North East

The following few case studies, some of which were used in the report Building Faith in the Future, are from the North East region. They follow the same order as the chapter headings in the report.  Please note that it may not have been possible to find case studies for every heading.  If you know of other cases which may be of interest, please let us know.

CHURCHES AS A CENTRE OF CULTURE

Parish Churches and cathedrals are great patrons of contemporary art, normally exhibited for free.

Individual commissions

The Messenger, Bill Viola

In 1996, the UK Year of the Visual Arts, which was hosted by the northern region, acclaimed American video artist, Bill Viola was commissioned, by Canon Bill Hall on behalf of the Chaplaincy to the Arts and Recreation, to carry out a work for Durham Cathedral. His response was ‘The Messenger’ in which a water-bound figure rises from the depths to emerge and take a breath of life, before sinking back beneath the surface. The cycle is repeated five times over a twenty-five minute period. The work explores profound themes of life, death and being itself. A Guardian reviewer wrote that Bill Viola “remains one of the very few Western contemporary artists capable of embodying a convincing sense of spirituality”.  This project achieved many things, including bringing a new audience into contact with contemporary art and a new audience into the cathedral. Though the nakedness of the figure in ‘The Messenger’ caused controversy, it created many openings for exploring the issues it raised with students, church people and members of the public. This commission was supported by the Arts Council England from the proceeds of the National Lottery, Durham City Arts, the European Development Fund and Northern Arts. Since 1996, ‘The Messenger’ has toured the UK, and also visited Australia three times and Germany, France, Sweden and Norway. It has been seen in a mixture of church and secular venues most recently in February 2004 in St Paul’s Cathedral, London.

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 Approaching the Dissolve, Tony Sinden

In 1995, as a contribution to Durham’s Cathedral’s celebrations of its 900th anniversary, the Chaplaincy commissioned Tony Sinden to create a site-specific work for the cathedral. His response, Approaching the Dissolve, broke new ground as the first sound and video installation in Durham (if not in any) cathedral.

The installation took the sculptural form of an altar and triptych. On to the three panels of the triptych, a sequence of images - including a reflection of the cathedral in the River Wear, rushing water, a miner’s lamp and an ecclesiastical figure turning the pages of a book - were projected with an accompanying soundtrack. As Sinden himself put it at the time, "Taking inspiration from the cathedral, the video installation will explore a shifting conceptual relationship between the architecture, Durham landscape and community…I hope [it] will both challenge audience expectations and stimulate a response towards the timespace dimension of the concept in relationship to its historic and spiritual setting."

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Wider Schemes

The North East Chaplaincy for Arts and Recreation was formed in 1968 and is supported by the Dioceses of Durham, Newcastle and York. Working in partnership with the cathedral and church authorities, artists and external agencies, it promotes a wide range of artistic initiatives:

Durham Cathedral’s Artist in Residence Scheme has been going since 1983 supported by Arts Council England, the University of Sunderland, St Chad’s College, Durham University, Durham City Arts, Durham City Council, and Durham County Council. The year long opportunity provides time and space for an artist, free of other pressures to respond to the Cathedral as a powerful creative statement in stone, a place of daily public worship, and the centre of a working community of stone masons, joiners, gardeners and office workers as well as vergers, musicians and clergy and to provide the opportunity for public access to an artist at work (the Cathedral has 500,000 visitors annually).

Art in Northern Churches began in the late 1960s and is an opportunity for churches to host challenging contemporary work by leading artists. Two or three artists are selected for each project and one work by each artist is exhibited in each of the participating churches in turn so that the works move from church to church over several months and allowing visitors and congregations at each church to see all of the works by the selected artists. At various stages the artists visit the churches to engage congregations and visitors in discussion about the creative process in general and the works in particular. Finally the whole collection is shown in a north-east art gallery.

Art in Northern Churches increases the accessibility of powerful and thought provoking work, stimulates debate about the role of the artist and affirms the importance of creativity.

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CHURCHES AS A CENTRE OF VOLUNTARY AND COMMUNITY ACTIVITY

St James and St Bede Family Centre in Gateshead began in 1996 in response to the BSR report ‘Something to Celebrate: Valuing Families in Church and Society’. It has grown so much that it is now a separately registered charity, but it still shares the church premises. It offers a host of family-focused services including a pre-school nursery, training courses for parents, family fun days, parental support,  and family play sessions. It is the only provider within its designated area and is increasingly focusing on children at risk of discrimination on grounds of race, poverty, disability, or other family circumstances. The Bishop warmly endorsed the project:

“This is a superb small-scale piece of work which is making a very considerable impact in the local community. It seems to me to be exactly what the Church ought to be about, expressing its faithful commitment to the local community in the name of Christ and with the benefits both of professionalism and local warmth.” (2003)

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© The Archbishops' Council of the Church of England, 2004