Visitors at the Francis M. Maguire Art Museum were invited to reflect on the theme of “Walking with the Excluded” by viewing art featured in “Make or Break: Creativity as an Act of Survival” Feb. 20. The exhibition, which is on display from until March 30, showcases the art of 16 artists who created their works while incarcerated in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Themes explored in the exhibit included categorization and labeling, social justice and achievement in the face of adversity.
Paired with the exhibition was an art-making activity called “Visio Divina / Sacred Seeing: Reflection and Art Making in the Museum,” which invited participants to explore the relationship between art and spirituality.
Becky McIntyre ’17 led the event for Mission Week. She was active in Campus Ministry during her time at St. Joe’s and was asked to come back to her alma mater for the event. After brainstorming with Jeanne Bracy, associate director of the Maguire Art Museum, she planned the Visio Divina activity.
“Visio divina,” which means “sacred seeing” in Latin, is a form of prayer in which a worshipper takes time to focus on an image rather than a scripture. Participants were invited to partake in visio divina by choosing a photo to reflect on for 10 minutes.
McIntyre said the idea to have participants partake in visio divina came from the themes of the exhibit.
“This exhibit is demonstrating folks creating art who are on the fringes of society, who may have been incarcerated or institutionalized,” McIntyre said. “When they asked me to do something during Mission Week, it just made sense to connect with the apostolic preferences and walking with the excluded.”
Peter Norberg, Ph.D., professor of English and senior associate provost for academic and faculty support, put the museum in touch with McIntyre and participated in the reflection. Norberg spent his 10 minutes sitting with “Pencils” by Heinrich Reisenbauer.
“Seeing it made me think about how grateful I am to be an educator and how each one of our students, in many ways, needs to take up their own pencil and write their own story,” Norberg said.
Erin Downey, Ph.D., assistant curator at the Maguire Art Museum, said there’s a connection between self-expression and how it’s impacted by incarceration.
“There was a compulsion to express themselves under dire circumstances,” Downey said while talking about the exhibit to visitors. “Many of them used unconventional and discarded materials to create their pieces.”
After reflection, participants were given watercolors and were tasked with making their own art pieces. Some created abstract works of art, while others painted scenes. The Rev. George Bur, S.J., university chaplain and special assistant to the president, said he often takes walks in The Barnes Arboretum and chose to paint himself walking on a path by a large tree.
“We were directed to just let the paint flow and let the image come up out of the collections of color and line that we put on the paper,” Bur said.
Bur said he thinks the practice of visio divina introduces people to a method of opening themselves to the presence of God, not in word but in image. Basing the reflection on the “Creativity as an Act of Survival” exhibit also gave him time to think about how creating art can help someone who is suffering.
“It reminded me of people that I know who are struggling with social realities, just like a prisoner or a person who was institutionalized,” Bur said. “So, how is God there? Well, I saw a lot of hope in those pictures.”
