our history

ArtServe is an initiative of the Methodist Church Music Society (MCMS) which was formed in 1935 when a group of organists and choirmasters – probably the only people in most churches who had any responsibility for music in worship – attended a weekend retreat.

The Society was established to “cultivate and co-ordinate all the musical resources of Methodism in the interests of public worship.” MCMS was formally recognised by the Methodist Conference in 1948 and in 1974 became part of the Division of Ministries within Methodism.

In the 1990’s MCMS became an independent organisation and later a registered charity. However it worked closely with the Methodist structure and was a member of the Methodist Creative Arts Forum, a group established to support and develop the use of all forms of creativity within the Methodist Church. When the funding for this work was stopped several years ago, MCMS and others were concerned about this decision and wanted to form a new organisation to fill the gap. After a couple of abortive attempts it was decided that the way forward was for MCMS to set up something new, and hence the birth of ArtServe.

With the demise of funding for Creative Arts in the Methodist budget MCMS, with others, worked hard to develop a new way in which support could be given to the use of all creative arts in the life of the church. Eventually it was agreed that MCMS would form a new organisation, initially to run alongside MCMS, which would support all creative arts, as well as gradually absorbing existing MCMS activities. Hence in 2008, ArtServe was born.

Initially ArtServe ran alongside MCMS but  work is now under way to transfer all MCMS activities and assets into ArtServe, and MCMS will cease to exist as a separate organisation by the end of 2010.