Sacred Arts Trust

The purpose of the Sacred Arts Trust is to encourage the use in worship of the arts, in the following order of preference:

The Sacred Arts Trust invites applications for funding from: visual and textile artists, actors, dancers, students, musicians, clergy, laity, drama and dance groups, study and training courses.

The trust was founded within the Anglican Foundation in 1994 by Rev. Canon Graham Cotter, who was then in his sixth year of retirement from the parish ministry, in which he had served in the diocese of Toronto.

Graham Cotter began writing, directing and producing liturgical dramas in Parkdale, Leaside, in Toronto, and in the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass. While at St Mark’s, Parkdale, he co-operated with Toronto artist Vaclav Vaca in producing the large altarpiece, The Cup of Blessing, and with the American sculptor Barbara Hughes in her work, Mark and Peter. He has also collaborated in the design of vestments and other visual artifacts. He later continued studies in religion and the arts, especially liturgical dance, at the Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, Cal.

In Leaside, and later in retirement at St Mark’s, Port Hope, he produced and directed the seven dramas which are found in his book The Mysteries at St Cuthbert’s, 1985, and the four dramas and two other dramatic adaptations found in the book The Cup of Blessing, 1998.

In 1994, he established the Sacred Arts Trust, to which he adds the sum of $10,000 every year. The objects of the Trust require more money than the income from this capital can provide, and Graham and the officers of the Foundation now urge others who wish to promote the arts in worship to add their names to the list of donors.

Visit the membership page to find out how to support this work.