THE “Peacock of Humility”, one of a series of a brightly hued vestments bearing the uncharacteristic virtues of animals; six geometric vinyl designs for plain glass windows representing the home countries of immigrants in Newcastle; a figure, slightly smaller than life-size, covered in the finest white feathers, standing in the transept of a medieval Welsh church once inhabited by a hermit; a dance-floor of tessellating pieces of wood, each marked with the footprint of members of the congregation, made for a temporary installation in the nave of a large Victorian church in east London — these are just a handful of installations created by artists for and with parish churches over the past few years.
Not cathedrals, or large city centre minsters, these are places where resources, both human and financial, are limited.
There is a vast and largely untapped potential for partnership between the visual arts and Christian places of worship. The needs of churches across the country might not point towards the visual arts in the most obvious ways, but, increasingly, artists are being invited to participate in and animate the life of a church.
This perhaps represents a shift in wider society, where we see artists’ skills deployed in problem-solving, designing, agitating, and convening, rather than working to commission with more traditional-looking outcomes. Artists’ toolboxes naturally include inquisitiveness and subversion, as well as paintbrushes and chisels.
There is also a perceptible growth in the number of churches and faith organisations expanding their mission and outreach to include artists and other creatives, acknowledging that the reciprocal relationship engendered by artistic activity — even in the simple act of looking — is expressive of God’s Kingdom.
Examples include the HeartEdge initiative, from St Martin-in-the-Fields, in London, where “culture” is one of its four C’s (the others are commerce, compassion, and congregation); the think tank Theos, which recently commissioned the photographer Ruth Samuel in a series of portraits of carers (most recently exhibited at the Church of the Annunciation, Marble Arch); and the Renaissance movement led by the Saint group of churches in east London.
At a more practical level, the physical space that most churches contain can provide either a site for exhibitions and installations, or, in some circumstances, studio space, particularly in parts of the country where studio costs are prohibitive for many artists. Again, reciprocity can be key to making this work — perhaps in a non-financial exchange of space for artist-led activities. Some churches are able to offer discrete areas of the building where an artist can work, or produce a site-specific installation.
For many years, St John’s, Bethnal Green, offered space in its belfry free to local artists for small exhibitions. The parish worked on trust with each artist, handing over a key to the church and allowing a generously free rein in terms of content, but asked each artist to give a talk to the congregation if they were comfortable doing so.
WHAT circumstances might motivate a church to begin engaging with an artist? Many heritage funding applications require that a church demonstrates its community engagement? Running artist-led workshops can be attractive, inter-generational activities that often result in an artwork that is communally made and “owned”.
Laura MoffattRitournelle, by Katia Kameli (Eritrea), hosted by St John the Baptist, Newcastle, in 2017
The vestment artworks made by Bettina Furnée for All Saints and St Andrew, Kingston, in Cambridgeshire, were part of an attempt to draw the attention of its rural community and to the wider area to the church’s medieval wall-paintings. The artwork reinterpreted the seven contrary virtues, often depicted in medieval times riding on animals. A mask-making workshop was held, as well as one on medieval storytelling, which demonstrated a contemporary engagement with the church’s historic fabric, rituals and beliefs.
Sometimes, the motivation can be celebratory. For the late Queen’s Jubilee in 2022, All Hallows’ by the Tower, London, worked with the artist Helen Maurer to produce a floating field of paper-flower mobiles as a thanksgiving, and as a response to the Tower of London’s wildflower field, which drew large numbers of visitors.
For some, engagement might begin with a marking of community experience, a way of making sense of tragedy. Both Grenfell Tower and the Covid pandemic have been commemorated in recent works where artists have worked hard to express the narratives and collective feeling of a community.
Artistic responses to contested heritage in our churches and cathedrals are also starting to appear, where the visual speaks into the complexity of a narrative of historic injustices.
One of these is Graeme Mortimer Evelyn’s 2007 Reconciliation Reredos, at St Stephen’s, Bristol. The painted panels, two either side of the stone Lamb of God insignia, assert themselves in bright, highly reflective colours, faces calling and looking out, asking for dialogue and justice. Its juxtaposition with the much older decorative stonework of the reredos demands that we look again with fresh eyes, and in doing so creates conversations about its context.
If we believe that creativity should be an integral part of our Christian context, life, and worship, we need to work harder at including the visual arts alongside sacred music and liturgy. The Church may no longer have the financial resources to act as a patron of the visual arts, but it can still make a generous offer to artists in its midst, where the transactional nature of creative collaboration holds rich rewards.
How to get started
BASED on years of experience, Art and Christianity has identified some key steps to working with an artist that can be embarked on by any small grouping of lay people and clergy. A brief outline of the steps might begin with:
- forming a steering group for your project;
- seeking partners and funders (think about your locality and what already exists in terms of arts provision — who are the experts you might call upon locally?);
- writing a brief for your project setting out what you want to achieve, but not telling an artist how;
- identifying an artist you want to work with.
This last question tends to be the most challenging for parishes, who worry that they don’t know where to start looking for an artist, or wouldn’t be able to say if an artist is “good” or “bad”. Some worry that an artist ought to profess a Christian faith in order to be qualified to make art for a church, but, of course, it isn’t unusual to make these stipulations about craftspeople, building contractors, architects, or even musicians.
Finding an artist
OPEN-CALL, or competitions to find an artist can be exciting and rewarding — and more democratic than the alternatives — but the response is only as good as the networks with which it is shared. Competitions tend to yield an unregulated influx of applications which require time-consuming attention, so much so that they can end up overwhelming the best of intentions.
Mud and ThunderGrace Vessel, a hand-built and smoke-fired ceramic by Jane Sheppard, which was displayed at St Michael and All Angels, Gwernesney, Monmouthshire, in 2023
Alternatively, it can be helpful to seek professional advice either to identify suitable artists to work with, or for guidance on working with local artists who might already be known to the parish. This can be a useful shortcut to a shortlist of candidates who can then be invited to respond to a brief and make indicative proposals for an artwork or exhibition. If you’re doing this, it is recognised as best practice to offer a small fee to each of the artists at this stage.
Look for support and advice from local galleries, public art officers, lecturers, and art curators. Axisweb.org and a-n.co.uk are the go-to artists’-community websites in the UK where you can search for artists using a range of categories, browse the projects — don’t be afraid to take inspiration from the secular — and advertise your opportunity.
Art and Christianity also has an online project, Ecclesiart, which represents, in more than 100 entries, the diversity of art in UK churches and cathedrals from the past 100 years. Although these are all permanent commissions, many have been realised because a church or cathedral has already begun to engage with artists through exhibitions or installations.
Laura Moffatt is the Director of Art and Christianity. The Art and Christianity guidelines can be downloaded from their website (artandchristianity.org/guidelines), which also contains templates for briefs, contracts, budgets, and loan agreements.
Case study
FROM early August to the end of October 2024, through a partnership with the Friends of Friendless Churches and Dore Abbey, Art and Christianity created a trail of seven artworks in seven churches between Usk and Hay-on-Wye. The churches that the Friends maintain are remote, so they welcomed this initiative to boost visitor numbers, particularly during September, which is the Welsh “open doors” month.
Mud and ThunderThe artist Lou Baker creating her installation Life/Blood at Dore Abbey, part of “Vessel”, an art trail in remote rural churches
With the help of the curator Jacquiline Creswell, a trustee of Art and Christianity, we selected seven pre-existing artworks with the guiding theme of “Vessel”, and installed them in the church buildings. This model might be used in any grouping of churches where the attraction to visitors is that the art trail becomes a kind of mini-pilgrimage, and the placing of a single work of contemporary art within a church adds to its visual power. In practical terms, most churches find it easier to accommodate a single work than multiple ones.
“Vessel” also gave us the opportunity to hold a weekend event with guided visits to the churches, led by the curator and with some of the artists present. They also participated in a panel discussion about placing contemporary art in remote rural churches, and four of the artists led creative workshops on site using their particular skills (mud sculpture, knitting, drawing, and claywork).
All of the host organisations were extremely heartened to find so many comments in the visitors’ books showing that the trail had given people the impetus to visit the churches, and that the encounter with a piece of contemporary art in an ancient rural church had engendered delight, intrigue, and reflection. Many appreciated the short meditations that we left at each church that encouraged an experience of discovery and prayer.