This Lee’s Summit group provides home for ‘inner creative nature that’s in all of us’

While some seem never to have been interested in making art, others thrive on it as a source of vitality and satisfaction. For those in between, it’s simply been a long time since that enthusiasm for sponge-painting orange and yellow autumn leaves on manila paper was encouraged.

The Unity Arts Ministry has something to offer everyone on the spectrum.

The Rev. Jen Hutchins directs the nonprofit organization under the umbrella of Unity Worldwide Ministries. Its studio location is at Unity Village.

“We provide classes, workshops and retreats that empower the creative spirit — that inner creative nature that’s in all of us that maybe we’ve forgotten,” Hutchins said.

The ministry was launched in 2017. Hutchins, an ordained Unity minister, received her master’s degree in divinity from Unity Institute and Seminary at Unity Village in 2016. She already had a bachelor’s degree in art education and wanted to combine her profession with her calling.

“It’s art teacher meets ministry — and this is what happens,” she said.

On a recent Saturday afternoon at Open Studio, several artists collected around connected tables in a sunny room at Unity. Each had the materials and tools suited to their projects, which that day included watercolors and English paper piercing.

“It’s a sort of afternoon social club for creatives,” Hutchins said.

The number of participants varies from four to 10 people every month, and their work includes watercolor to stained glass, fabric arts, crochet or other portable medium.

Makers of all stripes in any of the arts ministry offerings can count on the freedom to follow their imaginations without fear of judgment.

April Kincaid found the arts ministry program in 2019 after a friend told her about a creative renewal retreat. Although she had studied art, it had been 20 years since she’d painted much, Kincaid said. The responsibilities of single motherhood had led her toward a business career. She felt blocked, as though she’d sacrificed a part of her identity, and she suffered from depression.

“I wasn’t painting. I wasn’t being creative at all,” she said. “I felt like I had probably lost all that skill. I felt like people were going to criticize me.”

But the retreat marked the beginning of her rejuvenation as an artist. Fast forward to 2024. Kincaid held her first official art showcase when her work was displayed for the month of September in the Fillmore Cafe at Unity. She describes her work as impressionistic. She loves oil painting and charcoal figure drawing.

“It really feels like the ministry is dedicated to helping you rediscover your creativity and who you really are,” Kincaid said. “What the arts ministry provides is just a great safe space that helps people break out of their comfort zones.”

Kincaid, who moved to Overland Park from Lee’s Summit, still chooses from the multiple offerings at Unity each month.

Not far from the Open Studio site in a sheltered spot on campus is another opportunity to enlist creative spirits. From April through October each year, the Kindness Rock Garden offers visitors brightly painted rocks with inspirational messages.

“The idea is if a stone speaks to them they can take it and keep it as long as they want and then pass it on,” Hutchins said.

They can also paint one themselves and bring it to “plant” in the garden. This attempt to spread kindness and compassion to others originated nationally with The Kindness Rocks Project created by Megan Murphy of Cape Cod, Mass.

Also under the Unity Arts Ministry umbrella is the lesser-known artist trading card swap. Anyone — professional or amateur — can paint or otherwise decorate five miniature cards, mail them to a volunteer who receives packets from local, national and international contributors and receive five artworks from other artists in return.

A Creative Spirit Gathering is an art journal program that Hutchins hosts, guiding participants to combine reflective writing with basic art materials such as crayons, pens, colored pencils, watercolors and collage materials. It migrated online during the pandemic and still convenes via Zoom.

For more language-oriented artists, WordShine meets monthly to provide resources and support to anyone in the Kansas City area interested in starting or maintaining a writing practice.

Details about these and other possibilities can be found here.