Aims
The Centre aims to:

	conduct research into the visual culture of religion. The term visual culture subsumes traditional fine and applied art, architecture and building, cinema, the visual externalization of religious imagination, thought, and practice, and varieties of subjective and intangible modes of religious visualization, and other creative manifestations of religious belief, customs, and piety. The term religion refers chiefly to Christian bodies that separated from the Roman communion during the Reformation, but also embraces both orthodox and heterodox sub-groups in the period since.
	establish a point of convergence for interdisciplinary and international collaboration among scholars representing a range of disciplines, for example: art practice, art history, theory, theology, religious studies, music, literature, and philosophy
	be non-partisan, and to encourage dialogue and participation between scholars representing a broad spectrum of theological outlooks and academic methodologies
	develop and support new research into religious visual culture through the provision of MA, MPhil, and PhD degree schemes and scholarships, post-doctoral and research fellowships, and research assistantships in Art History and Art Practice
	define new fields of research and evolve a portfolio of short-term and long-term projects that are pursued by individual scholars and co-ordinated teams of researchers
	collect, record, and catalogue artefacts, together with literary and oral accounts of religious representation and visualization
	form research collaboration with cognate bodies and external scholars
	disseminate research through publications such as books, serial imprints, digital publication, journals, originated and curated exhibitions, exhibition catalogues, organized conferences, and teaching programmes
	be accountable not only to the academic community but also the general public and, in particular, those religious bodies referred to in the research.

Rationale

The aims of the Centre are predicated on the following assumptions. The visual culture of religion:

	presents a field of study that has relevance to the considerable public interest in the material and phenomenal expression of religion during the last five years
	has not received the serious and systematic study it deserves, one which seeks to comprehend its significance within an matrix of relevant disciplines and in the context of the traditions of established the religious art
	is a repository and articulation of religious thought, systems of belief, values, ideals, priorities, attitudes to the material world, and conceptions about the spiritual world. Its study is, therefore, indispensable to a full-orbed understanding of religious expression.
	is a concept better suited to the study of new and marginal religious groups that do not identify with mainstream or traditional religious art, but which, nevertheless, give visual expression of their beliefs
	can be discussed only in relation to specific movements, sects, and denominations, in particular places and at particular times
	is not independent either of contemporaneous languages and forms of visual expression or of the religious, visual culture of the past. Therefore, it is amenable to the application of both contemporary-theoretical and traditional Art-Historical methodologies
	can be fruitfully studied through the critical intervention of Art Practice in alliance with Art History.