Eugene Johnson linked faith and the arts

Eugene Johnson selected the distinguished maroon bricks that adorn the main building on the campus of Bethel University in Arden Hills. He also played a role in the design of the building, which features four connected wings, spacious conversational areas and wide hallways.

Johnson was serving as director of campus planning in 1972 when Bethel moved from cramped quarters near the State Fairgrounds to its current location, and many of his ideas shaped the layout of the campus and nearby seminary, said his daughter Conny Spann of Kenmore, Wash.

But he's remembered most as the school's first art teacher, who in 1948 founded its Art Department in the basement of a seminary building on Snelling Avenue at a time when many didn't see the arts and Christianity fitting together.

"Eugene is a spiritual and artistic patriarch for the arts among people of faith in this country and in our university," said Wayne Roosa, current art department chairman. "His creative vision laid the groundwork for the richness of the art department at Bethel."

Johnson died last Sunday at an assisted living center near Green Valley, Ariz., a month after he had hip surgery. He was 88.

He had plans to enter the ministry, so he earned a bachelor of divinity degree at Bethel and a bachelor's degree in philosophy at the University of Southern California. From 1946 to 1948, Johnson served as a pastor in the Los Angeles area before he was invited to teach Bible classes at Bethel. But stemming from his high school days in Fergus Falls, Minn., where he designed store windows for a clothing shop, Johnson was an artist at heart and asked to teach art instead, his daughter said.

"He believed that Christian artists needed a place to study consistent with Christian beliefs," Spann said. "Bethel was his mission."

As the department grew, he molded more than just clay pots, said former student Marv Bjurlin. He often had students in his living room for popcorn and discussions about art, and he drove students to New York City so they could look at galleries on Madison Avenue.

"He didn't just teach, but he demonstrated how to live with art and make it a meaningful part of life," said Bjurlin, who taught for 40 years at the State University of New York-Fredonia. "He went way beyond the call of duty."

The Eugene Johnson Art Gallery at Bethel is named in his honor and the school awards the Janet Wingblade-Johnson Scholarship, founded and funded by Johnson in memory of his first wife.

Johnson founded the national organization Christians in Visual Arts to explore and nurture the relationship between visual arts and the Christian faith, and to consider the place of the Christian artist in the church and in the world-at-large. It now has about 1,300 members.

He was a member of the Minnesota Craft Council, the National Council on Education of Ceramic Arts and the College Art Association. Johnson was an accomplished painter and potter who ran a studio called the Potter's House in Arden Hills. People came from miles around to buy his cups, bowls and classically designed pots during his annual sales, Spann said.