Mark Pierson - art loving seed sowing motivator

I fell in love with Jugglers Art Space almost as fast as I had done so with Peter. The fact either happened was somewhat disconcerting on reflection. I wasn’t an artist and didn’t have much understanding of art, I just liked hanging out with creative people and wanted the Church to support them. About all we shared in common were introversion, creative juices and a distrust and discombobulation with institutional church things. We also shared a common experience of the lesser known biblical practice quoted in the Book of Acts, of “kicking against the pricks”. While having a more agricultural meaning in Roman times, the phrase communicated well our shared experience of the institution in contemporary times.

I had the great delight of watching Peter push through the pricks, at significant personal cost, to form Cafe Jugglers that would go on to become Jugglers Art Space. Endowed with a huge intellect and an earthy practicality to match, coupled with a dogged commitment, he and wife Maeve and their boys followed their hearts. Their deep concern for people unmoved by religious institutions, led them into laneways and along train-tracks where the Christian church had not ventured. 

The arts, and artists, are generally not well understood or supported by churches and church institutions. Street art…, well it all comes under the “anti-social tagging” label. The terms, ministry, church funding, and pastoral care never intersect with it. But for Peter they were all in the same basket. “People are people whatever they eat for breakfast.” (Lyric, Ray Columbus). 

The first time I stepped into the Tunnel at 103 Brunswick, I was overwhelmed - not only by the fumes, but by the sheer depth and weight of the creativity as half a dozen artists with aerosols as tools of creativity went about their thing. The Back Space was an arena filled with beauty and passion and collegial acceptance. I cried. Studios, White Space, exhibitions, commissions, court appearances, the Stairwell project followed. Fifteen years later when I held a 4mm thick piece of paint off the Back Space wall - layer on layer on layer of spray-paint build - I cried again. Here in this fragment of paint the despair and hopes, successes and failures of untold artists were embedded and embodied. It felt as significant as any fragment of the biblical story. In fact it was, and still is, a part of the biblical story: the story of God moving among people in healing ways bringing flourishing and hopefulness.   

Thank you Peter. I know there were others involved with you. I also know that the vision and drive to fulfil it originated in your heart. The face of the juggler in your logo should be changed to one with a smile on his face. I know that God smiled often at what you did and continues to do so on what you have done. Thanks for allowing me to share in your pilgrimage. It’s an honour to know you. What’s next…?

Mark Pierson

Former owner of 103 Brunswick Street - Jeff Hopkims-weise and Rev Mark pieson - 2003