Introduction:

There are many ways a parish and artist can work together to exhibit temporary artworks. As a parish, you may wish to host an exhibition of paintings from local artists; you may want to take part in a local or regional arts festival; you may want to host a one-off performance by an artist. As an artist, you may wish to use a church as a source of inspiration and focus for your work, or the location and architecture of the church may suit your style of art for exhibition of works you have already produced.

This guidance helps parishes and artists work together to identify the best approach to introduce temporary artwork that benefits the parish, the artist and audiences. It helps you to identify different ways to engage with an artist, the different types of temporary artwork, practical aspects of project management, contracts, marketing, and funding, and on running an exhibition.

Introducing temporary art is a project, therefore you need to think about it as you would any project – what you want to achieve, how you will achieve it, what budget do you have, who you need to involve.

This guidance goes through these questions in turn, giving you ideas on what you will need to do at each stage, and providing inspiration and tips from others in churches and cathedrals who have undertaken similar projects.

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