Ecclesiart is an online project that raises awareness of significant works of modern and contemporary art since 1920 in UK churches and cathedrals.
The selected works represent the diversity of high quality church commissions and reflect developments in artistic practice and ecclesiastical art and design. You can explore the collection using the tiles below or by using the Ecclesiart map.
We seek to encourage increased responsibility towards works which may be under-appreciated or at risk and hope that this selection of works provides inspiring and challenging examples of art in churches useful to any parish or individual wishing to commission a new work.
We welcome nominations of new works to be added to Ecclesiart. Please email us with a short text about why you think a work of art should be included with a short theological reflection on the work and its context (no longer than 150 words) and if possible please include images. Please note that we do not accept nominations from artists for their own work.
All permanent works shortlisted for the Award for Art in a Religious Context are added to Ecclesiart. For all other nominations, the Director and trustees of Art and Christianity reserve the right to select works which they determine as meeting the criteria of aptness to context, artistic and technical merit and appropriate theological meaning.
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Christopher Le Brun: Desert Window
The Desert Window was commissioned in 2014 for the LSE’s new Faith Centre, an interfaith worship space as well as a centre for rigorous interreligious dialogue, research and training. The window’s subject points to the significance of the desert both as a place of spiritual intensity for many religions, and as a place of ‘inter-religious encounter’, in the words of the chaplain, the Revd Dr James Walters. The window thus expresses the role of the Faith Centre as a ‘place of stillness for all people, where different religious groups can “set up camp” for a while, but also a place to encounter people of other faiths, to hear their stories and to share hospitality.’