Art in Religious Spaces consultation

Live painted performance piece by David Shillinglaw, painted during the Visionaries exhibition

Works by Adam Neate & Albert Herbert

Works by the Chapman Brothers & Cecil Collins

Henry Shelton with another consultation participant

Henry Shelton & Colin Burns alongside works by Cecil Collins & Unity Spencer

Three Commission For Mission artists - Colin Burns, Jonathan Evens and Henry Shelton - attended a lunchtime get-together organised by the Wallspace Gallery for all those involved in displaying contemporary art in unusual spaces, such as churches or other religious buildings.

Revd Katharine Rumens from St Giles Cripplegate in the Barbican and Paul Bayley of Art+Christianity Enquiry spoke about their experiences of working with artists in city churches. Katherine's experiences ranged from community art workshops in East Ham to temporary art installations at St Giles while Paul described the Insight visual arts stream created for the City of London Festival in 2005. There was an opportunity for all those attending to introduce their projects, meet one another and discuss the issues raised by work in this area. We were also able to see the current Wallspace exhibition, Visionaries, which closes today.

Visionaries was an exhibition of works and performance by artists on the edge – visionary artists whose work is set outside or on the fringes of cultural institutions, often offering a trenchant critique of culture. Visionaries brought together artists working in this honourable and challenging tradition; essentially those who explore with passion the territories of the spiritual, the religious and the human condition. The exhibition included works by Stanley Spencer and Cecil Collins of the twentieth century, mid-twentieth-century paintings by Norman Adams, Albert Herbert and Anthony Goble, later painters such as Peter Howson, Clive Hicks-Jenkins and Brian Whelan, and twenty-first-century artists such as the Chapman brothers, Billy Childish and Adam Neate. Visionaries can be seen at the Greenbelt Arts Festival, at Cheltenham Racecourse, August Bank Holiday weekend, 25 to 31 August.

Wallspace is an exhibition venue in the church of All Hallows on the Wall in the City of London. Its aim is to provide a spiritual home for the visual arts in the capital. The vision for Wallspace has been developed principally by its Director, freelance curator Meryl Doney.