Spiritual galleries open to all

Visual theologian and United Reformed Church minister Elizabeth Gray-King

THE ARTIST whose exhibition travelled cathedrals and town centre churches for a year to raise awareness and funds for the Open Table Network shares the inspiration behind this amazing journey.

Fine artist and theologian Elizabeth Gray King showed 13 intriguing and affirming canvases, exploring the equality and inclusivity of God’s love, at 11 churches across England and Wales between September 2023 and August 2024.

Elizabeth, also a United Reformed Church minister, donated to OTN 40% of the sales of original artworks and prints which people bought because of this exhibition.

Way back in the late Autumn of 2022, I was talking with a wonderful woman from a gallery in Rugby as I was preparing to move from part- time artist to full-time artist. She liked my work enormously and wanted to sell it. But the more she had it and looked at her client list, she realised that my work needed a more specialist home, saying to me, ‘you really need a spiritual gallery’. I thought, great, thanks, what’s one of those when it’s at home?

Then I realised I’d been exhibiting and selling from spiritual galleries most of my adult life whilst being an artist theologian. They’re called churches! In my early artist days, I’d drawn pastel portraits in shopping centres, took commissions and sold from galleries and street and group exhibits. But once I entered church ministry, those commercial outlets didn’t serve the work I was creating and I started to exhibit in churches and to sell my work to theological publishers. The gallery owner was right - churches!

Gallery size? Cathedrals. Then I thought, I really want to do this with someone. I want the 40% commission I would have given to a gallery to go to a cause about which I have a passion. Then I recalled a wonderful aphorism: ‘you already know who you need to know for your life to grow.’ I looked at who I knew and the Open Table Network kept grabbing my attention.

So I contacted dear Kieran (OTN’s Director). He and I had worked together on the Appreciating Church project with his case studies of St Bride’s Liverpool and the early days of the Open Table Network being published in the Appreciating Church book which I illustrated. I suggested that we raise money for OTN by having a partnership to place my artwork around cathedrals and large churches in the UK where there is either an Open Table community in existence or there is a desire for one. He took the idea to the OTN trustees who liked the idea. Then we started to look for cathedrals.

My closest cathedral was Coventry, and possibly also my most favourite on the planet, so I visited and found out who to contact. I emailed. One email. The reply was instant - yes, please, and can it be February 2024 for LGBTQ+ History Month? I replied, well, yes. Kieran and I were flabbergasted and Coventry opened the doors to all the other cathedrals and churches we asked. A few said no, because their congregations or communities ‘weren’t ready’, but the response was overwhelming. The Open To All tour was planned.

The Open to All tour was so welcomed that we were asked to go to more places than we had time for. So I pulled together another set of artworks which I called the Spirit Justice tour and four more venues were added to the list of eleven we had engaged for Open to All. Along the way, we received a grant from the Westhill Endowment to fund some of the travel and accommodation, and many individual churches helped with expenses.

At the end of the road, all the easels from Open To All now live at United Church Winchester because they decided that connecting with their community through art was a good way forward for them. We raised nearly £4000 in total for the Open Table Network (from the Open To All tour) and anti-racist charities (from the Spirit Justice tour). The signature artworks from Open To All and Spirit Justice now live in permanent public venues where their messages will continue in perpetuity. We have been amazed!

READ MORE: Challenging but wonderfully welcoming: Exhibition tour closes with gift to Open Table.

For more information and to buy prints, visit the artist’s website: elizabethgrayking.com.