The Thick
The Thick & the Clear is an immersive weekend exploring C.S. Lewis, faith, imagination, and the arts through conversation, museums, shared meals, and live performance.
About
The Thick & the Clear invites participants to encounter Lewis, learn how to see, practice that way of seeing in the galleries, and then experience those ideas embodied through dance.
Rather than moving from lecture to lecture, the weekend unfolds as a progression through place, attention, reflection, conversation, and performance.
Faith, Imagination, and What Endures
Explore Lewis through The Weight of Glory and Meditation in a Toolshed—then carry those ideas into the Wade Center, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the living language of dance.
The Experience
Learn to see. Practice attention. Encounter Lewis through art, place, and performance.
Encounter Lewis
Begin at the Marion E. Wade Center with The Weight of Glory, the Lewis collection, and conversation in the intimate setting of The Kilns.
Practice Attention
Learn a devotional framework for encountering art, then put it into practice through a self-guided experience at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Experience Embodiment
See theology, literature, and imagination become choreography through Ballet 5:8’s creative process and live performance.
Speakers
Jim Beitler
Opening the weekend with reflections connecting art and C.S. Lewis’s The Weight of Glory, followed by a guided experience through the Wade Center collection.
Terry Glaspey
Author of Discovering God Through the Arts, leading a practical session on attention, reflection, and how to encounter art devotionally.
Julianna Rubio Slager
Ballet 5:8 Artistic Director, taking participants inside the creative process to explore how theology, literature, and imagination become choreography.
Schedule
Two days across Wheaton, Chicago, and Orland Park.
March 19, 2027 | Wheaton
Marion E. Wade Center, Wheaton College
Jim Beitler connects art and C.S. Lewis’s The Weight of Glory, followed by a guided experience through the Wade Center collection.
Reception at The Kilns
Dinner, drinks, conversation, and time with fellow attendees and speakers in an intimate setting.
March 20, 2027 | Chicago + Orland Park
Chicago Cultural Center
Terry Glaspey leads a practical session on encountering art devotionally, with an emphasis on attention, reflection, and learning how to see.
Art Institute of Chicago
A specially designed self-guided devotional art experience featuring selected works throughout the museum, including opportunities to encounter the major Zurbarán exhibition.
To Ballet 5:8
A boxed lunch is provided as the group transitions from downtown Chicago to Ballet 5:8 in Orland Park.
Creative Process with Julianna Rubio Slager
Explore how theology, literature, and imagination become choreography.
Of Splendors and Horrors
Experience Ballet 5:8’s work inspired by The Weight of Glory, followed by conversation with the artists.
Meditations
The artistic exploration continues with Meditations, connected to Lewis’s Meditation in a Toolshed.
Closing Dinner
The conference concludes with a catered dinner and unhurried conversation together.
Conference Registration Includes
Your registration brings the full weekend together—sessions, museum experiences, performances, conversation, and meals.