Powell-Edwards Lecture Series for Religion and the Arts
The Powell-Edwards Lecture Series for Religion and the Arts, established through generous gifts within the Religious Studies Program at VCU in 2008, aims to foster serious inquiry into the relation of the world's diverse religions and spiritualities to the arts. To that end, the Powell-Edwards Lecture Series plans, supports and presents distinguished lectures in religion and the arts. The Powell-Edwards Lecture Series hopes that this inquiry will further encourage religions and spiritualities, and the arts, to enrich and critique one another so that both society and the creative life of individuals will flourish.
All lectures are free and open to the public.
Art, Inquiry and Spiritual Practice: Three Conversations
For spring 2025, the Powell-Edwards Lecture Series brings together the arts and humanities in three public events exploring interconnections among spiritual practice, scholarly inquiry and art-making in the work of scholars, artists and spiritual practitioners.
This series developed out of two ongoing projects at VCU:
- A working group exploring art and spiritual practice
- An “Art and Spiritual Practice” team-taught course with painter and VCUarts professor Miguel Carter-Fisher. The course explores the intersections between art-making and spiritual practice by considering concepts and practices from a range of aesthetic, religious and spiritual traditions.
Upcoming Events
Spirituality in Art History and Practice: A Conversation with Donato Loia
Date: Thursday, Apr 10, 2025
Collaging a Zen Life: A Conversation with Blythe King
Date: Thursday, Apr 17, 2025
Cliff Edwards, Ph.D.
Cliff Edwards, Ph.D., is emeritus professor of religious studies in the VCU School of World Studies. His undergraduate degree is from Drew University, master's in theology from Garrett Theological Seminary, and doctorate in the history and literature of religions from Northwestern University. Professor Edwards studied as a Dempster Fellow at the University of Strasbourg in France, and the University of Neuchatel in Switzerland. He participated in archaeological excavations at Gezer in Palestine and studied at the Hebrew Union School of Bible and Archaeology in Jerusalem. He has been a visiting professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara and has been a visiting fellow at Oxford University in England. Through a “Great Religions Fund” fellowship, he spent a year at the Daitokuji Zen Temple in Kyoto, Japan, under the direction of Zen Master Kobori Sohaku and Kyudo master hiraki-sensei. He previously taught courses in Japanese Zen Buddhism, biblical studies, and religion and the arts at VCU.
Marcia Powell
A graduate of VCU, Marcia Powell was a renowned French teacher at the Collegiate Schools for more than 20 years. Her dedication to VCU led her to teach there in her retirement. Well into her 80s, she continued to teach French to senior citizens at the Shepherd’s Center and Open University of Richmond. She touched many lives with her love of learning, culture, the arts and the French language. She led tours to France and Switzerland for a number of years. For the last 13 years of her life she was a charter member of the Hermitage at Cedarfield. Her apartment there contained many works of art, including a portrait of her father, and her collection of books on the arts, literature and biblical studies. Among her books were many volumes in French literature, including the works of her favorite French author, Marcel Proust, and the signed works of the “Lost Generation” writer, her friend “Dos,” John dos Passos.
In her 90s, to express her love of VCU and passion for the relationship of religion and the arts, Powell decided to establish an endowment to support lectures and events on religion and the arts. As she had attended the classes in religion taught by Cliff Edwards, Ph.D., and had herself delivered similar lectures, she asked that the endowment be placed in the Religious Studies Program and be named the Powell-Edwards Fund for Religion and the Arts. Powell lived to attend the inaugural lecture by the famous sculptor, Elizabeth King, at VCU and enjoyed the celebration of the beginning of the Powell-Edwards lectures.