Spirit community was  destroyed when I accidently left it in my pocket and washed it. Needless to say, that was discouraging. The loss of that journal caused me to stop working on that project.

Still, it is a concern of mine; What will I do with Image of the Mind Studios when I am too old to continue with it? My answer to that is to create a Studio Compound that is attached to the Retreat Community. Why? Well a functional, long term work environment needs to include certain support elements. Housing and work spaces are a significant part of that. But beyond that, if the management of studio operations falls shy of having a firm commercial foundation, the the addition of a Retreat Community modus operandi, allows for maintenance of the studio environment under the intermittent use of the space for  retreat purposes.

Hence, the studio spaces, defined by the criteria of the artists and the functionality of those studios, as they pertain to the overall purposes of The Theatrical Development Centre, can function at a level devoid of the threat that being in a demanding commercial environment brings to the work space. That threat exists when the overhead demands are contingent upon the commercial success of each degree of the projects being enacted. Hence, the theory that creating a self-sustaining work environment is the most practical approach to providing a balanced creative exchange without the concerns of maintaining the logistical concerns of the space, at least from the artists point of view.

More later. AG

Welcome to The Alpha & Omega Society

This is the first posting for the new site for The Alpha & Omega Society.

The goal with the A&O Soc. is to establish 

A Spiritual Retreat Community 

that is based on and exists to serve 

the Creative Impulse to Express ourselves through Art

So in this way it is much like an Artist's Colony

but part of the overall plan it to include

A Theatrical Development Centre

Please bear with me as I transfer the designs for this retreat community

over to the internet and outline the thinking behind this 

long term goal that I have had.

In part this is an effort that is working in conjunction with

Image of the Mind Studios

and all the resources which are part of that endeavor.

Designs for a Community

    I have been reconstituting the designs I have for such a retreat community and have been doing so in a sketchbook, a much larger sketchbook than the one which was destroyed a few years ago. So I will begin scanning these designs and posting them here, just as a way of making this blog worth looking at and keeping up with.

    Clearly, building a community from scratch is not an easy task, but we might be able to acquire property which is not actually from scratch. In particular I refer to a property in the Poconos (which I've mentioned elsewhere) which used to be a honeymoon destination. It is currently abandoned, but has attached to it 40 some cottages spread out on a mountain, a hotel and a restaurant, as well as numerous other outbuildings. This property could be rebuilt into a wonderful destination centered around the arts.

    Needless to say we're talking about tens of millions of dollars to do that, so whether or not there is any reality to that thinking, well... that's another question. But it would be an environment which would not be starting from scratch and I do think it could be approached in a rational way. Of course the maintenance costs are another question, but with an outdoor amphitheater where road shows could be serviced and outdoor festivals of various sorts, in addition to a convention centre in the midst of the Poconos, there might actually be a shot of doing it right. There is also the difficulty of working with the mistakes which were made by the people who did build the retreat. Construction techniques and location issues not being the least of them. So, as with everything else, it's easier said than done.

    So that one very interesting line of thinking that I will be discussing here. Let's see what comes of it. AG