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Arts mentoring network. Critical explorations of contemporary art and Christian faith and theology. https://www.facebook.com/groups/morphearts/?ref=br_rs

23/06/2026

Sat 4 July will be our next London Morphe gathering, 10am-1pm. Talks by the Morphe London team Alastair Gordon and and a community lunch.

Sarah and Ally will explore creativity, grace, and what it means to become more fully human through relationship, movement, theology, and artistic practice.

Through a combination of talk and performative lecture, this event considers creativity not as striving or self-performance, but as a response to something already given. Drawing on ideas of embodiment, imitation, the Trinity, and the Christian understanding of imago Dei, both presentations explore how making begins in attention, receptivity, and relationship.

Sarah White’s performative lecture explores movement, self-emptying, and the porous boundaries between self and other, asking how we are shaped through imitation, adaptation, and encounter.

Alastair Gordon’s talk, Grace in the Making, reflects on creativity as something rooted not in achievement, but in grace: we create because we have first been created and loved.

Together, these two presentations invite us into a richer understanding of art, faith, and human connection.

The event concludes with a shared lunch that will be provided.

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Cover image: I Remember (You) Changing by Sarah Whitr at Future Ritual, ALMANAC, November 2025. Photo by Zack Mennell

08/06/2026

Morphe Arts Residency 2026: our sixth artist on the studio based programme is

Ranulph is a London based painter with a BA in Fine Art from Camberwell School of Art. He spent the last four years working in law firms administering clients with company anti-money laundering policies. His experience is broadly representative of London’s service sector; legal, finance, consulting, etc. A curious filling up of Ranulph’s inner being with borrowed hierarchy strictures bred his social compliance during this time. A bathroom, or empty lift, afforded fleeting mental reprieve to dissemble oneself, to let go. Bathrooms are Ranulph’s symbolic vignette of how he wishes to think and paint freely, unconstrained. As bathrooms are alcoves, so is the act of Ranulph’s painting. His painting of bathrooms is cover for his free, unjustified, freedom of expression in painting.

We are nearly two months into the 2026 Residency and having a fantastic time! So far we've had taught sessions with .quash Adrienne Chaplin, and and artist crits with - lots more to come!

01/06/2026

Morphe Artist in Residence 2026: Susie Calvert .calvert

Susie Calvert is an artist based in South London, originally from Belfast. She studied Illustration at Camberwell College of Arts and went on to complete an intensive drawing term at the Royal Drawing School in 2022. Teaching Art in local schools and galleries she draws her inspiration from exhibitions and museums nationwide. Susie’s practice explores the quiet poetics of space and pattern in everyday life. Drawing on observation and memory, she plays with the balance between the calm and the contested. Guided by intuition she weaves together her experiences of prayer, contemplation and a sensitivity to the shared human experience.

01/05/2026

We're delighted to say you can now read Nate's writeup of HADAU Festival in Story St., a new Directory of Faith and Arts Events.

Read it here:
https://storystreet.substack.com/p/moving-hearts-into-realms-unknown

The Story Street website currently gives dates and details for upcoming events in America, Canada, UK, Australia, Italy and Spain.
https://www.storyst.org/

19/04/2026

This side of the Easter hols, we're still looking over the feedback for HADAU conference weekend. Thank you to everyone who took part, whether as attendee, supporter, speaker (Adrienne Chaplin and Alastair Gordon) or artist.

We had many positive comments on the sense of togetherness and passion in the room.

We had feedback such as: “Excellent. A wide variety of speakers which was so good, and a chance to engage with them in the small groups was very welcome.”

“Something I’ll take away with me is a deeper love for my practice, a shared joy with others.”

17/04/2026

About last night... We kicked off the third Morphe Residency programme with a beautiful evening that reminded us of exactly why we do this work. Hearing from the artists about the joys and struggles of keeping going in the arts, and the delight in making as a grounding practice, was a real privilege.

We are so grateful to and our founders and supporters for providing us this space to give to these artists for six months. So thankful for our third year.

Save the date for 16 October for the opening of the final exhibition!

10/04/2026

This Thursday, 16 April, will be the launch event for our 3rd Artist Residency Programme . Join us for a chilled evening with drinks and short talks from the artists.

The Morphe Arts Residency is a six month studio based programme focusing on art practice in dialogue with Chrisitan theology and faith. The residency culminates in an exhibition, which will open on 16 October 2026. Studios are provided at a subsidised rate, with a weekly programme of talks, workshops and Crits, and community lunches.

This year's artists are:

myers
calvert

The residency is run by and

23/03/2026

Less than a week to go until our London conference - Sat 28 March
Join us for a day of talks, workshops and performances, and dinner! 10am - 7.30pm

Link to book in bio...

With talks by

Workshops by .helen.smith

Performances by

Hopefully see you there!

27/02/2026

Our **National Conference is on 28 March in London** and we will be joined by Lydia Oak and Ruth Smith both of whom run their own arts spaces, prioritising community and social practice in Newcastle and Devon. Lydia is Director of Shieldfield Art Works and Ruth is Director of Ruth Smith Gallery. helen.smith

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Link to book in bio ---

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Lydia Oak's artistic activities explore embodied hospitality. She creates spaces and hosts events that enable conversations about hospitality. Lydia is also Director of Shieldfield Art Works (SAW) in Shieldfield (Newcastle), a project of the Methodist Church seeking the good of the city through creative practice and operating on the intersection of contemporary art, theological reflection and community activism. Check out www.saw-newcastle.org for more info. Lydia facilitated the collaborative co-creation of the SAW community garden; she practices printmaking and drawing; is writing a collaborative musical album called ‘The Arboretum’; and last year made her own wedding dress.

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Ruth Helen Smith is an artist based in Devon where she runs a gallery, an art residency programme, and teaches. Her paintings are loose abstractions painted en plein air and centre around the miracle of existence. Ruth began with an art historical background studying her BA and MA at The Courtauld Institute of Art, before training in painting at Heatherley’s. One of her most recent projects has been setting up an artist collective called Red Mud Arts, which has been bringing over 100 artists together through several monthly groups, to collaborate, critique and support.

Address

St Barnabas Church, Shacklewell Row, Dalston, E8 2EA
London
E8 2EA

Website

http://www.morphearts.org/

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