Networking Afternoon

Our next commission4mission event is a networking afternoon on Saturday 17th July at St Paul's Goodmayes beginning at 2.00pm.

This event will enable each c4m member that wishes to to make a brief presentation about their work. To date, we are anticipating presentations by the Bishop of Barking, Colin Burns, Jonathan Evens, Mark Lewis, Caroline Richardson, Henry Shelton, and Joy Rousell Stone.

The networking event will be followed by the dedication of Henry Shelton's Stations of the Crown of Thorns from 4.00pm by the Bishop of Barking. This event will end with a buffet.

Henry's work at St Paul's features in the Art Trail created by the local cluster of Anglican churches with a route for visiting each church in turn which highlights artworks of interest in the four churches.

c4m artists update (5)

Sergiy Shkanov will be exhibiting work at St Andrew's Leytonstone from 17th - 24th July while the Leytonstone Festival is underway.

Michael Creasey will be having a one man show at the Visual Arts Centre, Frances Bardsley School, Romford from August 23rd to 28th.

Jonathan Evens and Benjamin Rutt-Field have been involved in the development of a Church Art Trail involving four Anglican churches in the London Borough of Redbridge. Works by Henry Shelton feature in the Trail alongside works by Sir Edward Burne-Jones, Leonard Evetts, Anthony Foster, Derek Hunt, C. E. Kempe & Co. Ltd., William Morris, Jane Quail and A. Wyatt.
Creation of the Art Trail has been supported by Living Streets as part of the Fitter for Walking project and copies of the Art Trail leaflets can now be found in local churches. Fitter for Walking helps residents create streets they can be proud of. It’s funded by the Big Lottery Fund, along with contributions from local authorities to work in five areas of England.

Annual Report & AGM Agenda

commission4mission's Annual General Meeting will be held on Saturday 19th June at All Saints, West Ham. There will be an exhibition reception from 10.00am and the AGM will begin at 10.30am

Agenda

1. Welcome & apologies

2. Chairperson’s remarks.

3. Secretary’s report.

4. Treasurer’s report and Presentation of the Accounts.

5. Election of Officers & Committee Members.

6. Strategic Direction – led by Helen Gheorghiu Gould

7. Future Events.

8. Any Other Business.


Annual Report 2009/10

commission4mission was launched in March 2009 by our Patron, the Bishop of Barking, to encourage the commissioning and placing of contemporary Christian Art in churches, as a means of fundraising for charities and as a mission opportunity for churches.

During 2009/10 commission4mission has:

• built up a membership of 32 (as at 31/03/10), including a pool of artists available for Church commissions;
• published a publicity leaflet and a catalogue of artists;
• gained commissions for artworks at Queens Hospital Romford, All Saints Hutton, St Peter’s Harold Wood, St Edmund’s Tyseley and St Pauls Goodmayes;
• organised exhibitions at Chelmsford Cathedral, St Laurence Upminster, the Pentecost, West Ham and Leytonstone Festivals and as part of the E17 and Leytonstone Art Trails;
• begun use of ongoing exhibition space available to c4m members at All Saints West Ham;
• held networking evenings on the themes of ‘Spirituality – the heartbeat of Art?’ and 'Stations of the Cross';
• organised a Study Day on the theme of ‘Perspectives on commissioning Christian Art’ at Chelmsford Cathedral and held a launch event hosted by St Alban’s Romford; and
• developed a webpage (http://commissionformission.blogspot.com/) profiling our artists and giving up-to-date news of our activities;
• gained funding for the design and publication of our catalogue of artists and the employment of a project development worker (February – June 2010); and
• begun a strategic development review including a members consultation exercise.

Our first year has therefore been one of significant achievement and development which has confirmed the potential for an organisation such as commission4mission to enhance and further the commissioning and placing of contemporary Christian Art in churches and the support and networking of artists. Our success in gaining commissions during our first year of operation enabled us at the end of that year to donate £2,700 to the Haven House Children’s Hospice, thereby beginning to fulfil the fundraising for charities element of our aims.

We are very grateful to: all members for their support and involvement; all committee members for their direction and guidance; our Patron, Bishop David, for his ideas and interest; Helen Gheorghiu Gould for her work as Project Development worker; Ranjit Solomon for becoming the independent examiner of our accounts; and to Bishop David and London-over-the-Border for their generous financial support.

C4M summer exhibition

Plans are being developed for a Commission For Mission summer exhibition on the theme of Art and Spirituality to be held at St Andrew’s Leytonstone for the Leytonstone Festival and Leytonstone Arts Trail.

The exhibition will be mounted at Café Refresh and will feature a range of our artists working in different media. Through Café Refresh, St Andrews Leytonstone plan to offer a spiritual haven for their community. They intend to run a creative programme in their café, hall and worship space and are looking for local artists of all genres to help and participate in this.

We will also be working with St Andrews to organise a networking event on the theme of Art and Spirituality on Thursday 9 July from 7.00-9.30pm. This event will be run in conjunction with Waltham Forest Deanery.

Community launch and preview: Sunday 5 July, 2009, 12 noon – 2pm

Exhibition Opening Times: Tuesday 7 – Thursday 16 July, 2009
Tuesday-Friday: 12-4 pm.
Saturday: 10-4pm.