Via the Image Update:

The parish of Our Savior Catholic Center at the University of Southern California is soliciting interest and artists’ portfolios for the numerous works of sacred art to be commissioned for the new church and student center. Interested artists are invited to visit the project website for information regarding the architectural project, the artistic vision, the scope of works to be commissioned, and the submission requirements.

Being as jaded about  California Liturgical Art as I am (I lived there), I hesitated before posting this. (See World’s Ugliest Buildings.) However, this following rendering was encouraging:

Slightly less encouraging is the removal of the tabernacle from the altar, and placing it in the apse. The apse is better than, say, a super hidden side chapel, but the tabernacle should be where all good Christians are: front and center and ready to take up one’s cross.

They are clearly not looking for anything ultra post-modern, but I am confused about this statement:

We are not looking for any dry, academic mimicry of historical styles. On the one hand, we are looking to renew the narrative figurative tradition, respectful of the Christian iconographic tradition of symbols and conventions which has expressed the Catholic faith across the millennia.

I wonder what (or who) they would consider “dry, academic mimicry of historical styles.” Mimicry is a strong word, and I wonder they would consider an architectural ventriloquist? Very confusing. What do you think?