Saint Vincent Gallery is currently accepting entries for The Catholic Arts Competition and Exhibition. The juried competition will be held this summer and primarily seeks to foster the arts of the Western Christian tradition, but other artistic traditions of Christian subject matter will be considered. The entry deadline for artwork is Friday, August 1, 2008. Cash prizes totaling $3,500 will be awarded in September. The exhibition will be held from Tuesday, October 28 through Sunday, December 7 in the Saint Vincent Gallery located in the Robert S. Carey Student Center.

The competition and exhibition is open to any artist, professional or amateur, of any religious background who must be 21-years-old or older. All entries must be original by the submitting artist and created within the past five years.

Artworks must be iconographically recognizable and appropriate for liturgical use, public devotion or private devotion. Subjects that are sought include, but are not limited to: scenes from the life, passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ; other biblical scenes, stories and characters; depictions of saints and their lives; current and historical events in the life of the Church; depictions of the seven sacraments; and personification of the corporal works of mercy, virtue and vices. Modernization of the subject is acceptable. Also accepted is ethnic acculturation including Jesus portrayed as an African, Asian or other ethnicity.

Subjects that will not be considered include portrayals of non-canonized persons as saints; portraits of clergy or religious; works which are only recognizably religious from their titles; and scenes of the exterior or interior of churches, unless the work is illustrating an important religious/historical event or the administration of the sacraments.

Duncan Stroik, one of the foremost educators and practitioners in Catholic architecture, will serve as the juror for the competition. He received his architectural education from the University of Virginia and Yale University. In 1990, Mr. Stroik was invited to help form and implement a new curriculum in classical architecture at the University of Notre Dame. The New York Times later hailed him as the “Athens of the new movement.” His involvement in the new renaissance of sacred architecture has led to the formation of the Society for Catholic Liturgy and the journal Sacred Architecture, of which he is the editor.

Full contest rules and entry forms are available online at: www.stvincent.edu/gallery.

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