Academics | Programs
B.T. ROBERTS MEMORIAL HALL ART GALLERY operates for the purpose of engaging the seminary and campus
community in interactions with visual art bringing to the students' experience a more fully integrated education encouraging
students to develop habits of contemplation and habits of responding to art reflectively. The gallery schedule hosts local and
national artists, juried and non-juried shows. Exhibitions are accompanied by gallery discussions, tours, or lectures
that are free and open to the public.
Complete Exhibition Schedule and more information
Exhibition Listing (SLIDE SHOWS):
January 9 - March 30, 2010
Documenting Hope: Lessons from Africa is an exhibition of photographs and other documentary items from the travels and missionary work at Hope Africa University of Northeastern Seminary's dean emeritus and adjunct professor Dr. Wayne McCown and former adjunct professor Darlene McCown. Each year the McCowns offer education, medical aid, clothing and personal items to support the students and staff at Hope Africa University. Their photographs will be available for sale to the public with all proceeds benefitting Hope Africa University.
The show begins on January 9 and continues on through March 30. The show's reception will take place on Tuesday, March 2 form 4:15 p.m.-5:30 p.m. at Roberts Hall, Northeastern Seminary. It will be in conjunction with Roberts Wesleyan College Biennial Academic Conference: Speaking Faith: Conversion Across Diverse Communities with Krista Tippett.
Click here to read the "Documenting Hope" news article taken from the Gates-Chili, NY newspaper
Click here to read the "Documenting Hope" news article taken from the Sunday Messenger, Canandaigua, NY
September 2 - November 15, 2009
In a multicultural, multi‐technical age, how does the church engage its complex community, reach a sector born in the lap of a computer, or a video; or connect with a teen tied to a hand‐held instrument of communication—manners aside? How does the Church inspire a respect for contemplation in an OMG generation of technological zeal? How does the church revitalize itself to draw in more marginalized people, young and old without capitulating to felt‐needs narcissism? How can the church allay fears and revitalize itself in an age of political pessimism?
This collection of drawings, paintings, digital art, photography, textiles, and prints speaks of the Church, its role in rebuilding shattered lives, bridging hope, liturgical engagement with technology, or images of inspiring ideas that aim at revitalizing the church.
July 9 - August 27, 2009
Northeastern Seminary invited three art studio professors to display their work in the show titled, Bennett Giebel and Heatwole: Drawings Paintings and Photography. This exhibition featured Scot Bennett’s abstract representational graphite drawings, Douglas Giebel’s series of oil paintings done on location at Highland Park, Rochester, and Joanna Heatwole’s digital photographs. All three teach in the Division of Visual Arts at Roberts Wesleyan College.
April 25 - June 26, 2009
Northeastern Seminary presents, “When the Gods Prayed Back: Contemporary Ex Votos” for its third annual faculty invitational. This year Heather Layton, a professor from the University of Rochester, blurs the boundaries between art and tradition in her contemporary ex votos series. This bilingual exhibition investigates one aspect in the breadth of religious traditions. It combines the historical practice of Mexican votive painting with a contemporary reinterpretation. Ex-votos are small paintings that give thanks to specific patron saints after a miracle has been granted. Layton’s series of paintings on steel uses an identical structure to that of the ex-voto except the roles have been reversed. Instead of the people expressing gratitude to the saints for a wide range of personal miracles, the patron saints pray back to the people often marginalized by issues, such as health care, domestic violence, infertility, drug addiction, or the rising prices international collectors are paying—and thus exploiting--artist’s original works of art. Further, “the pressures of globalization,” Layton writes, “have forced the ex-voto tradition into an increasingly vulnerable state…[forcing artists] to leave their professions for modern, 9-5 office jobs.” Traditional themes of ex votos includes near death experiences, injured children, village and rural life, or natural disasters. Layton’s work invites the viewer to learn, respect, participate in and even rediscover the vitality of this Mexican cultural tradition.
January 26 – March 30, 2009
Seeking beauty and peace on frequent revelries around the Rochester region motivates this native Rochesterian to capture on film those quiet moments that open eyes to hope in the reality of beauty and wholeness. Angling his camera and body in impossible configurations, Tryon releases the shutter on a moment and a place in the world where there may be darkness, despair, or sadness, yet Tryon’s skill invites the viewer to see beyond the reality to a greater, deeper sense of beauty.
June 6 – July 12, 2008
For its second annual faculty invitational, Convey, B.T. Roberts Memorial Hall Art Gallery has invited Houghton College Art Faculty to display their work. Jillian Sokso, Gary Baxter, John Rhett, and Ted Murphy will exhibit their ceramics and works on paper. Coincidental to Convey exhibition is the new appointment of Northeastern Seminary’s vice president, Dr. Jack Connell, arriving in July from Houghton College.
Friday, April 25 through May 30, 2008,
This husband and wife team will collaborate to bring a message of hope through the complex visual tools of paint, color, and technology. As a cultural and spiritual resource, the B.T. Roberts Gallery will present important new works by newly retired Syracuse University professor Bruce Manwaring, whose pieces are significant for their message as well as mastery in digital design, and Nicora Gangi, whose new works in oils extend the theme of hope with her Turner-esque images pointing to the Christian hope of the resurrection.
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Friday, Jan. 25 through Friday, March 14, 2008, Northeastern Seminary’s B.T. Roberts Memorial Hall Gallery presents Whispers of Mercy, Remnants of Grace, a collection of contemporary quilts by Judith Merritt and Laura Elder. This exhibit explores the process of quilting—stitching from personal experiences of loss and hope, courage in the remnants of the unknown, and faith in the rhythmic cloth of grace.
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September 28 - November 15, 2007, Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox traditions all bear images of this young, Jewish woman to whom the archangel Gabriel declared “highly favored” in God’s sight. Who exactly is Mary? How can viewers recover a larger sense of her personhood and purpose through the works of contemporary artists from the Christian traditions? Not seeking controversy, instead, the show manifests the current, broad and growing interest in the Virgin Mary, and reflects serious understandings of Mary by artists of faith rendered in the visual vocabularies of our time. This exhibit is sponsored by Christians in the Visual Arts (CIVA) and the Center for Christian Studies of Gordon College.
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March 23 – May 19, 2007, An Interactive Visual Commentary on IS53, a contemplative exhibit by Buffalo artist, Gary Wolfe, will be on display at the BT Roberts Memorial Hall Art Gallery, Northeastern Seminary. The multimedia exhibit comprises 12 works on paper, and 12 wood panels displayed as an installation. The artist integrates his visual word with video and LED technology, collage, gold leaf and wood stain, and traditional drawing and painting. Unique to this exhibit is its interactive nature. Come prepared to participate in making meaningful and permanent alterations to this “audience participation expected” work. By doing so, the artist offers his work as a means beyond that of mere aesthetics, to an intentional engagement with the creative process, the viewer’s own perceptions of the work, and perhaps even to its deeper theological intentional experiences.
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January 26 - March 13, 2007, "Earth, Water & Air", the pastel paintings of Gloria Betlem will be on display. This retrospective comprises two dozen works that synthesize her passion for teaching, her community outreach, and her outdoor excursions that culminate in her indoor studio experiences.
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April 21-May 13, 2006
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Gallery Curator
Mrs. Kathrine Page, Curator
Mrs. Kathrine Page serves as B.T. ROBERTS MEMORIAL HALL ART GALLERY inaugural curator overseeing an Art Advisory Board and facilitating and contracting the annual exhibits. Mrs. Page is a 2001 graduate of NES where she completed an M.A. in Theological Studies with a concentration in medieval art history. Part of her major thesis project hangs in the gallery's permanent collection. She teaches art history and Art 101 courses in the Art Department at Roberts Wesleyan College and gives lectures on the art historical context to first year seminarians.
Contact the Curator
Gallery Funding
B.T. ROBERTS MEMORIAL HALL ART GALLERY is supported by private gifts from NES faculty, staff, and friends. For more information on supporting the gallery click here.
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Exhibition Listing
Philosophical Foundations for Establishing a Gallery at Northeastern
Human artistic instinct and endeavor derives from the imago dei. Since God is creator, we express his creative nature through our nature. As with all human enterprise, however, artistic expression throughout history has varied in the degree to which it reflected and honored God. At times, art has facilitated personal, social, and spiritual dynamics not honoring to God nor supportive of Judeo-Christian values. For this reason, some Christians have opposed art as an appropriate means of effecting godliness, faith, and Christian grace. We feel this overreaction needs to be addressed by recapturing the place of art as an authentic expression of faith, Christian stewardship, and affirmation of our God-given humanity in its fullness.
To this end, Northeastern Seminary proposes to include in the seminary
Robert Hall Lounge containing many historical
artifacts and pictures
experience the gathering of appropriate art to enhance students' spiritual awareness and formation and to educate them more intentionally in this arena of God's activity. More precisely, the purpose for a seminary collection of art is to bring beauty and poignancy to seminarians' experience, and provide points of contact between the seminary community and the community at large. Space given to art will affirm that God's sovereignty covers all areas of life, including the human artistic impulse originating in the imago dei.
As creatures made in the image of God, we understand that God's gifts interpenetrate all forms of expression and ministry, even transcending human language and limitation of habits of spiritual discipline. Thus, believing that we are made to be creative individuals, and given by God an immense liberty of expression in the exploration of truth, goodness, and beauty, an art collection and display will teach that art and artists can be instruments of renewal and grace by helping students develop such reflective and contemplative habits in an atmosphere of spiritually guided inquiry, will also facilitate students' understanding of God and how love for God includes not only with our reason and its vocabulary of words, but also with the creative vocabularies of our hearts and emotions.
The presence of art as part of the seminary ethos will move to reclaim aesthetics as a valid expression of truth and to recapture God's gift and image in us by affirming his glory as expressed art and disaffirming the notion that art is idolatrous and superfluous.