BY MELISSA SIEGLER
Staff Writer
Franciscan University is hosting an international art exhibit entitled “One Faith: East and West,” which features contemporary Christian art from around the world.
The exhibit, organized by the Language and Catechetical Institute in Gaming, Austria, features several different pieces by artists from China, Austria, Ireland, Romania, Slovakia, and the United States.
Franciscan’s own Linus Meldrum is featured in the exhibit. Meldrum is the Assistant Professor of Fine Arts and has contributed two Acrylic paintings to the show.
“The ‘ethos’ of The Language and Catechetical Institute is to help train catechists to reach out to Eastern European and Asian countries to help them learn more about the faith,” said Meldrum.
The curator of the show, Jennifer Healy, teaches art history at Franciscan’s Austrian campus and is the director of the Language and Catechetical Institute
The exhibit includes a 7-foot stained glass piece of St. Joseph, a plaster bust of Mary and several paintings and sketches. Each piece of the show is related to the Christian experience. The pieces are for sale and all proceeds will fund scholarships for students of Eastern Europe, China and Russia.
“Artists today are trying to make art work that in some way engages the same Christian ideations that we talk about in our historical studies,” said Meldrum. “The work that’s from the past is connected to something that we do today, but we do it in a contemporary way. It’s good for anyone to view contemporary art and support contemporary artists to know what they are doing and to help them to do better work and do more work. It’s good to know what’s going on right now.”
The exhibit was planned to coincide with the philosophy department’s Power of Beauty conference in October that will be taking place on campus.
“The idea was to have the art in a place where some of the conference’s activities will be taking place to speak from the mind of the artist instead of just the philosopher,” said Meldrum.
The exhibit started at New York University and moved on to the Sheen Center in Manhattan. After its display at Franciscan, it is hoped that the exhibit will move on to Beijing and Moscow.
One of the featured artists, Carl Fougerousse, a graduate of Franciscan University, will be giving a lecture on October 22 at 7 p.m. in the J.C. Williams Gentile Gallery.
The exhibit will be displayed on the bottom floor of the Gentile Gallery through October.