The Intersection of Creativity and Christianity

Ruth (Tank) Pszwaro ’98 has found herself working at an Irish improv stage in the Twin Cities, attending graduate school in Vancouver, running into a Bethel mentor in Paris, and now working as artistic director at the Grand Marais Art Colony. In this Q&A, she encourages undergraduate students that it’s okay not to have a direct career path.

By Katie Johnson ’19, content specialist

November 30, 2021 | 2:45 p.m.

Ruth (Tank) Pszwaro ’98 graduated from Bethel with her B.A. in English Literature and Writing and minors in art and theology. She currently works as the artistic director at the Grand Marias Art Colony.

Ruth (Tank) Pszwaro ’98 graduated from Bethel with her B.A. in English Literature and Writing and minors in art and theology. She currently works as the artistic director at the Grand Marias Art Colony.

When Ruth (Tank) Pszwaro ’98 graduated from Bethel, she didn’t quite know what to do. She had a degree in English literature and writing with minors in art and biblical studies, and while she could picture her creative practice flourishing, she knew writing poetry would not be a main source of income for her. For the first five years after graduation, she had about seven different jobs in the Twin Cities before moving to Vancouver for an interdisciplinary master’s program that focused on Christianity and the arts. From there, she found herself in Nantucket, where she met her husband, Justin, and had their first child before returning to Minnesota, eventually ending up at the Grand Marais Art Colony with her second son in tow.

Throughout this Q&A, Pszwaro exemplifies a life rooted in wonder as she gradually discovered a career that fit her variety of interests, encouraging students that they don’t have to have everything figured out to justify pursuing a degree in a creative field.

What do you do at the Grand Marais Art Colony?

For a short answer, I curate space for artists and arts learners to learn, grow, and flourish in their artistic practices.

The Grand Marais Art Colony is a non-profit arts organization, and we turn 75 next year. I came on eight years ago, and I am the artistic director here, overseeing the planning, strategy and execution of the parts of our mission that relate to education, signature and community events, and residencies. I also oversee our six studios—a writing room, three multidisciplinary studios, a printmaking studio, and a ceramic studio. We host an annual arts festival that welcomes about 75 artists every July. And every other year we host the North Shore Readers and Writers Festival.

We've grown in many ways over the years. We started as an eight week extension of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 1947. That program eventually became a private endeavor continued by the professor who started it and his business partner. When it became a non-profit in the ’80s, we received funding to be able to function year-round. 

Ruth and her husband, Justin, with their two sons.

Ruth and her husband, Justin, with their two sons.

What drew you to this interdisciplinary field?

I've always explored that intersection between the visual and the written, specifically in the form of mixed media and poetry. Program development in nonprofit and higher education has been what I've gravitated towards in my career, because I like to grow things and try new things. Since my project-based master’s program in Vancouver required a lot of independent study, I took classes at the Emily Carr Institute of Art. I had a poetry advisor from South Africa who lived in the community. I was able to structure credits around these experiences.

At Bethel, I spent a lot of my time in the art department, in the English department and in theology. Those areas and the intersection between them have always influenced what I've been interested in and the questions I’ve asked. I really wanted to see what it meant to break down the sacred/secular divide between art and belief. What's the difference between a Christian artist and Christian art? Or an artist who's Christian compared to art that looks Christian?  

Did you come to any answers?

I think that in every profession, study and research pay off as you get further into it and you realize there is an excellence to pursue in any practice. Very concretely, poetry has an internal logic. As you add to your toolkit and resources, the more excellent your craft becomes. Artwork is not good because it's message driven but because an artist knows the aesthetic language and how to apply it to a piece of work. Artwork is good because of these internal systems coming together and resonating, drawing upon larger themes of truth, beauty, and goodness. 

Discovering this has been a long journey, but certainly, one that started with a lot of mentors—especially women—at Bethel.

What was it like to be mentored by these women at Bethel?

There are four in particular. One worked in the Office of the President and was pursuing an M.Div. She was just a thoroughly theologically grounded woman, and we would meet really concertedly. I felt like it was what made that experience so important, that she sought me out. At that point in life I really wanted to learn from someone who had gone ahead.

Another mentor was the head of Career Development and Calling at the time, and her ability to assess and analyze motivations and pursuits helped me see that vocation, or what we decide to do, is more tied to our identity than anything else. It's that process from birth to death where God continues to call out our identity and who we are versus one crisis point where we declare a job title. 

The administrative assistant who worked in the Christian Formation and Church Relations office was this delightful woman who asked such intentional and curious questions; she was an avid traveler who loved adventure. We ended up, not planned, being in Paris at the same time after I was at Bethel. 

And then my writing seminar professor really gave me the freedom to know that poetry and art were worth pursuing and that I’d figure out how to support myself while still creatively processing and engaging with the world. It was okay not to have a clear path.

"The gifts that artists have, their mentality to see things in variations of gray, to honor diverse perspectives, and to explore mystery are so essential for the world right now," Pszwaro says. Left: "Divergent and Convergent Boundaries" | Paper Cutting | 2021 Right: "Industry and Occupancy" | Paper Collage and Pen | 2020

"The gifts that artists have, their mentality to see things in variations of gray, to honor diverse perspectives, and to explore mystery are so essential for the world right now," Pszwaro says. Left: "Divergent and Convergent Boundaries" | Paper Cutting | 2021 Right: "Industry and Occupancy" | Paper Collage and Pen | 2020

What advice do you have for students who don’t have a direct career path?

I offer any advice cautiously as everyone has such a unique path to walk. One thing we try to teach our boys is to be aware of the consumer mentality of education, where it can come across like: “this should be tailored for me. I'm just going to consume it. I'm going to digest what's given to me without question.” Take ownership of the fact that there are many out of the box ways to get to where you're going to go. 

Ask yourself: What are those deep questions that I have in life? And whether that becomes part of how you make money or not, don't stop asking those deep questions. Don't stop being curious. For me right now, I am a director at a fairly intense point in history with lots of responsibility, married and with kids. How can I hold the thread of my creativity and that practice in the leaner years when maybe down the road there will be more space and time or margin for me to do more? How can I continue to hold space for spiritually-forming questions and ideas to process and influence how I live?

If you're a writer or an artist and you're looking to continue in that vein—if you can get through your 20s solidifying that discipline and your artistic goals, you're much more likely to continue on. In my position here, I see so many artists who are retired, who are like, “I finally have time now to devote to my artwork." That makes me very grateful that we can be that conduit for their learning and studio time. But it's also very sad that there have been these empty years. 

The arts are essential for building healthy communities, being able to think through things in new ways, problem solving, creating resilience, and holding space for multiple narratives. Art resonates at this place where it surprises you. It’s not logical, and you can't just calculate it and shelve it. There's something there that troubles the waters in a good way, that allows for formation, self-awareness, and a radical and humbling de-centering. All things we drastically need in our current cultural climate.

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