1. Enter the 2018 ‘Spirited Arts’ competition
This presentation invites to you make a piece of artwork on one of our five themes.
The National Association of Teachers of RE will give prizes to the winners.
See more details on our online gallery at

2. What is ‘Spirited Arts’?
Spirited Arts, also known as Art in Heaven, is an annual competition run since 2004 for RE pupils. It gives you a chance to be creative and imaginative in RE. It is all about spiritual ideas and your skills.
There is a wonderful online art gallery. Last year over 20,000 artworks were entered, and some of the best are on show there.
If you enter this year, perhaps your picture will be in the gallery next time! Have a look and choose some favourites of your own from the gallery.
Teachers and pupils are warmly invited to join in with their own ‘Art in Heaven’. The closing date is 31 July Click here to access the form.

3. Five themes to choose from
Spirited Arts has five themes for Your teacher will choose a theme with you for you to enter. Have a look at some work from similar themes now.
The themes are:
Holy Space
Pray!
Doubt and faith
Looking for God?
Making peace
Choose the one you want. After this slide you’ll see lots more information and some great examples.

4. Holy space?
This theme is asking you to think about holy buildings and places of worship or pilgrimage. Perhaps places you have visited? Can you show in a work of art what makes these places special, sacred or holy? Are they friendly places? Peaceful? Good places for thinking, praying or feeling close to God? You might design your own holy space. Some entries will focus on the idea of holy spaces in the natural world as well: mountaintop, riverside, sunset beach. What about a holy city? You could read and use scriptures from different religions about what makes a place holy. We’d love to see work on Varanasi, Makkah, Bethlehem, Bodh Gaya, Jerusalem and Amritsar.

5. Pupils from Perryfields School, Sandwell, made tiles on the theme of justice in the style of Keith Haring’s art.

6. ‘Spiritual words’
Children at All Saints Wokingham had a whole week learning about spirituality and what the word means. This display of oak leaves from hundreds of children tells the viewer what spiritual ideas the children developed.

7. Henry, in Year 6 at Christ Church CE Primary in Bradford on Avon, chose ‘light within’ as his spiritual phrase.
‘What I like best about my work is the man in black, it represents you, the light comes from within you and spreads out. It also comes from outside from the candles, these represent things that inspire you and give you light, your family or friends, what you believe in. I used oil pastels to make my design as they made the really bright colours I wanted.’

8. ‘Ray of lights’ by Sonia Patel ‘As a Hindu, we believe the soul can be reached through having a pure mind and heart, gained through meditation. I believe the soul is powerful and pure. Hence why I have represented it as rays of light. I have shown a woman in a meditative state, [within] the centre of the painting and in the woman’s forehead there is a figure. This is to represent the soul in its fullness. From the figure there are rays of bright and vibrant light. This is to represent the cleanliness of the soul. In conclusion through my piece, I want to represent the serenity and peacefulness of the soul.’

9. Pray! (Reflect! Meditate!)
Many religions use prayer, and for many reasons. Artwork on this theme might refer to the Christian Lord’s Prayer, or to the Islamic Pillar of five daily prayers or the Hindu mantras. It could be about praying alone to connect with God, or about praying in a community to connect with each other. You might also consider the practice of reflection and meditation in Buddhist life, for example. Then there are the arguments that say prayer is not heard, not answered; a waste of breath. How would you respond to questions about answered and unanswered prayer?

10. William goes to Ralph Sadleir Middle School
William goes to Ralph Sadleir Middle School. His spiritual words are from the Bible.
‘My art work is spiritual because it represents the bible, marriage and love. I’ve tried to show my feelings by putting the hands on top of the bible and in a [column] in the bible it says love. What I like best about my work is that it stands out different to the rest because it is 3D.
If you look carefully at the work, you will see that I have even put rings on [their] fingers …

11. Natacha is 13, and from Pool Business and Enterprise College
Natacha is 13, and from Pool Business and Enterprise College. Her spiritual words were ‘peace’ and ‘respect’
‘I have used the Ying and Yang symbol at the centre because it represents peace and I feel with respect for everything comes peace. I have used it for the black and white to show respect for different cultures and the respect between them.
The owls show respect for animals and the flowers around the outside to show respect for everything on earth. The blue strip in the middle represents people’s feelings. The colour blue is often related to sadness and’ feeling blue’ but it also shows happiness and optimism ‘blue skies’. I think that it is important for peace making to respect peoples’ feelings and not judge people.’

12. ‘Open mind’ by Victoria and Samantha, both 15
‘We designed these t-shirts to represent being open minded. We thought if we did this on a t-shirt it would show people that you should be opened minded. We thought about what it would take to be open minded. The things we came up with on our t-shirt were loving each other which [is] represented by the giant love heart.
The different symbols represent different cultures and that we are all equal even if we believe in different cultures. The hands represent respect and peace. Being open minded means you can have your opinion but you still have to respect other people’s opinions.’

13. Doubt and faith
What beliefs do you doubt? What actually is faith – a good thing, or a bad thing? This theme invites you to explore doubt and faith: are they opposites, or does faith need doubt? Does science call faith into question, or do religious scientists understand the world better because of faith? When people suffer or experience evil, then they may doubt God and lose faith – but others find their faith helps them in dark days. What makes the difference? This is our most philosophical theme this year, but it is not only for secondary students: primary entries are welcome.

14. ‘Personally, I do not believe in God
‘Personally, I do not believe in God. I don’t think that anyone could possibly prove Gods existence. I think that the idea of God was created in order to explain the unexplainable.
My idea of God would be someone who cares for all of mankind, protecting the earth and looking over everyone. I have represented this in my collage by the hands symbolising God protecting a girl. However, I have chosen to leave a gap between Gods hands and the girl. This is to show that I believe people never reach God and can never be in contact with him.
I have also used newspaper to fill the hands, this is to represent that I do not believe in God and don’t think he is real. I show that I believe that God doesn’t exist.’
By Csenge (14)

15. ‘I have drawn a dung beetle to represent God because the dung beetle is responsible for clearing up all of the dung and waste left behind by other animals. God clears up all our dung and waste. I have also drawn a line of ants following the beetle to represent the religious communities of earth who are constantly asking him questions. My picture also explains why God does not answer questions when you talk to him, he is too busy clearing up the world’s problems. It shows God’s power: dung beetles are capable of lifting many times their own body weight in dung.’
By Nicholas (14)

16. ‘Love’ is the most spiritual word
‘My work is called “All you need is love”. It shows a man and a woman getting married and promising to be together, in a place of worship, a place to show you love someone. I got this idea as we listened to Beatles love songs before starting our project. I think without love, life is not worth celebrating.’
By Leah, 12, Flixton Girls’ School

17. Looking for God?
We have often found the theme about God is the most popular in this competition: atheists and believers of all kinds all have something to say about God and where to find him – or her. Is God nowhere, or hiding? Is God in your heart, or in the scriptures? Is God far away, or close? Can we find God in nature, or in worship? Do some people find God in suffering or pain? Whatever you think, show your ideas about the search for God in creative work that goes deep. Use a holy text or saying if you like (the theme comes from the Jewish Psalms 42 and 43). Be deep, and be subtle: a bearded man on a cloud won’t win!

18. Jumping up to God
‘Up in heaven there is God. All of these are planets and God made them. I am jumping up to give God a flower from the hill. God looks just like me.’
By Ethan, age 6

19. Matthew, from Monkton Pre-Prep School, is 6.
He says: ‘God is above the rainbow, and the sky is blue. God is at the top, running in the clouds above the rainbow.

20. Who is God? Alix, Annabel and Olivia (13) have used Islamic rules to create this image of the Islamic understanding of Allah. They think God, for Muslims, was in the words of the revelation of the Holy Qur’an.

21. God: why?
‘Our piece shows the idea of people drowning into the earth, leaving life as they used to know it. It shows hands and faces reaching towards what they hope will bring help, to save them from the genocide and the terrible images that crawl in their minds.
We were trying to represent all the pain and suffering that was overlooked by so many people during the Rwanda genocide, so we showed the idea of Rwandans with their hands reaching out for help, but none is received from military rescue forces. To us, this shows that God was not there to help the Tutsis so they had to pray and beg for their lives – this may have brought them hope but it did not save many of them. Their hands are reaching out, trying to locate God, but he is just out of reach.’
Tom, Billy, Joe and Kathryn are 13 and from John Taylor High School in Staffordshire

22. The personality of God
‘The tree in the bottom right of the painting represents that with God you grow: the side facing him has leaves, the other side is bare and empty.
The three crosses show how I interpret Jesus: I used glitter glue for the crown, to show that he is a king. White paint symbolizes that he is pure and perfect. Dark clouds signify problems in our lives, but although we don't know what God looks like, I think we know his personality. I think God is loving, welcoming, approachable and quick to forgive.
The usual stereotypical view of God is an old white man. I have shown God's hands, one like a woman's, one black. God tries to show us who he is, through the bible and our own religious experiences. The words around the hands of God remind me what I believe he is like.’
Anastasia (13) is from Waldegrave School, Twickenham

23. Making peace
Our communities need peace, and the news mentions religious conflicts all the time. What can be done to make peace? RE explores teachings and example of religion and conflict as well as peacemaking. You could create artwork that shows not just the concept of peace, but a way of making peace. Explore some texts from scriptures. Work may be about peace between religions, e.g. referring to great peacemakers in the world today. Then there is peace in human hearts and minds: many people use spiritual practice and meditation to seek peace, or find peace at their temple or church. How would you make a work of art to show this? Winning work will be clearly engaged with religion and belief.

24. My spiritual life
This lovely ‘peace’ picture by Emily Fallon (7) is all about where Emily finds peace:
‘My Peaceful place is under a tree in the garden. I made about 50 leaves for this picture from foil, tissue and other kinds of paper.’
It’s a beautifully realised collage, very skilfully put together and very much in tune with the themes of peace and inspiration. Many – maybe most – people in the UK today are as likely to find inspiration in nature as in faith. Emily’s achievement is wonderful for a seven-year-old.

25. Prince of Peace
‘My picture shows Mary holding Jesus, this is the key moment of the Christian festival of Christmas.
If you look closely in Jesus’ eyes they are the earth. This represents that the world is in Jesus’ hands and there are rays of sunshine coming out of Jesus; that is the Holy Spirit. This also means he shines over all. I called my artwork ‘Prince of Peace’ because Jesus brings peace to the earth and never turns to evil.
The cross around Mary’s neck is foretelling Jesus’ death. Mary’s tears are tears of joy because he’s special and he’s born and they are also tears of sadness because he is going to die for us.’
Emily Pollock (10) is from Curzon CE Primary in Derbyshire

26. And what about you? All the best!
You have seen a lot of examples of the brilliant entries to the Spirited Arts competition.
Now think over your own idea, beliefs and skills.
Plan to make a super entry of your own, to send in before the end of the Summer Term. The closing date is 31 July 2018.
Write about how good it is! You can use the prompts we suggest. Up to 250 words maximum.
Don’t forget you can see hundreds of interesting entries and other winners on the online gallery. Click here.
All the best!