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Fra Angelico Celebration to highlight artwork, support vocations
By Conor Gilliland
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“Madonna and Child” by Tatiana Grant |
More than 65 artists will show at least 100 works of spiritually-themed art at the Madden Museum of Art in Greenwood Village from Nov. 5 to Dec. 3 as the Colorado Dominican Vocation Foundation hosts the seventh Fra Angelico Celebration of Art & Spirituality.
“It’s not a show with just angels,” said Shannon Robinson, event chairwoman. “There will be plenty of angels,” she added, but there will also be “landscapes, still-lifes and even abstracts.”
The foundation was established in 1998 and, according to its website, exists to promote “Dominican vocations by providing spiritual and financial support to the men studying to become brothers or priests in the Dominican Central Province of the United States.”
The Dominican order operates a novitiate at St. Dominic Parish in northwest Denver.
Committed to supporting the vocation of the artist and interfaith dialogue, the foundation hosts events like the Fra Angelico Celebration to foster appreciation for the contributions of religious and artists.
“You’ll see explicitly religious imagery and ritual objects,” Robinson said. “We want to challenge our audience to recognize that God is in everything we do and see, and to cherish creation in all its aspects … so we have a lot of landscapes and floral pieces.”
Since the inception of this event, she said, the Dominicans have made a point to personally receive the artists and engage in dialogue.
“That is, frankly, what’s exciting about this show,” Robinson said. “Some of these artists have never even met a priest, and they have the most wonderful discussions.”
The main exhibit, “Windows to the Divine,” is named after the idea that all truly beautiful human creations are reflections of the Divine.
“It really traces back to Aristotle and our great Greek philosophers who always talked about ‘the good,’” Robinson explained.
“Beauty and truth promote that good,” she asserted.
While drawing on that tradition of Aristotelian philosophy through St. Thomas Aquinas, the Dominicans have other more immediate reasons for putting on the art show. Whether musical, literary or fine art, Robinson said the artistic talents of the novices were an inspiration for this celebration.
“One of the other things we discovered when we started the foundation in 1998,” she said, “is that many of the novices we saw coming through had artistic talent ... that’s kind of how it all came to be.”
In addition to the main exhibit, the Fra Angelico Celebration will offer a number of other activities for the public to enjoy.
“We’ll have some talks. We’ll have an art demonstration by Don Sahli, who is ‘Artist of the Year.’ We’ll also have a wonderful program in partnership with the Mizel Museum, the Jewish museum in Denver, where we’re going to talk about icons and spirituality in Jewish and Christian art,” Robinson elaborated.
Some artists of renown were invited to show their work at the exhibit while others were selected by an 11- member jury.
Sixty percent of the proceeds from the event will go to the artists while 40 percent will help finance the first year of education and formation of Dominicans at the Denver novitiate.
The main exhibit and other activities are free to the public. Tickets for the gala opening are available and cost between $75 and $250. For more information, visit www.cdvf.org, “Upcoming Events” or contact Robinson at 303-679-1365.
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