The University of St. Thomas O'Shaughnessy Educational Center Gallery

A Season of Joy:
The Nativity in Global Perspective

This week, I decided to get in the spirit of the season and go to the gallery located at St. Thomas O'Shaughnessy Educational Center.
The exhibition on display is "A Season of Joy" The Nativity in Global Perspective." This exhibition features Christmas card designs by Timothy Trent Blade, in the woodcut and linocut styles, and countless créches from the Westminster Collection.
These are nativity scenes from around the world, made from every type of material imaginable.
Every set has a unique style of handcrafted artistry. The most wonderful part was how every different scene depicted the characters in the ethnicity of the people who created it.
Every different set was influenced by the culture, and often these cultures shined through in the details of the nativity scene.
A scene from Bolivia featured wise men riding llamas, and a scene from Haiti was set in front of a wood hut with a thatched roof. Some were minuscule, and others quite large. A nativity from Peru was made of a large piece of intricately embroidered cloth. One of the most astounding ones was from Cameroon, and was not like a traditional nativity scene, but rather a single large piece of hand-carved ebony in the shape of the Madonna holding her baby.
Many places around the world were represented, including India, Kenya, the Czech Republic, Germany, Peru, Haiti, El Salvador, Panama, Thailand, Columbia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and many others.
A vast array of materials were used, including straw, wool, hand carved wood, bent or hammered mental, clay, fabric, and more.
They were all very beautiful in their own way, and it was fantastic to see how every culture expresses the nativity scene differently.

Happy Holidays!