Program Staff Wins 1st Place in Be Still Media Competition

“We can learn the art of good hope by practices of receptivity: waiting; enduring; listening; looking with awareness that there is always more than meets the eyes; appreciating others without succumbing to comparison; committing to live beyond ourselves because love has a future.” With this powerful prompt, Be Still Media invited artists to reflect and create as our world still struggles against the coronavirus.

Ann Phelps, Director of Programming for Leadership and Character, and Donovan Livingston, Staff Affiliate for the Program, entered the competition as a pair, submitting a “black-out” poem embedded in a mosaic entitled “The Siege.” Constructed to mirror the mosaic on the floor of the U.S. Capitol, the piece meditated on the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and the “alienation from hope” that the artists and the country experienced. In the face of hopelessness, Phelps and Livingston encouraged movement and engaged hope in themselves and their audience through their literary and visual creation. You can view their work here.

Be Still Media is a content incentivizer that invites artists to reflect on the most fundamental questions of “character and the meaning of life.” They offer prizes to artists and creators around the world for their inspired works, in the hope of sparking deeper reflection and more meaningful art in the world. For more information on their mission, past winners, and upcoming competitions, click here.