The St. George's Church Artist Residency Program began after a chance meeting between Roy Caldwood,a long term volunteer at St. George's and Darren Jones, a visual artist from Scotland now based in New York. After much discussion about the role of the church within the community it was decided between the Bishop, the Vestry, the Wardens and members of the congregation to utilize the visual arts to help the church enhance its spiritual and social capacity. As well as working to create art within the church we began to develop ideas to include the visual arts in the ministry of St. George's. Subsequently a gallery space was created within the church to house exhibitions and events now known as the Francis Lewis Gallery. Our aim is to communicate our role as a cultural and artistic meeting place for the congregation, for visitors, for local groups and for many others who may not otherwise attend the church.

This is a new and exciting initiative which will include an ongoing series of collaborative exhibitions with other institutions and outreach programs. We aim to bring to St. George's a new and contemporary point of view to the relationship between religion, spirituality and art.

The next exhibition at the Church will be Cryptoreal – Art and Myth. The show will run from the 22nd of November 2008 to the 11th January 2009. An opening reception will be held in the Francis Lewis Gallery within the church on Friday 21st November from 6-9pm. All are welcome to attend. For more information on Cryptoreal and the artists click on ‘Exhibitions’.

Cryptoreal – Art and Myth

Orit Ben-Shitrit
Calum Colvin
Darren Jones
Rachel Kohn
Emily Noelle Lambert
David Lukowski
Ann McCoy
Jeffrey Mongrain
Marc Swanson
Jo Yarrington
Bryan Zanisnik

Curated by Darren Jones