Welcome to a world of art that explores the mystery of the human stretching towards the divine. The exhibitions at Manresa Gallery may not pinpoint a desire in artists or viewers of their work to see the religious or even the spiritual, but they do investigate how humans generally find such challenging engagements temporally and even eternally satisfying. Instruction in how to see – how to use the senses to understand a work of art – are not unlike the rudimentary beginnings of a spirituality, even of prayer understood as a longing for a deeper relationship with what can bring one beyond oneself. The movements of a spirit of creativity have launched many an artist – sometimes unwittingly, even unwillingly – on a path not only of personal discovery but through a communal questioning that ponders how the sacred might not be so easily separated from the secular.
Manresa Gallery presents exhibitions that may have specifically religious subject matter or easily identified origins. The works on display are not intended to inculcate beliefs nor serve as propaganda for causes. Simply, they are meant to elicit a sense for that mysterious part of each of us that yearns to express a deeper desire, a more intense awareness, a more committed offering of what we believe is a healthier potential for living fuller lives. For most people that is expressed by the theme of a spiritual quest; for others it leads further, to a specific religious affiliation. For all it challenges one to understand both the Why of art and the Who of spiritual promises which see the beautiful as, without doubt, the alluring path of belief.
MISSION
The mission of Manresa Gallery is to facilitate a transition from the outer to the inner world, from the scientific to the artistic viewpoint. Transposing a method of placing oneself in a visual scene proposed by the patron of the church, St. Ignatius of Loyola, modern viewers can experience the core of the rationale that founds the Manresa Gallery: exhibitions to invite attentive observers to fresh views about assumed human and divine realities and thus offer new ways to commit to a life-enhanced journey.
HISTORY
The idea of Manresa Gallery developed out of specific curatorial experiences, especially those formed in the course of the 1997-1998 liturgical year. That is the time that Fr. Jim Blaettler, S.J. spent as a resident artist at Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Manhattan, New York. He discovered that an exhibition within a worship space can release powerful creative energy. Although at times it may risk upstaging or appear to run counter to the expected worship rhythm or tone, art-in-worship can serve a variety of vital functions. It can prepare one for liturgy (worship ritual), be a part of it or unveil a sympathetic path for its enlivened and continued engagement. In true Ignatian fashion, art can help introduce and sustain a connection between the realm of the imagination and prayer. Good art can inspire great prayer.
In 2004, at the time of an extensive refurbishing of the flooring and lighting in St. Ignatius Church in San Francisco, a decision was made to include alcoves in the church that housed beautifully carved but no longer functional confessional boxes. Their removal allowed the opened space to serve a new, yet not unrelated purpose. Repairing the space and adapting it as a secured area for rotating exhibitions took the better part of four years, in part due to the challenges of designing and funding very large enclosing glass doors. The first exhibition opened on September 18, 2008. It celebrated the history of the Parish, at its fifth site, as both a peripatetic institution and as a community of persons always in search of a more faithful response to a deepened religious sensibility in a world that often seems to deny that such is possible.
The Manresa enterprise has kindred spirits. First and foremost is the wonderfully inventive and uncompromising vision of Fr. Friedhelm Mennekes, S.J. that allowed the Gothic St. Peter’s Church in Cologne, Germany, to showcase contemporary art as a language speaking directly to the divine. The work of that vibrant community of artists can be found on line at (www.sankt-peter-koeln.de). Fr. Mennekes was an early member of the Art and Church Enquiry (ACE) group established in London, England in the early 1990s by the Rev. Thomas Devonshire-Jones, Drs. John and Jane Dillenberger and others; it soon had an affiliate in Berkeley, California. Its focus on events surrounding major exhibitions and more than verbal support for commissions and prizes are manifested on its web site (www.acetrust.org). In 2007 a new venture in sponsored exhibition space was launched with the adaptation of a beautiful Christopher Wren church in central London. The success of those efforts to bring contemporary art and religious expression into the heart of London can be found at www.wallspace.org/uk. Recently the New York artist, Fr. Andrew O’Connor, has enticed both his religious congregation to be pilgrim-artists and further stretched their imaginations through engaged social awareness projects, and now he enters the world of contemporary textiles and fashion. His work is part of an ongoing assertion that Sacred Art Heals (www.sacredartheals.org). Venues which offer a variety of challenging and well-produced, substantial and exciting art/religion shows are the Museum of Biblical Art near Lincoln Center in Manhattan (www.mobia.org) and the Museum of Contemporary Religious Art on the campus of the University of St. Louis (www.mocra.slu.edu).
STAFF
The gallery staff includes Jim Blaettler, S.J., Director; Tamara Loewenstein, Gallery Manager, Hannah Kaiksow, Gallery Assistant; and Kelly Tingle, Intern.