History of Leaving the Fold
Our project manager, Rachel Bancroft, shares how the exhibit came to be.
This project emerges from my own spiritual unraveling after a lifetime of being a member of a high-demand religion. Over a period of ten years, my faith in my religion crashed. I felt many emotions: shame, fear, anger, disbelief in harmful doctrines, and a curiosity about what was happening in my soul.
Creating art and writing about my experience was a lifeline for me at the height of my spiritual crisis, and in the fall of 2023, I began to share my story in my Substack newsletter. Readers, friends and acquaintances reached out to me, sharing that they were also going through their own religious deconstruction. We talked and cried and shared our stories. We found a connection together that helped us not feel so alone.
And so the idea for this exhibit was born: create a space for artists from any high control group background to courageously share their stories of faith and questioning, loss of community, and discovering their own spiritual autonomy. Sharing these stories through art not only encourages conversations and community, but also challenges institutional authority, which insists there is no worthwhile spiritual path outside of a strict system.