New York City talks to share Catholic perspectives on art, beauty

New York City, N.Y., Aug 27, 2013 / 02:02 am MT (CNA).- A series of talks on art and beauty aims to bring a Catholic understanding of the arts into the heart of New York City's Greenwich Village.

The Catholic Center at New York University is hosting the Saturday lecture series “The Art of the Beautiful” with the aim of exploring the “nature and purpose” of art and beauty and “their place in the social order.”

It aims to reach professional artists in all disciplines, students and patrons of the arts, and all those interested in culture and art, the Catholic Artists’ Society of New York City said on its website.

The series' sponsors include the Catholic Artists Society and the Washington, D.C.-based Thomistic Institute at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception, a Dominican institution.

The lecture series begins Sept. 14 and runs through February. Lectures begin at 7:30 p.m. A reception and sung compline prayer will follow each event. The speakers include both academics and artists.

Gregory Wolfe, the editor of Image Journal, will deliver the first September lecture on the topic “Art: For Whose Sake?”

The editor of Magnificat magazine, Fr. Peter John Cameron, O.P., will speak on Oct. 12 on “The Responsibility of the Artist.”

David Clayton, an artist-in-residence at New Hampshire’s Thomas More College, will speak Nov. 16 on the topic “Forming the Artist, ” and philosophy professor at New York’s St. John’s University – Alice Ramos – will deliver a Dec. 14 lecture on “Beauty and the Real.”

Anthony Esolen, an English professor at Providence College in Rhode Island, will speak Jan. 25 on “Love and Artistic Genesis,” and Fordham University philosophy professor Fr. Joseph Koterski, S.J., will speak Feb. 15 on “Virtue and the Artistic Imagination.”

All lectures are free and open to the public. The Catholic Center at New York University is located at 238 Thomson Street in New York. Its website is www.catholiccenternyu.org.