First annual Pulchrum Conference seeks to reclaim beauty in community

What does it mean to pursue beauty in community to the point of excellence? What is beauty, anyways? At least in Latin, beauty is pulchrum.

The first annual Pulchrum Conference will run from 12:30-7:30 p.m. on April 26. Founded by three undergraduate seniors—George Khoury, Iziphozonke Mlambo and David Fung—the event aims to reinspire a love for true beauty, especially for Christians as individuals and as members of the church body.

In this episode, contributor Izah DeFigh speaks with Pulchrum director of internal and external logistics David Fung about Pulchrum’s beginnings, how it got SGA, the Talbot School of Theology and the Art Department to sponsor the event and why beauty matters today. Visit PulchrumConference.com or @pulchrum.conference for more information.

For more details about this week's headlines: Work for The Chimes, The Point @pointmagazine, Biola’s Office of Innovation @biolaooi, Symphonic Winds’ Pop Concert tickets, Live from Lot-F @livefrom_lotf and tickets, Biola Athletics PacWest updates from women’s softball, women’s golf, Pope Francis’s death, Kashmir attack, chainsaw trees in Downtown LA.

Find more stories at The Chimes’ website. Find the transcript of this episode here.

Creators and Guests

Host

Izah DeFigh

Producer

Reagan Glidewell

Producer of The Chimes Weekly podcast

What is The Chimes Weekly?

Bite-sized podcast episodes with your top news stories from The Chimes, Los Angeles County, the nation and the world, with an interview with a Chimes writer to close out your week.

By Biola University students, for Biola University students. Previously known as Chimes Rundown and KBR Daily News Updates by KBR The Torch.

Reagan Glidewell: From The Torch Podcasting Network, this is The Chimes Weekly. I’m Reagan Glidewell, reporting from Biola University. It’s Friday, April 25.

David Fung: But why are we so lacking when it's like, man, we should really be not just a number in the top 100—we should be the top 100 because we are the beautiful ones. We know the one who is beauty itself. So why are we losing this to a secular world?

Reagan Glidewell: Tomorrow, Biola hosts its first ever Pulchrum Conference, an event seeking to celebrate art and creativity. Coming up, we’ll hear more from senior Bible major David Fung on Pulchrum Conference in his conversation with my colleague Izah Defigh. But before that, let’s take a look at this week’s headlines.

The Chimes is hiring! Starting next year The Chimes News, The Point magazine, and the Torch Podcast Network will be merging to form a single student media organization. Applications for positions with each of these operations are live on Handshake now, and will be hiring through the end of the semester and into summer. Check out our show notes for a link to these applications and more information about the merger.

Reagan Glidewell: This week SGA held a press conference with Chimes reporters in an effort to be more transparent about their current projects as the semester comes to a close. Among other reports, next year’s Student Body President, TJ Malley, announced his Senior Vice President, Kyah Kang, and shared that the remainder of SGA’s hiring process is nearly complete.

TJ Malley: So about my VP Kyah, I think that she complements my personality well as a leader. … As a senator, I think she knows a lot of the faces that are coming back, and is going to be able to work with them and communicate well. And I think that she just brings a certain energy to the cabinet and to the Senate that I can’t.

Reagan Glidewell: He also spoke about his plans to improve SGA’s marketing and outreach efforts in the year to come.

TJ Malley: I believe that better marketing, getting these students to actually care about SGA. That's going to be the real trick. That's going to be the tough part to pull off, but I think that it can be done, and I think that it can really benefit the campus with stronger community, stronger engagement, better elections. That's probably the number one goal.

Reagan Glidewell: Biola’s Point magazine launched their newest issue on Thursday at a Common Grounds event featuring live music by junior CMA major, Johnny Hanford, and sophomore Comm Sciences & Disorders major, Lily Stowell. The new issue focuses on themes of resilience and sacrifice and features stories ranging from street-corner flower vendors to artists within the prison system. If you missed the launch event but still want to get your hands on the new issue, stop by the Chimes Office in the SUB in room 212.

Today, Biola’s Office of Innovation hosts the Startup Competition finals. 20 teams will pitch their business ideas in hopes of taking home $10,000 in startup funding. And the best part… the first 120 guests get free Chick-fil-A. Stay tuned for next week to find out the winners.

Biola’s Symphonic Winds presents their annual Pops Concert in Chase Gymnasium tomorrow at 7:30 pm. Winds alumni join for this student-directed and created performance. Tickets are $10 for students, $13 for Biola faculty, senior citizens, and military, and $18 for general admission. Check out the show notes for a link to purchase tickets.

Live from Lot F returns for its second season this coming Monday, from 8 to 10:30 pm in Ethel Lee Auditorium. Last semester it debuted in Mayers Auditorium as a night of comedy sketches written and performed by students. Most of the students are CMA or screenwriting majors, and many of the cast are returning members. If you watched the show’s first season, you may remember performances from Nate Hollingsworth in a Richard Nixon role, Gillian Doplemore as a sister wife and Kristina Long in a sketch about a first-generation family of speechless mimes. The event is free, and you can reserve your spot at the link in our show notes.

In the world of collegiate sports, Biola softball was crowned PacWest champions this past Monday after a sweep against Menlo College. This was the first time the Eagles secured a conference victory in program history. Stay tuned for more sports updates as conference and nationals come quickly.

Pope Francis died of a stroke on Easter Monday leaving the Catholic community heartbroken. The funeral will take place tomorrow in St. Peter’s Square; however, the date of the conclave–the time when the Pope is chosen–has not been set. The Pope showed significant commitment to social justice and ministry and was the first Latin American Pope.

A devastating militant attack on civilians occurred in the India-controlled Kashmir area on Tuesday. According to AP News a group of gunmen opened fire on a group of tourists, killing 26 people and injuring 17. The identity of the militants are not confirmed. On Wednesday, Indian leadership suspended a water-sharing treaty with Pakistan in response to what Indian foreign secretary Vikram Misri calls, “cross-border terrorism.”

Trees in downtown Los Angeles fell victim to vandals with chainsaws Easter Weekend. Numerous trees on Olympic Boulevard, Broadway, and Grand Avenue were found sliced in pieces. Law enforcement arrested the suspect Tuesday evening.

Reagan Glidewell: That’s it for this week’s headlines. Next up, we will hear from my colleague Izah DeFigh and her conversation with David Fung, the internal director of Pulchrum Conference. Fung will touch on the conference objective: bring art, creativity, and beauty back to the Christian life. To you, Izah.

Izah DeFigh: Thanks so much, Reagan. I'm sitting here with David Fung, senior Bible major and director of Internal Affairs for Pulchrum Conference. So David, tell us about the conference, what it is about, what's your mission and what has your role been like?

David Fung: Yeah, really quickly, easily. Pulchrum is the first annual beauty conference here at Biola University. Its goal is to connect artists together to pursue beauty and to do it to the point of excellence. That's kind of the heart of what this conference is. And kind of the main reason this conference exists is because we've witnessed a decline of the love of beauty, the love of art. In the West, we have watched us going from building Notre Dame and the Sistine Chapel and writing incredible music and literary art pieces like Divine Comedy to where we are now, where when you talk about the best films in the world, you talk about Oppenheimer and you talk about Game of Thrones recently, luckily, praise the Lord The Chosen has come onto the scene as a major art piece. But like until The Chosen, there was nothing really to be proud of as Christians in the film world. And that goes with music. When you talk about the number one top music artists, we get so excited when elevation, worship somehow gets in the top 100 but why are we so lacking when it's like, man, we should really be not just a number in the top 100 we should be the top 100 because we are the beautiful ones. We know the one who is beauty itself. So why are we losing this to a secular world? Now it's kind of the heart behind the conference. We wanted the conference to inspire Christians to go out and make beautiful things again, like they used to do, and not be so timid and afraid, like, oh, I need to actually join a secular industry. No, actually, the secular industry should be seeking to join us, because we have a direct and more intimate source of what beauty is like, because we have a relationship with God. And so that kind of is what Pulchrum is, that's the heart behind Pulchrum and how it kind of, like, got birthed as an idea.

Izah DeFigh: So this is the first year that this conference is being put on. Can you talk a little bit about the process and how this idea came about?

David Fung: Yeah, as many of you know, when you first start off doing something, it's a lot of work. Building the foundations for a building is often more time-consuming than the actual construction of the building itself. And that's what it's felt like a lot this year. It all started with actually, our founder, George Khoury, he came to our men's Bible study and was like, Hey, guys, like, I feel like the world is lacking for true beauty. Christians are not making beautiful things, and so it's lacking in the world. And we were like, Oh, that's a great little pitch. Like, yeah, we kind of agree. He's like, Well, I want to do something about it. And he says, let's do this conference. And we're like, okay, let's do this. And that was about two and a half months ago, three months ago, and ever since then, it's been this process that we thought was gonna be small and easy into this long, time-consuming organization. We have a staff team of 15 people. It's this giant thing now, but it's grown because we've realized this problem is so much bigger and deeper than anything that we've witnessed. We kind of are just realizing we scratch the surface to actually not just a scab on the Christian body, but actually a cancer that exists within the Christian body. And so it's no longer like, oh, we just need to, like, put some ointment on it. It's like, no, actually, we need to do chemo for the next six months. We need to actually dig deep, keep the body healthy, keep it strong, but really work hard and what it means to, to find beauty again in the church and support our artists and encourage everyone of every field to actually pursue beauty. Like, yeah, you the accountant, yeah, you need to be pursuing beauty in what you're doing. Yeah, you the math major. You need to pursue beauty or the person who's making dental wear, or the person who's just driving a car because you're an Amazon driver. How do you find beauty in the work you're doing? And invite people into this awe inspiring nature of what beauty is, and so that's kind of how it started, and kind of what it's been. It's been an interesting process here at Biola. Biola has been super supportive. There's a lot of red tape here at Biola, which is a loss, but also, like, good for them, because you need to have red tape at Biola. You need to have a system and process in place so that you actually make sure that everything that's going on at Biola is good and healthy. And so we've had to go through a lot of that. It weighs a little bit slow. It took a lot of energy from us to get through that, but that was the first month and a half. But after that, we were set to go. Everyone has been so supportive since then, everyone in Metzger. SGA actually is funding, $1,500 worth of funding right now for this to get food, we're providing a free dinner. So they're paying for the free dinner for all our students. We've gotten so much support from the, Talbot is sponsoring it, and the art department sponsoring it. We've gotten so much support from them, from borrowing easels to registering and reserving rooms and all these different stuff. And so we've just had this overwhelming support from Biola self. It makes me as an internal, the internal director, like man, I want to do it back here at Biola again. It's made my life easier. I know their system, but we don't know where we're doing it next year. So stay tuned for that. But it has been such a joy. And so I encourage you, anyone that sees a need here at Biola, or the world feel willing to do it at Biola, they want to do this, especially if it's to help the Christian body, the Church, the capital C church as a collective. And so I just want to say thank you Biola, thank you Talbot, thank you the art department, and thank you SGA for all the support you guys have given us with this process.

Izah DeFigh: You What do you hope that people who attend the conference will take away from it?

David Fung: Yeah,our mission statement is pursuing beauty in community to the point of excellence, and that really is our three major hit points. We first want to pursue beauty, and that means both talking about beauty and making beauty. And so that's our main goal for all our attendees. And we want you all to be on fire for beauty. I feel like you need to chase beauty that like, beauty is not something that's compromisable, like, yeah, goodness, truth, justice, all these things are really important, but beauty itself is not compromisable. We can't cast beauty to the side. We can't forget about beauty. Beauty is something that we need to pursue out of necessity, because God himself is beauty. And so that's the first thing. That's the reason you're coming to the conference, is the draw. The second big thing is, we want you to do it in community. God has us walking in this faithful commitment with the church. We are a part of the church, and you need to be doing it in community. And that what that means, specifically for our art conference, is you need to be connected with other art mediums. We don't want you to be isolated and alone and only think about your form of art. We want you to think about, Okay, wow. How can I get connected with music? How can I get connected with film? How can I get connected with photography? How can I get connected with writing, poetry and storytelling? How can I get connected with maybe just like the local dentist that's trying to pursue beauty in his craft? We want you to meet and talk about that, because as Christians, you're pursuing God in community to find the beauty. The last thing is, we want to pursue it to the point of excellence. And we don't just want to pursue beauty for the sake of pursuing beauty, but God Himself is the most beautiful thing. And so when we're chasing after beauty, we want to be making the most beautiful thing possible. We want to be growing in what it means to know and understand beauty. And so that's the big thing. So we hope out of all our attendees, you're going to pursue beauty, you're going to feel inspired to do it in community. And lastly, you're going to do it to the point of excellence, to the point of that it's mind blowing and changing your field. And so we hope that that is what they feel like it. They feel inspired to do so. And go out and make a project. We want this to be at the end of the conference. So not just be like, I talked about beauty, but we wanted to be like, No, now you're gonna go out and do it. You're gonna, with people you're eating dinner with, you're actually gonna go make a project. You're gonna make something beautiful. And so that’s kind of the heart of it.

Izah DeFigh: If people want to learn more about this or get involved, how can they do that?

David Fung: Yeah, the easiest way to get information about this is go to our website. It's gonna be pulchrumconference.com so it's P, U, L, C, H, R, U, M, conference.com that's a great way to get connected. On there, you're gonna find the schedule, you're gonna find a way to register, you're gonna find different pieces, you're gonna find our YouTube channel. We're also gonna find our Instagram. Our Instagram's our second biggest way to get connected. We post there regularly, local artists, art pieces, ways to get connected, just fun reels, some different cool stuff. But our Instagram is probably the next biggest way to get connected, probably our biggest way, honestly. But right now, go to our website. It's gonna have all the main key information, because that's our hub, you could say.

Izah DeFigh: Well that's great. Thanks so much for your time. David,

Reagan Glidewell: Thanks for listening! As always, if you enjoyed this episode, leave us a review and share it with a friend or a roommate.

For more stories from The Chimes, see our show notes, or head over to our website at ChimesNewspaper.com.

This episode was produced and hosted by Reagan Glidewell, with headlines written by me, Thomas Rahkola, Izah DeFigh and Hope Li. This episode was engineered by Jason Lee. Our theme music is from Warner Chappell Productions. Our executive producer is Hope Li.

I’m Reagan Glidewell, and we’ll see you all next week for our last episode of season 3.