The Exhibit Opens!!!

 

By Margaret

I  can not even begin to count how many events I have helped put on throughout my time here at Regis. I always forget how much planning is needed in order to make an event successful. I have watched the students from the Museum Studies Practicum for over a semester now plan the exhibit that opens today at the Carney Art Gallery here at Regis College. I just walked down to the Fine Arts Center to see the finished product and I was blown away at the professionalism taken by the students while putting this show together. I have been keeping up on the blog posts the students from the class have been putting up and it was wonderful to finally see it all put together. I don’t want to give away any surprises, but I left the exhibit with a much deeper understanding of the history of this college and the legacy left by the Sisters of Saint Joseph. 

I have been at Regis College for over five years now and this exhibit opened up Regis’ past to me in a way I have never seen before. My favorite part of the exhibit was a poem written by Sister Lucilla Dineen, a past Academic Dean of the college. It not only represents the exhibit in its prose, but serves as a reminder that as the college continually changes over time it is important to recognize and celebrate our past. I think the students, under the guidance of Dr. Kathryn Edney, have done a fantastic job showing the community how proud we should all be to call Regis a part of our own personal history.

An Interesting Find: "Following our Path: Regis College through its Art Collection"

by: Sarah Vedrani

Last week we began installation of our exhibit “Following Our Path” in the Carney Gallery, and we’re all very excited to see it all finally coming together. We knew going into the installation process that we might have to make some (or many) last minute changes, additions, or even deletions to the exhibit. It just happens.

Well, when something like that happens, it can end up having some very cool results. I had been cleaning up a small bust of Mary and baby Jesus and I noticed that the artist signature on the piece didn’t match what we had on the label. So I noted the change, and did a Google search to see if I could find out the artist’s first name, as it was not included in the signature. Instead of a first name, I found an interesting connection to a famous place in England.

The artist, Raffaelle Monti (I did finally find his first name) was a member of the Crystal Palace Art Union, which was a collaboration of European artists who worked making porcelain copies of classical and contemporary marble sculptures. The Union was housed in London’s Crystal Palace, originally built in 1851 for the Great Exhibition, which showcased industry and inventions from all over the world, as well as English history. The Crystal Palace Art Union exhibited and sold pieces from the Sheffield Court, which was originally meant to house important pieces of Sheffield silver. The Union would operate well into the 1860s.

The Crystal Palace

Raffaelle Monti exhibited copies of many of his own pieces at the Union, including a copy of one of his most famous works, “The Veiled Vestal.” Altered and renamed “The Veiled Bride” for the Union, the piece was made for the 6^th Duke of Devonshire, and currently resides in Chatsworth House in England. The statue was featured in the 2005 film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, starring Kiera Knightley.

     

While this was all a very last minute discovery, it’s still important, and showed me why it’s important to always do my research. Simply wanting to be thorough and to have a complete label led me to make an interesting discovery that links Regis College’s collection to the larger world of art. Who knows what else we’ll find as we continue installing?