Public Art and Churches: ideas for involvement

Love & Light

RE:Generation

Graffiti mural

The Cabinet of Sin and Salvation

In the four years that I have been ordained I have had the opportunity to be involved in four church-based public arts projects that in different ways have involved the local and church community in the art. This article, which has just been published in the Veritasse Artisan's newsletter, briefly describes these projects in the hope that they will stimulate ideas for other ways of doing public art through and in churches.

Love & Light

Visual Jockeys, SDNA, filmed people from the congregation and community and then digitally enhanced these images before projecting the images onto the windows, roof and tower of the church. This project, which SDNA called Abbey Happy, turned St Margaret’s Barking into a temporary artwork that was a blaze of light and colour with moving images showing the diversity of the church’s congregation. The project was part of an evenings’ art trail, called Love & Light in the Town Centre which highlighted, through projections, significant heritage buildings in Barking. The project was organised by the local council through their Arts Services department and funded by the Arts Council.

RE:Generation

Michael Cousin was commissioned by the local council to produce a film and photographic exhibition in collaboration with the community. When he thought about where to go to find groups of local people, he realised that local churches were one of the best places to go. Michael interviewed several people from St Margaret’s about their experience of living in Barking. From these, and other interviews, he created a film called RE:Generation which is a recording of personal anecdotes, memories and views on change, past and present with a view to reflecting on all our futures in a borough currently undergoing large scale redevelopment and change. This film was shown in St Margaret’s as part of an exhibition by Michael Cousin called Memento which featured places and personal events, from days past, as recorded by our community in their personal photo albums, alongside images of how those places and people are now.

Graffiti mural

Under the banner of SOULINTHECITY St Margaret’s Barking has been involving young people in the Arts through workshops in Fashion Design and Graffiti Art. These workshops culminated in the creation of a graffiti mural on the blank wall of a local park. This project involved many local youngsters, teaching them can-control and design skills while also learning about the history of hip hop culture. The names of all those taking part in the workshop and enhancing their own local environment were recorded in the mural. Graffiti Artist AKS who led the workshop that produced the mural stressed that the work carried a Christian message as the words included in it - "one, heart, soul, unity, community and together" - reflected the essence of SOULINTHECITY and showed that there is "no conflict between hip hop values and Christian values."

The Cabinet of Sin and Salvation

The most recent project came after I had moved to St John’s Seven Kings. There I customised and decorated a four drawer cabinet as a public arts project carried out over the course of one week in the lounge of the Parish Centre. The resulting conceptual sculpture, The Cabinet of Sin and Salvation, included constructions, paintings and photomontages and was exhibited as part of the Visual Dialogue art exhibition that was held in the church over our Patronal Festival weekend. As I worked on the project I invited users of the centre to comment on the work as it developed. I also documented the project photographically and posted daily blogs about the project here. The project generated considerable interest and comment locally and was featured in the Church Times and the local press.

Public Art projects – benefits

The projects I have been involved in have encouraged our congregations because they have been able to contribute to the project and see their contribution in the finished artwork. They have raised the profile of the two churches locally because the projects have each made very visual stories that the local press wanted to feature. Finally, the projects have either brought people into church to see the project/exhibition or they have taken the church out into the community, as with the Graffiti mural, and left something of benefit to the community created through the church and community working together.

Public Art projects - tips

Here are a few suggestions of things to do that might result in a public arts project:

• Find out if your local council has an Arts Services department or a local Arts Council. Get to know them and support the projects they commission.


• Talk to local artists to see if they have ideas for ways of involving local people in arts projects.


• Offer your church building as a venue for projects, workshops or exhibitions.


• Apply for funding to commission artists or run arts workshops.


• Get together with other local churches to organise art activities that benefit the local community.

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