Judson Arts Wednesdays at Judson Memorial Church, New York City

Judson Memorial Church in Manhattan has a long history of commitment to the arts, and every Wednesday it opens its doors to artists, declaring: “Art can be prophetic. Art can be useless. Art can be sacred. Art can be irreverent. Art can be cheap. Art can be enough.” The heart of the Arts Wednesdays program is associate minister Micah Bucey, who encourages theater, storytelling, and music with what he calls a “theology of curiosity.” The website declares: “No proselytizing, no cover charge; just free food, free art, and open space. We believe that, just as food sustains the body, art sustains the soul. We also believe that artists have the potential to change us by serving as our modern day prophets; they show us where we’ve been, they show us who we are, and they show us what we could become. We don’t take ourselves, the food, or the art too seriously, and that’s how it all thrives.”