Past Exhibitions

March 7-April 19, 2024

The Chapel Art Center is very pleased to host this exhibition The Intimacy of Seeing: Elsa Voelcker – A Retrospective, marking her long career as a photographer and as a member of the Fine Arts Department at Saint Anselm College. Voelcker’s visual embrace of human life, culture, social complexities, and tender moments is coupled with her perspicacious notice of everyday calm in nature and so  many other created forms. From the earliest days of her artist’s journey, into the present splendor of her many captured moments, her enduring search into the beauty and meaning of life is brought together in this collection marking her accomplishments.

In the course of my time at the Chapel Art Center, the greatest surprise to me has been how art draws upon so many ideas. There is hardly a topic I can think of that does not involve art. Years ago, we formed an “Art and …” lecture series at the Chapel Art Center, wherein a diverse group of faculty, from a variety of academic disciplines, offered lectures on art in relationship to other subjects. 

I thought it would be very apropos last year, when celebrating my anniversary of twenty-five years of work at the Chapel Art Center, to invite faculty and staff to choose a work from the permanent collection and write an essay.  These essays would help to enhance the meaning of the then-current three-part exhibition series called Dilecta, Reflections on a Permanent Collection. Like students, the essayists would receive an assignment per se, and engage in the exercise of pure reflection, relying simply on their attraction to the work of art. 

I decided to call the project Ten Essays. It was not so much the number of essays (and one is really a poem!) but the sound of the title which mattered most. The title alludes to a wholeness, to an even band of friends, a complete group who could witness to the idea that art draws together.  

This semester we decided to exhibit the ten works alone, so viewers might experience the kind of focus and intimacy of seeing just one work by and for itself.  The results are pretty remarkable, and we learn to share the most basic and natural sense of appreciation. Appreciation begins with that initial draw, that spark of notice, and deep sense of wonder. It ends with a response, the moment when the object and the viewer come together. A person’s appreciation itself enhances the work of art, and in turn, becomes the beauty of the one who appreciates.

Iain MacLellan, O.S.B.

Director

The Chapel Art Center is pleased to present Dilecta: Reflections on a Permanent Collection, Part III, Modern and Contemporary. This is the last in a series of exhibits presenting a review of the entire collection, particularly at a turning point when this chapel, designed by the well-known Boston architects McGinnis and Walsh in 1923, celebrates its centennial. In just a few years, Fr. Raphael Pfisterer's magnificent muraled Agnus Dei ceiling, completed in 1930, will also mark its centennial.  

This exhibition follows from a previous show here in 2012, entitled Modern Is. This present concept of Modern and Contemporary embraces a larger part of the permanent collection, and is meant to group older works with newer ones created in the present day. Included are major keystone acquisitions by some of Modernism's foremost "giants," such as Whistler, Vuillard, and Matisse. Leading the way from the mid-19th century onward, revolutionary figures such as these determined what followed throughout the twentieth century into the present time. As works are arranged in clusters, this exhibition's mix will set in motion a conversation within each contextual setting. What will become evident is, we hope, that whether modern or contemporary, all these works represent a bit of what Modern is. 

Note, for instance, Marian Harris' Still Life with Copper Bowl, and her unique color palette learned from her renowned mentor Arthur B. Carles (1882-1952), who was among the last of the Cézanne group of followers in France. Michael Bergtís vigorous figures reflect centuries-old techniques and formal considerations from the Italian Renaissance, but break from tradition with a distinctively contemporary application and meaning. Sandy Wadlingtonís graphic, colorful woodcuts certainly offer homage to Arthur Wesley Dow (1857-1922) in their Massachusetts North Shore charm. Note as well the complement of Gustave Cimiotti's Riverbank, with its simple, winding tributaries, stemming from the influence of Japanese prints on Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists in the mid-19th century. 

A variety of works, arranged thoughtfully, creates not simply a context, but also a moment in time. For just a brief period, the stillness creates, in a paradoxical way, a motion–a movement forward. Like the spirit of Modernism itself, this present arrangement will assist in change and growth, towards the collectionís own unique character and identity.   

The Chapel Art Center is pleased to present Dilecta, Reflections on a Permanent Collection, Part II: Origins and Flourishes. While the first installation was more concerned with a disparate variety of works to exhibit many genres and areas of interest within the collection, this second installment focuses on works that are original to the college's collection, or that signify growth within particular areas of interest. 

Look, for example, at the colorful Louis Graner landscape hanging to your right. 
This wonderful impressionist work has been in the college's collection for almost a century. Many other works in this section of the gallery, including Fr. Raphaelís Portrait of Abbot Hilary Pfraengle, signify an early artistic milieu in Saint Anselm Collegeís culture. It also tells us of how the works have been beloved and preserved. 

In the next section of the gallery, the intimate setting fosters a relationship among works from the MacDonald Collection, a special subset of the permanent collection dedicated to religious works and domestic scenes. Founded in 2002, this collection is meant to promote an understanding of the mysteries of Catholic faith and enliven the values of family life. 

In the large salon area of the gallery, there are other signs of growth, with new interests stemming either from donors' gifts or, in some instances, fortuitous acquisition opportunities. The gift of the Dunlap chest-on-chest, standing prominently, led to a focus on early American furniture, decorative arts, New England works, and the Hudson River School landscapes. Near the Dunlap chest is Elizabeth Grandinís Portrait of a Lady in Lilac and Gold, discovered while acquiring Marian Harrisí Still Life with Copper Bowl, marking a moment when a new concentration of women modernists began to appear on the market. Since then we have been garnering works by these ambitious women artists, emerging in the early 20th century, who studied with well-established male artists a generation ahead of them. 

Of particular note is the inclusion of Ernest Lawsonís Winter, Tibbett’s Creek, signaling a new interest in collecting important American works created at the same time this very chapel was built, and when Saint Anselm College was still a fairly young, burgeoning institution. Lawsonís landscape embodies the movement towards the modern in American art, when the practice of painting was changing radically, welcoming a whole new generation of artists, such as the above-mentioned Elizabeth Grandin portrait!

The care and cultivation of art is why the Chapel Art Center came to be. These works glimmer almost, boasting our artistic legacy and history, and positioning our values. They speak as much to each other as they speak to us, communicating the power of human creativity, and the beauty to be born out of every human endeavor. 

The Chapel Art Center opens its new season with a small, introductory exhibit of rather disparate works we might call markers, or indicators, of the variety of works contained in the permanent collection. This is part one of three phases in a year-long exhibition intended to recognize both the origins and the growth of the collection over the years, as the director reflects on twenty-five years at the gallery.

A similar exhibit was held here in 2014-15 called Reverie, Realizing a Collection, as Saint Anselm College celebrated its quasquicentennial (the 125th anniversary of its founding.)

Over the years, the collection has grown considerably in its scope and direction. An intentional focus on certain core groupings, such as women modernists, New England landscapes, religious works, or American furniture, has helped to expand the variety of genres and set new goals for improving both the quality and selection of works. What is more, as friends and patrons of the gallery have increased, donors often initiate a new vein of interest by way of a gift. All in all, even when we consider the very spontaneous way the collection may have developed early on, it has always been motivated by a most genuine and earnest desire to have art embedded within the liberal arts learning experience.  

Dilecta is a word to suggest something “beloved” or “dear.” As the collection continues to grow, it will help to “consider the abundance,” to deepen our appreciation for our cultural history, both at the Chapel Art Center and at Saint Anselm College. We will rediscover the richness of the collection, and by extension, the rich variety of learning to be had in the environment we create.

The Chapel Art Center is pleased to host James Palmigiano: Collages and Bagatelles, for our springtime season exhibition, as part of our ongoing interest in art and monasticism. Palmigiano is a Cistercian monk from Spencer Abbey in Massachusetts.  A previous exhibition of his collages, entitled Passages, was held here in 2007.

Collages and bagatelles, as the words themselves suggest, represent an almost playful process of reconstruction, made of fragmented pieces of paper, cardboard, fabric, wood, and other discovered materials. Solidly based in the modern tradition of collage and assemblage, they stem from an innate cherishing. The artist’s investment in color, texture, and uniqueness, is also indicative of the monk’s work and prayer.

The mounting of this exhibition is a recognition of the endlessly possible beauty found in the simplest things. These collages and bagatelles are both challenging and inviting. They lead to ponderous questions of matter and form and, at the same time, offer the same quieting inspiration that has brought them together in the first place.

James Palmigiano received an BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, and an MFA from the Columbia University, as well as an MDiv and ThM from the Jesuit School of Theology, Berkeley. He is principal designer and primary consultant in marketing concepts for the Holy Rood Guild at Spencer Abbey.

Since its founding in 2002, there have been two major exhibitions devoted to the MacDonald Collection: Introducing The MacDonald Collection in 2010, and The Sacred and the Ordinary, Examining Works from the MacDonald Collection in 2017. Founded for the acquisition of religious works and domestic scenes, the Chapel Art Center has been able to secure important works reflecting mysteries of Catholic faith, and make connections to everyday faith and family life. The motivation for collecting and combining works such as these stems from a collaboration between the donor, Mr. Hugh MacIsaac, and the Chapel Art Center. It was our desire to complement the values he treasured with the mission of Saint Anselm College.

This exhibition is intended to take a new and perhaps playful step towards broader and more diverse conversations, to further the MacDonald Collection’s import and meaning.

In Conversation is a carefully selected group of works, strategically aligned and thoughtfully juxtaposed. Some fit clearly into the MacDonald Collection category, and some do not. Some works, coupled in a seemingly disparate relationship, will stimulate reflection and invite new commentary.

Ultimately, we hope to gain new insights and arrive at some interesting conclusions. As a “meaningful core,” The MacDonald Collection is growing as a very valuable witness to what the Chapel Art Center offers as its own center of education. Our hope is this variegated array of mingled works from the MacDonald Collection and other works within the permanent collection can enrich our community and visitors with renewed vigor and promise.

Lotte Jacobi’s America: Images of Her Adopted Land features the work of renowned German-born photographer Lotte Jacobi, who made New Hampshire her home in 1955. Her friendship with New Hampshire photographer Gary Samson led to the establishment of the Lotte Jacobi Archive at the University of New Hampshire’s Dimond Library. This exhibition features a selection of Lotte Jacobi’s photographs from the Milne Special Collections and Archives, featured in an exhibition last year at the University of New Hampshire Museum, curated by Gary Samson. This subset of works presents an opportunity to celebrate both the treasure of the Lotte Jacobi Archive, and the artist’s collaborative friendship with New Hampshire Artist Laureate Gary Samson.

Pathways to Home: Vision and Narration presents a selection of works from the  permanent collection to complete this year’s focus on interpretive intentions in the  curating process. Drawing upon a wide range of art objects, this exhibition reflects upon the relationship between the artist’s vision, the viewer, and the subtle narrative in works of art. Engaging the viewer with remarkable visual content, each work opens a path to an interesting dialogue and new resolve.

The Chapel Art Center is very pleased to present Works on Paper, Including Recent Acquisitions, Selections from the Permanent Collection for its spring exhibition. 

It is not unusual for a gallery or museum to host an exhibition especially devoted to works on paper. In the case of the Chapel Art Center, with the vast majority of the permanent collection consisting of works on paper, it is difficult to justly represent the variety of works without devoting an exhibition to them. Still, it seems works on paper enjoy a unique distinction in almost any collection.  

The use of paper has served artists in both grand and basic ways for centuries, for a wide variety of artistic purposes. In simple sketches or studies, works on paper offer a privileged insight into the artist’s most basic and profound impulses. In carefully developed observations, they demonstrate clearly the artist’s remarkable, meticulous, and sophisticated drawing skills. At times, works on paper offer the grandness and power of great designs in even the smallest of studies, holding storied future narratives within the confines of one, isolated, ragged-edged sheet.     

Perhaps it is the fragile nature of paper, the fugitive character of pigments, or the careful limitation of exposure to atmospheric conditions which make works on paper seem inherently precious. All in all, their very accessible ease, inherent playfulness, experimentation, and spontaneity allow for a constancy of fresh interest and surprise.  

Whatever the angle, works on paper so often prove to be invariably delightful. We hope you will enjoy this selection of works, intentionally interspersed so as to encourage contrast, comparison, and new insights to be offered! This approach can only serve to build and expand our appreciation.

The Chapel Art Center is delighted to present A Moment of Time: Sculpture by Nick Hollibaugh, featuring a body of work by Massachusetts-based artist Nick Hollibaugh. Working in wood and paint, Hollibaugh creates forms and assemblages that engage with our understanding of memory, landscape, and structure. Meticulous in their execution and poetic in their simplicity, these built arrangements blur the line between painting and sculpture.

Born and raised in Indiana, many of Hollibaugh’s sculptural works evoke the farm structures and barns of his youth. The artist’s largest works are paradoxically both inviting and imposing, recalling expansive open spaces and enclosed domestic interiors in equal measure. Horizontal bands of wood painted in subtly shifting colors recall a sky viewed across flat farmland, while the familiar shape of a pitched roof, paired with Hollibaugh’s precise craftsmanship, reference the simple lines of Shaker barns and furniture.

In smaller, more intimate works, pieces of found wood are commingled with bits of mirror and nest-like assemblages of narrow sticks. Drawing from his experience as a furniture designer, Hollibaugh exerts precise control over shadow, color, and dimension, arranging each element in accordance with a mysterious, dreamlike logic.

Nick Hollibaugh earned a BFA from the Herron School of Art at Indiana University and an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. He lives in Massachusetts with his wife and two daughters. Hollibaugh is represented by Cade Tompkins Projects of Providence, Rhode Island.

LOCALITY presents a survey of fine and decorative art by artists hailing from New Hampshire and neighboring regions. Featuring remarkable examples of historic and modern furniture, studio ceramics, glass, as well as paintings, drawings, and prints, LOCALITY is a unique installation paying tribute to fifty years of the Chapel Art Center collecting works by regionally significant artists, and decades of collaboration with prominent local living masters.

Tranquility & Drama is an exhibition demonstrating the depth of 19th-century European and American painting in the Chapel Art Center Permanent Collection. The show is organized around a central group of unique landscape paintings by German artist Julius Lange (1817-1878) depicting scenes of the mountainous regions surrounding Lake Como. Lange, a painter of the Dusseldorf School, is known for his expansive, sublime landscapes. These six painted studies from the Chapel Art Center Permanent Collection are exemplary of the German Romantic tradition.

Lange's robust landscapes are complemented by several brilliant paintings by American artists of the Hudson River School, including a canvas by William Hart and a panel painting by Alvan Fisher. Also present are several fine examples of European genre painting from the mid-to-late 19th century.

The Chapel Art Center is pleased to present a pair of exhibitions drawn from our Permanent Collection.

Preparing a Place: Women Modernists from the Chapel Art Center Permanent Collection

In the 19th and 20th centuries, female artists established a long overdue presence on the American art scene, enrolling in art schools, teaching, and exhibiting in landmark exhibitions of modernist art. In celebration of the legacy of these women modernists, the Chapel Art Center is pleased to present a selection of artworks by ground-breaking female artists from our Permanent Collection.

Featuring paintings, works on paper, and sculpture dating from the early 20th century to the present day, Preparing a Place highlights the work of women who pushed the field forward in their respective media, achieving professional success and recognition in the process.

Farm to Table: The Lucille Davison Collection of Ceramic Cow Creamers

An eccentric piece of tableware first popularized in Britain in the 18th century, the cow creamer is an object of playfulness married to functionality. Its whimsical form points to the intersection between Georgian romanticizing of a pastoral, agrarian life and the rising popularity of tea and coffee among the British upper and middle classes—and the various accessories necessary to enjoy it with fashionable company.

The group of cow creamers on view at the Chapel Art Center was generously donated by the late Lucille Davison, whose father assembled the collection over a period of several decades. It reflects over a century's worth of styles and regional peculiarities and includes examples from several notable centers of English ceramic production, including Staffordshire, Sunderland, Derbyshire, and Swansea, as well as American examples from the Norton and Fenton Potteries in Bennington, Vermont.

The Chapel Art Center is pleased to present a pair of exhibitions exploring the evocative work of two artists working on opposite sides of the Atlantic in the early decades of the 20th century.

Barbara Morgan: DANCING ATOMS

American photographer Barbara Morgan (1900-1992) is best-known for her evocative photographs of modern dancers, in particular her long and fruitful partnership with dance pioneer Martha Graham. Morgan's photographs capture graceful and athletic figures in moments of heightened energy and motion. Her exploration of movement and kinetic energy on film extended to early experiments with photomontage and light drawing. Dancing Atoms presents a survey of Morgan's New York years, from the 1930s to the 1960s.

Georges Rouault: LE CIRQUE

The circus and its performers are a recurring theme in the long career of French Expressionist Georges Rouault. Under his hand, depictions of acrobats, clowns, and dancer took on new shades of political and emotional resonance, with the figures serving as stand-ins for the downtrodden and humble lower classes. The color aquatints that make up Rouault's print series Le Cirque were completed for a never-finished album folio project in 1930. Reunited in the Chapel Art Center gallery as a series, Le Cirque offers a rare opportunity to trace the evolution of Rouault's style at a critical moment in his career.

The Silent Heart: Modern Illuminations by Anne Connell, on view October 21-December 10, 2016, features a selection of 24 paintings and works on paper by the Portland, Oregon-based painter Anne Connell. A consummate contemporary master, Connell utilizes a variety of methods and media to create intimately scaled and carefully conceived works, often incorporating techniques associated with Renaissance masters - including finely-wrought silverpoint drawing and the delicate application of gold leaf.Though her paintings make allusion to specific motifs and imagery drawn from the Italian Renaissance, in her skillful hands these symbols are transmuted and recontextualized, presented as surreal views into a fictional world full of wit and mystery. 

The notion for the exhibition title "the Silent Heart" is rooted in monastic tradition, referring to the preeminently quiet interiority one must embrace to readily contemplate meaning. Anne Connell's glowing, dream-like compositions are remarkable for their rare ability to capture the mind and still the heart.The Silent Heart: Modern Illuminations by Anne Connell marks the Chapel Art Center's first international loan exhibition, and the first major exhibition to take place since the gallery's reopening after a year-long renovation. 

The exhibition was conceived and presented in collaboration with Stephen Ongpin Fine Art of London, known internationally as foremost among dealers of Master Drawings. Paintings in the exhibition are on loan from several private collections in the United Kingdom and the United States.

The Chapel Art Center is pleased to present DIVERGENCE: A Studio Art Faculty Exhibition, on view February 3 - March 18, 2017.

Highlighting the work of five distinguished faculty artists from the Saint Anselm College Fine Arts Department, this group exhibition showcases the caliber and scope of artwork executed by current and recent Studio Art faculty. 

Featuring works by:

Megan Bogonovich
Luke Buffenmyer
Josh Dannin
Kimberly Kersey-Asbury
Elsa Voelcker

Spotlighting recent acquisitions and shedding new light on artworks from the Chapel Art Center Permanent Collection.

A year-long exhibition on view from September 26 through April 30, 2015

In celebration of Saint Anselm College's 125^th anniversary, the Chapel Art Center presents a year-long exhibition reflecting over a century of creating, collecting, and appreciating art on the Saint Anselm campus. The exhibition traces the beginnings of the arts at Saint Anselm as far back as 1893 when Father Bonaventure Ostendarp opened the Studio of Christian Art, a workshop dedicated to producing decorative murals and liturgical art for Catholic churches across the United States. In the early twentieth century the Studio of Christian Art was overseen by Father Raphael Pfisterer, who also designed and painted the exquisite ceiling murals in the college's chapel - the same space which, since 1967, has served as the Chapel Art Center's gallery and exhibition space.

In the course of forty-seven years the Chapel Art Center has hosted over two hundred and fifty exhibitions of work by artists of national and international renown, in addition to countless lectures, concerts, gallery tours, and artist demonstrations. In recent years the gallery has placed an increased focus on building a strong and vibrant permanent collection, now numbering at close to four hundred artworks ranging from fifteenth-century drawings by Italian renaissance masters to recent works by contemporary New England artists. Reverie: Realizing a Collection will provide an overview of this rich history of artistic creation and cultural programs at Saint Anselm College.

Sandy Wadlington
Pastels, Drawings and Color Woodcuts
September 27 - December 7, 2013

The Chapel Art Center is very pleased to host this exhibition of works by Sandy Wadlington.  As a New England-based artist with formidable artistic roots (she is a descendant of the pioneer American landscape painter Alvan Fisher), Wadlington has marked her own path with the hands-on media of pastel, caran d'ache, and color woodcuts.

Her versatility makes for a remarkable range of visual effects.  Suffused with light and a quality of naturalism, her works are utterly faithful to the American landscape tradition. Modernist in their patterned simplicity, they also capture the stirring sensations of passing moments. Always gentle and serene, they bear the watchfulness of an artist at home with the vast beauty of her surroundings.

This is the third in a series of landscape exhibitions covering a range of traditions and styles, which has allowed us to explore the enduring traditions as well as the more innovative practices associated with American landscape painting.  Reflections of the Day presents a most pleasing selection of purely contemporary scenes, affirming the ever-present appeal of the artist's point of view.

Sandy Wadlington is represented by McGowan Fine Art, Concord, N.H.

Chapel Art Center Permanent Collection
An exhibition curated entirely by Saint Anselm students
Jan. 24 - Feb. 22, 2014

The Chapel Art Center presents Students Select, an exhibition of works from the college's permanent collection curated entirely by Saint Anselm students.

The works on view will be commented on by a curatorial team of 14 students with varied academic disciplines. The team is led by sophomore fine arts major Mary Pat Devine, senior history major and spring 2014 curatorial and exhibitions intern Justin Eckilson, and sophomore history major and fall 2013 curatorial and exhibitions intern Sabrina Fahy.

A working exhibit, the first two weeks will be devoted to observation, reflection, research, and writing. The student team will produce extended label text to accompany the artworks on display in the gallery.

An interactive gallery talk, to be held following the completion of the exhibit labels, will allow the student curatorial team to provide insight into their thought process and promote discussion about the artworks, the nature of curatorial work, and their thoughts on writing about art.

Students Select is the first student-led exhibition at the Chapel Art Center. It offers students the opportunity to gain firsthand knowledge of the curatorial writing process, while also showcasing several significant works from the Chapel Art Center's permanent collection. It will be available Jan. 24 - Feb. 22.

Also on view is Influence and Significance, with additional works from the permanent collection.

March 14 - April 30, 2014

The Chapel Art Center is pleased to present the exhibition Anthony Moore: PAVISE, showcasing a series of magnificent modern painted pavises by London-born artist Anthony Moore.

A pavise is a large, convex shield used by archers and crossbowmen in medieval Europe. They were often painted with a soldier's coat of arms and sometimes featured depictions of saints or religious icons. Historical pavises were objects of beauty as well as utility.

Anthony Moore was inspired to create his series of modern pavises after encountering a medieval pavise at the Higgins Armory Museum in Worcester, Massachusetts. Moore's pavises take the form of elongated shields adorned with transcendent painted scenes referencing the tradition of the Northern Renaissance, stained glass, and modern collage. Moore's painting blends abstraction and representation to produce beautiful, colorful compositions with multiple layered symbolic meanings.

In conjunction with the exhibition the Chapel Art Center will host several special programs and events, including a concert of medieval music from the Boston Camerata's Anne Azéma, who will present a solo program titled "Angel of Light" on April 8 at 7:30 p.m. Seating is limited, and reservations may be made in advance by calling (603) 641-7470.

Anthony Moore: PAVISE will be on view March 14-April 30, 2014

Images of Anthony Moore's work may be viewed at www.anselmpavise.com

Anthony Moore is represented by Childs Gallery, Boston.

The Chapel Art Center is very pleased to host this exhibition of landscape paintings by Lauren Sansaricq.  This is the first of a series of "suites" the Chapel Art Center will present as it celebrates its 45^th anniversary. The Glimmer of Light continues our focus in the recent past on American landscape, New Hampshire-based artists, and emerging artists.

As a particularly ambitious young painter working in the Hudson River School tradition, Lauren's paintings reveal both the subtle intimacies of observing nature, as well as the bold grandeur of the expansive view.  Her deft handling of the medium embraces all the challenges of being immersed in the scene, with a true devotion and purity of intent. As the artist has generously stated: "My hope is for the viewer...to be able to imagine even more about the place than I have painted..."

These works represent a youthful call to refreshment and beauty. They speak silently of the resounding messages of nature. They contain a uniquely charming confluence of her personal lessons from masters in the past, reverently executed in the present, with an enduring look for the future. 

Lauren Sansaricq is represented by Hawthorne Fine Art, New York.

The Chapel Art Center is very pleased to host this exhibition of portraits and landscapes by Robert Bauer.  This is the third in a series of "suites" the Chapel Art Center is presenting as it celebrates its 45^th anniversary season.  

The Quality of Introspection considers the nature of Bauer's compelling and resonant portraits alongside a group of uniquely reflective landscape drawings. With remarkably deft precision and technical refinement, these small scale works invite us to an intimate gaze upon the subject at hand.  Mysteriously profound in their delicacy, they are also a cause to contemplate. 

Following upon the inclusion of Bauer's Adam I in our 2009 landmark exhibition, A Figural Presence, this exhibition expands upon Bauer's concept of observation.  This provides an opportunity to further the notion of "poetic regard" as we expand upon ways of knowing how to attend to art and refine our ability to see.

Opening Reception

Thursday, April 11, 6-8 p.m.
Award winners will be announced at 7 p.m.

ChapelJazz
Organic Jazz: Music and Poetry about the Music

Friday, April 12, 2013 at 7 p.m.

The Gleason-Brown Sextet featuring Boston-based organist Rusty Scott will perform at the Chapel Art Center. 

In a program which blends the music of jazz with readings of poems about jazz, the College's faculty jazz core of Professors Ed Gleason and Monte Brown will be joined by several Boston-area musicians for an evening of "melody and meter" as organist Rusty Scott's boomingHammond B3 organ "trades fours" with various faculty members who will be reading excerpts from American jazz poets such as Michael Harper, William Matthews and Langston Hughes. The concert is free and open to the public. A reception will follow.

Student Recitals in the Chapel Art Center

In conjunction with our annual Juried Fine Arts Student Exhibition, students from Saint Anselm College will perform two recitals in the Chapel Art Center.

Thursday, April 18th at 4:30 p.m.

• Soprano Ashley Noelle Therrien '12 accompanied by Nicholas Pothier, Pianist
• Including songs and arias by Puccini, Pergolesi, Fauré, and Schubert

Thursday, April 25th at 4:30 p.m.

• Tenor Nathanael Chartier '13, Tenor Sean Curran '13 and Soprano Ashley Noelle Therrien '12 accompanied by Justin McCarthy, Pianist
• Performing works by Handel, Fauré, Franck, Schubert, Weill, and Mozart.

Opening Reception - Thursday, September 22 at 6 p.m.
Exhibit continues through Sunday, October 23, 2011

Gallery will be closed Saturday, October 8.

This exhibition is organized in collaboration with New England Galleries of Andover, Massachusetts.

Pulitzer Prize Recipient and Poet Laurean Maxine Kumin

Wednesday, October 12, 7 p.m., NHIOP Auditorium

The Alva de Mars Megan Chapel Art Center and the New Hampshire Institute of Politics are pleased to welcome Pulitzer Prize recipient and Poet Laureate Maxine Kumin, who will speak as part of the NHIOP Bookmark Series and Night of the Poet program. Kumin will read a variety of selections from her collection of poems, including her latest publication Where I Live: New and Selected Poems 1990-2010. At the conclusion of the program, there will be a book sale and signing with the poet.

Kumin has published numerous books of poetry, and is also the author of a memoir, Inside the Halo and Beyond: The Anatomy of a Recovery (W. W. Norton, 2000); four novels; a collection of short stories; more than twenty children's books; and five books of essays. She has received the Aiken Taylor Award for Modern Poetry, an American Academy of Arts and Letters award, the Sarah Joseph Hale Award, the Levinson Prize, a National Endowment for the Arts grant, the Eunice Tietjens Memorial Prize from Poetry, and fellowships from The Academy of American Poets, and the National Council on the Arts. In addition, she has served as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress and Poet Laureate of New Hampshire, and is a former Chancellor of The Academy of American Poets.

Prior to the poetry reading the exhibit, Hills in Echo Charles Curtis Allen, N.A. American Painter, will be on view in the gallery at the Alva de Mars Megan Chapel Art Center.

Opening Reception - Wednesday, November 9th, from 6 to 8 p.m.
Exhibit continues through December 10, 2011

Gallery will be closed Wednesday, November 23 (closing at 12:30 p.m.) through Sunday, November 27.

A little more than twenty years ago, as the new president of Saint Anselm College, Fr. Jonathan DeFelice, O.S.B. commissioned Fr. Iain to make drawings expressly for his annual Christmas greetings to the college community, alumni, friends, and associates. Soon to follow, drawings were also done for Saint Anselm Abbey's Christmas card.

This exhibition will showcase a selection of these works, as well as other commissions received throughout the years. Focusing on later works executed as "mediations," this collection represents years of artistic invention coupled with a monastic spirituality. This assemblage is a special occasion to view the works together, many of which have never been exhibited before.

The Alva de Mars Megan Chapel Art Center is delighted to present this selection of works from its permanent collection that explores the notion of the "modern" in the visual arts. It includes work from Henri Matisse, Alexander Calder and Raphael Soyer.

Modern Style
Modernism is most often identified as a stylistic and conceptual break with the established institution of painting and sculpture-a development that began to emerge in the second half of the 19th century. Artists no longer felt constrained by the conservative approach of the classical tradition, which had dictated both subject matter and style for centuries. Historical, religious or mythological themes were considered most indicative of an artist's skill, whereas subjects like landscape, still-life or scène de genre (scenes of daily life) were given little critical attention.

In the 19th century, technological innovations such as trains, electricity, and photography greatly impacted the daily life of the general population. Artists were likewise susceptible to these historical developments and sought a new approach that mirrored the significant changes happening around them.

Modern does not imply a particular visual style, technique, or subject matter, but rather indicates a new perspective from which the artist engages their work. Including examples from the late 19th century up through the early 21st century, Modern Is presents the opportunity for visitors to draw their own conclusions on what is modern about this grouping of paintings, drawings, and prints.

Events and Programs

Thurs., Feb. 2 at 6 p.m.
Opening Reception

Thursday, Feb. 9 at 6 p.m.
Assistant Professor of Music, Sean Parr will lead a concert of opera excerpts and classical song. "Songs of Passion" will feature composers Puccini, Donizetti, Gounod, and Schumann. The concert features the professional talent of soprano Brittany Palmer and Elizabeth Blood on piano. Concert is free and open to the public; a reception will follow.

Thursday, Feb. 16 at 4 p.m.

The Alva de Mars Megan Chapel Art Center is introducing a new program called Beauty Bound,which seeks to appreciate the art of book design and presentation.  Whether a scholarly, classic, or innovative publication, everyone loves a beautiful book!

This program will begin with a reading and discussion of Dr. Katherine Hoffman's most recent publication Alfred Stieglitz: A Legacy of Light. Her lecture, titled "Through the Lens: Alfred Stieglitz and His Fight for the Role of Photography as a Fine Art,"  will be followed by a book signing and reception.

Saturday, March 10 at 6 p.m.
The Gleason-Brown Sextet will perform "From Django to Brubeck: Revolutionary/Evolutionary Jazz in the Twentieth Century." 

Popular music, like each art form that opened itself up to the possibilities (and, yes, liabilities) of Modernism, found in the '20s a then-radical expression in the new "hot" sound which had its origin in New Orleans and its earliest outlets in Chicago, New York and Paris.  After four decades of development from its "dixieland" and "blues" base into such well-defined sub-genres as "swing", "bebop", "cool", "progressive", "fusion" and "post-bop" - and after several subsequent "post-Beatles" decades of seeing its importance to the culture come into question - jazz survives because people who compose it, play it, listen to it - or leave a warm home in the middle of March to support it in live performance - believe as much in the future of the music as in its history.  From Django to Brubeck: Revolutionary/Evolutionary Jazz in the Twentieth Century is both a survey of some key compositions in 20th century jazz and also a musical argument that the achievements of Armstrong, Ellington, Miles, Dizzy, Sonny, Monk, Mulligan, Brubeck and so many others deserve space in the atlas of the past century's musical icons.

Special guest performer: David Newsam on guitar.

Opening Reception: Thursday, September 16 at 6 p.m.
Exhibition continues through Saturday, October 30

November 11 - December 9, 2010
(closed Nov. 24- 27)

Opening Reception - Thursday, January 27 at 6 p.m.
Exhibit continues through Saturday, March 19, 2011
(closed Feb. 26- March 5)

Learn more about Ronald Hurwitz.

Gallery Talk - Friday, January 28, 2 p.m.
Ronald Hurwitz, photographer
Seeing the Invisible: Art as Autobiography
Chapel Art Center
French pastries, coffee, and tea to follow

Keynote Address - Monday, January 31, 7 p.m.
Dietrich Neumann, Royce Family Professor for the History of Modern Architecture and Urban Studies, Brown University
Paris and New York: Urban Imagery in the 19th and 20th Centuries
New Hampshire Institute of Politics

Gallery Lecture - Thursday, February 10, 4 p.m.
Daniel O'Sullivan, Associate Professor of French, University of Mississippi Notre Dame de Paris or How to Read a Gothic Cathedral
Chapel Art Center
Reception to follow
Sponsored by the Robert Lehman Foundation, Inc.,
Edwin L. Weisl, Jr. Lectureships in Art History

Teacher Workshop - Saturday, February 12, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Workshop will include a film discussion with Charles Hobson, film producer of the documentary Harlem in Montmarte at 1:30 p.m., and a gallery talk by Danielle Blais, co-creator of the Saint Anselm College Paris-New York course, addressing the history, literature, art, and philosophy of the 1920's and 30's, at 11 a.m.
Dana Center for the Humanities, Saint Anselm College

Piano Recital - Saturday, February 12, 4:30 p.m.
Gregory Pauley, piano
Modern Impressions
Dana Center for the Humanities, Saint Anselm College

Fine Arts Series Concert - Thursday, February 17, 6 p.m.
Flute Truffles: French and Italian Delicacies of the 20th Century
Douglas Worthen, flute, and George Lopez, piano
Chapel Art Center
A collaboration of the Fine Arts Department and the Alva de Mars Megan Chapel Art Center

Book Discussion - Thursday, March 10, 6 p.m.
Award-winning New York Times bestselling author Monique Truong will discuss her publication The Book of Salt
Chapel Art Center
Reception with a French wine tasting will follow

This project is presented in collaboration with the Northeast Cultural Coop with partial funding from the New Hampshire Humanities Council.

Opening reception Thursday, April 7 at 6 p.m.
Exhibit continues through Saturday, April 30
(closed April 21 - 23)

The Juried Fine Arts Student Exhibition offers a selection of student works from the studio classroom in a diverse range of media, including paintings, drawings, prints, photography, clay, and mixed media. Each year selections are made by distinguished jurors, with awards for outstanding works presented opening night.

A Figural Presence embarks upon a new way of learning at the Chapel Art Center, with selections of significant contemporary American figurative works of art. This special exhibition sought to engender the power of poetic regard through dialogue about these paintings, drawings, and sculpture.  

This project was supported in part by an award from The National Endowment for the Arts.

Associated Events

A Figural Presence is a special exhibition, which sought to combine learning with the experience of beauty through the study of contemporary American figural works of art in painting, drawing, and sculpture. These accompanying programs and events were part of an interdisciplinary dialogue among curators, faculty, poets, musicians, and other special guests. See pictures from the events on our Flickr site.

PANEL DISCUSSIONS

Session 1: What is Poetic Regard?
September 29, 2009
Introductory remarks by Iain MacLellan, O.S.B., Director, Curator

Session 2: Keynote Lecture
October 1, 2009
John O'Hern, Guest Curator, former Executive Director and Curator of the Arnot Art Museum, Senior Editor of American Art Collector and Western Art Collector

Session 3: Elements of Poetic Regard
October 20, 2009
Facilitated by Jessica Pappathan, Assistant Curator

Session 4: A Conferral of Ideas
November 17, 2009

RELATED EVENTS

Visiting Artist: Michael Bergt, Painter and Sculptor
October 1, 2009
Painter and sculptor Michael Bergt demonstrated and taught his technique, and discussed his long career as a figurative artist.

Premiere Performance: Sonata No. 5 by Dianne Goolkasian Rahbee and George Lopez, Piano
November 12, 2009
A program entitled Centuries of Sonata, featuring representative piano sonatas of the Classical through modern styles, will culminate with the premiere of internationally recognized composer Dianne Goolkasian Rahbee's work, Sonata No. 5. This sonata was commissioned by the Chapel Art Center expressly for A Figural Presence.The

Night of the Poet F.D. Reeve, Poet, Novelist, and Critic
November 19, 2009
Award winning poet F.D. Reeve read his newly composed work A Girl and Two Doves, commissioned in conjunction with A Figural Presence.

This project is supported in part by an award from The National Endowment for the Arts.

Mirare means to admire or behold. This exhibition brings together three contemporary New England artists--Grace DeGennaro, Thomas Driscoll, and Meg Brown Payson--whose abstract works resonate with the simple human impulse to wonder.

They inspire the sensible articulation of fantasy and reality, through carefully structured semblances of form and pattern. Collectively, the works create an opportunity for investigating the livelihood of the mind and heart, challenging the ways we appreciate, or derive meaning from, a work of art.

The Juried Fine Arts Student Exhibition celebrated its 10th anniversary with a selection of student works from the studio classroom in a diverse range of media, including paintings, drawings, prints, photography, clay, and mixed media. Each year selections are made by distinguished jurors, with awards for outstanding works presented opening night.

The Juried '10 exhibition, which featured talks, student musical performances, and poetry readings from the Oxford Companions, encouraged performance arts and literary talents within the student body.

The exhibit opened April 9, with 40 students displaying their work. The exhibited works were selected out of 120 submissions.

This year, two alumni were invited to be the jurors: Amanda McGowan ('07 sociology) and Ashley Capachione ('07 fine arts).

McGowan works at McGowan (no relation) Fine Art in Concord, and Capachione works at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston.

Juried Exhibition Awards

Finalists:
Catherine Carroll '12, "Moshed Up," ink jet print/Photoshop
RhondaLeigh Dauphinais, '10, "Eggs," charcoal on paper
Alexandra Noe, '12, "Elegance," gelatin silver print

Honorable Mention:
Daniel Bohenek,'10, "To Wash the Disciples' Feet," clay and glaze

King Award:
Jennifer Ryan Jarosz '11, "Hit the Fan (triptych)," acrylic on board

Drawn From Life Award:
Jeffrey Donnis '12, "Movement Study (Gesture)," vine charcoal on paper

Juror's Award:
Jas Numanović '13, "Actress" (after Pierre-Auguste Renoir), oil on panel

Cappella Award:
RhondaLeigh Dauphinais '10, "Saint Anselm: A Study in Mixed Processes," acrylic on paper
Will Suglia '11, "Still Life with Tea Pot," silverpoint, pen and ink, pastels on blue prepared paper

The Chapel Art Center presents a premiere event entitled Tout Ensemble. This unique day of exhibition involves a group of small, intimate works, presented on easels for a casual sidewalk appeal. This approach of "all together" will be accompanied by a small musical group to enhance the atmosphere of spring newness and fresh forward vision.

The Chapel Art Center presented the works of renowned New Hampshire Living Treasure award recipient Karl Drerup. A leading figure in 20th century enameling, Drerup was also a painter, ceramist, and engraver. This exhibition explored the process of Drerup's life and work, with an emphasis on how his work evolved from its graphic stage into the three dimensionality of his remarkable enamels. The anticipated result is to see a melding of all his artistic intentions, while noting the most distinguishing features of his life and work along the way.

Karl Drerup's work courtesy of McGowan Fine Art in Concord, N.H.

Associated Events

Karl Drerup: An Artist's Journey
September 11, 2008
Jane L. Port, Independent Scholar and Curator of American Decorative Arts discussed the life and work of Karl Drerup.

Learning Lunch Workshop: Enameling Art of Patience
September. 25, 2008
John Spurling, Enamelist and Juried Member of the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen discussed and demonstrated the enamel process.

This exhibition honored the artistic legacy of sculptor, painter, and stained glass maker Sylvia Nicolas. The exhibition explored the major themes of her prolific career in each of her media. Sylvia Nicolas has had a major role in the artistic enrichment of Saint Anselm College, and the Chapel Art Center was most pleased to honor her life as a model of consummate artistic achievement.

Associated Events

In God's Light
October 23, 2008
Richard Millard, stained glass designer, painter, and art educator, will discuss the work of his longtime colleague and friend Sylvia Nicolas.

Art in situ
October 30, 2008
Fr. Iain MacLellan, O.S.B., director, offered a walking tour of Sylvia Nicolas's bronze statues of Saint Anselm and Saint Benedict, and the Blessed Sacrament Chapel mosaics in the Abbey Church.

The Chapel Art Center presented selections from the permanent collection, highlighting American art. This exhibition, which was comprised of paintings, drawings, prints, furniture, decorative art and sculpture, exhibited works dating from the 18th century to the contemporary. It was an opportunity to view a wonderful variety of works rarely shown together, including recent acquisitions never exhibited at the Chapel Art Center.

Associated Events

Director's Reception and Tour
January 29, 2009

America Collects: Import and Importance
February 5, 2009

New Ways of Framing the History of American Art: Designing the American Wing at the Museum of Fine Arts
February 19, 2009
Presented by The Robert Lehman Foundation, Inc., Edwin L. Weisl Jr. Lectureships in Art History
Elliot Bostwick Davis, Ph.D., John Moors Cabot Chair

Procedere is a biennial spring exhibition at the Chapel Art Center that, as the title suggests, entertains the notion of budding talent awaiting to proceed. In this exhibition, we were pleased to introduce a selection of new paintings by New Hampshire artist Leah Kuehne, for her first solo exhibition.

Each year Fine Arts students submit a variety of works in a diverse range of media and techniques, reflecting the talent of Saint Anselm College's student body. Selections are made by distinguished jurors, and awards are presented the night of the opening reception to acknowledge students' achievements.

For the 2008-2009 exhibit, the Chapel Art Center hosted jurors Daniel Ranalli founding director of the Boston University graduate program in arts administration, and artist Carol Odell, of Odell Studio Galleries in Chatham, Mass.

The exhibit was accompanied by student art performances, and featured exceptional student work among which 8 awards were distributed.

The Premiere Award was given to Alisha Fortin '09 for her painting Science vs. Compassion. Fortin, a nursing major, wanted to incorporate some aspect of nursing into her artwork, creating the image of doctors in a patient's room to show the contrast between science and compassion.

"In the painting, I wanted to show the contrast between the cool, distanced doctors who were focused on curing the medical aspect of the patient versus what we are taught in nursing to be such an important aspect of patient healing."

The following students were also recognized for their artistic talent: Alice Palazzolo '10, the Cappella Award for her drawing, Summer Breezes; Alicia Erickson '09, the Drawn from Life Award for her watercolor, Bottles; Nicole Spezzaferri '11, the Juror's Award for her digital print Angel in Mourning; John Oberlander '11, the E.W. Poore Award for his mixed media, Dark Still Life; Will Suglia '11, the King Award for his self portrait; Jennifer Ryan Jarosz '11 and Christie Telge '09 received honorable mention for their works, Bald Man and Dirty Dishes respectfully.

The Chapel Art Center was host to this beautiful and dramatic traveling exhibition, in collaboration with other campus constituencies. The exhibition provided a powerful occasion for paying attention to the facts and experiences of incarceration in the United States.

The exhibition included the work of incarcerated mothers and artists from around the country and provided an opportunity to educate visitors searching for information and decent solutions to a major and growing problem in U.S. society.