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