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The Basilica Museum
Basilica Nativity Exhibit To Be Available To The World
(St. John’s, NL) At the Basilica Museum in St. John’s over 1000 visitors were welcomed by staff and volunteers to enjoy the annual Christmas Exhibit ‘Away in a Manger, Nativities from Around the World.’ This year the exhibit open from November 19 - December 19 featured 132 (crèche) nativity scenes from the permanent collection of the Museum and others on loan from private collections .
The cribs featured in the exhibit were created using different materials and methods of construction. The exhibit included exquisite wood carvings of local artists like Kevin Coates, pewter interpretations by Ray Cox and a huge Peruvian Nativity created by the celebrated Peruvian artist Don Hilario Mendivil.
The crèche were created from materials as diverse as paper, cork, wood, straw and horse hair. Other materials included precious silver, coral, and pearl.
Nativity scenes from Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America took their place alongside those from St. John’s and Fogo Island. The collection consists of 132 nativity sets from 30 countries.
This year in addition to the crèche exhibit four story panels were created by the staff curator, Catherine Rice to bring attention to the history of nativity at the international and local level. One of the panels focused on Newfoundland and Labrador Christmas traditions and one on the Christmas custom of Mummering.
The vast majority of the research that went into creating the story panels was completed in archives in the St. John’s area in particular the Archives of the R.C. Archdiocese of St. John’s.
The exhibit also featured Christmas cards that were available in the Museum gift shop designed by Stephanie Baker a local artist. The design of the cards was based on research done on Newfoundland Christmas traditions. Ms. Baker, a teacher by profession also created educational activities for elementary school children to encourage them to engage in looking more closely at the nativities and to encourage them to do more research in the subject. The Museum reserved the morning schedule for school groups.
At present, Basilica Museum Chair Larry Dohey and Staff Curator, Catherine Rice are planning to make the collection to a larger audience in the province and the world by creating a virtual exhibit - an exhibit that will be accessible on the world wide web at www.stjohnsarchdiocese.nf.ca.
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