Arts Volunteers

An exciting new pop-up exhibition supported by Cambridge Arts Society is seeking interested members to volunteer their help during the exhibition.

The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing is a group exhibition being presented at Cambridge Artworks, 5 Green’s Road, from 15–18 October 2026, curated by Holly Rose O’Brien. Bringing together the work of artists Maisy Akroyd, Sid White Jones and Theo Panagopoulos, the exhibition explores how we remember, commemorate and reconcile with the past through moving image, photography and printmaking. The exhibition will be accompanied by an artist-in-conversation event and a family cyanotype workshop across the weekend.

Exhibition Schedule:

15 October 10:00–17:00 – Exhibition install 17:00–20:00 – Exhibition opening and screening

16 October 10:00–17:00 – Exhibition open to the public 18:00 – In conversation event

17 October 10:00–17:00 – Exhibition open to the public 11:00–14:00 – Family workshop in exhibition space

18 October 10:00–16:00 – Exhibition open to the public 16:00 – Deinstall

You are invited to volunteer during the weekend.

If you are interested in helping, or for more information, please contact Holly at hollyobrienarts@gmail.com

OR

Mary Kempski, mary_kempski@hotmail.com

Arts Volunteering committee member Cambridge Arts Society

AGM 2026 Report

Each year your Society seeks to engage with people about the value and inspiration provided by the arts. This may be through attracting new audiences or enabling more people to participate in arts related activities which are usually locally based.

For the last four years Art Volunteers have joined forces with Heritage Volunteers to provide support for an annual exhibition at All Saints’ Church and other arts related events. The church offers a venue for contemporary artists to exhibit and also brings many new visitors to ‘The Painted Church’.

All Saints’ Church, often known as ‘The Painted Church’, is a neo-gothic church designed by George Bodley which has a richly decorated interior but was seldom seen after the church was decommissioned in the 1970s. It has been in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust who welcomed our Heritage Volunteers and Arts Volunteers, who offered a plan to revive interest in the church.

This year our annual art exhibition is entitled ‘A Space Already Full’, created and curated by five women artists who are members of a collective ‘Working Spaces’, exploring the spatial contexts of Painting. Here they describe their intention:

At the Painted Church an installation of artworks will respond to the unique qualities of the intensely decorated church interior, generating new relationships in a space already full.

The fullness of colour, shape and pattern decisions in the space are approached as compositional elements to be reactivated. The works are positioned in response to incidental details, drawing attention to visual and spatial contingencies, patinas, motifs and repetitions as aspects of picture making. 

The Victorian Gothic context of architectural and design decisions at the Painted Church offer a layered narrative of complex social and aesthetic histories, and here are put into dialogue with the concerns of contemporary painting.

The exhibition will take place from Sunday March 8th to March 29th 2026 every Friday Saturday and Sunday 1-5pm.

We will be hosting Open Studios again at the Painted Church in July for weekends 11th/12th and 18th/19th 10am to 5pm. There will be a range of artists displaying paintings, prints, jewellery, furniture and ceramics and glass works.

We are happy that we are continuing our relationship with Rowan, a charity for adults with learning difficulties, with workshops and exhibitions planned to take place at the Painted Church throughout the year.

I am very open to new suggestions, and as your Arts Volunteer Representative on the Arts Society committee, I would be happy to hear from you for new arts volunteer opportunities or ideas, or if you would like the possibility of being involved in Arts Volunteering with others from your Arts Society please do get in touch.

Mary Kempski

mary_kempski@hotmail.com