We have chosen to celebrate this Yuletide by issuing a call for art work that addresses each of the collects, found in the Book of Common Prayer, running from the first week of Advent through the last week of Epiphany. The 16 collects that make up these weeks of the liturgical calendar are powerful entreaties to a merciful God for such things as grace, illumination, restoration, peace, love, light and strength in darkened world.

Just as these collects gather up and proclaim intangible descriptions of our condition that is more often understood through intuition and contemplation, so also have the artists who submitted work for this exhibition internalized and collected a visual interpretation of these prayers. These works of art are offered, as the collects they take their cue from, to recast our vision during this season of darkness in order to anticipate the coming light of Christ.

We invite you to return each week as we add a work that responds to the week’s Collect. We invite you also to respond, either through the Visitors Book (the link is found on the right of each page) or through our listserv (instructions for joining on our Conversation page).

Bradford Johnson
Exhibition Curator