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443 East 115th Street
New York, NY 10029
212.828.5209
212.828.5208 (fax)
info@nmcah.org
Monday - Friday
10am - 4pm
Weekends
By Appointment
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PRESS RELEASE
“AN ART MUSEUM FIT FOR A POPE!”
PRESS RELEASE:
March 4, 2008
The
National Museum of Catholic Art and History (212-828-5209)
A MAJOR ART EXHIBITION CALLED “THE HOLY THEOLOGIANS” IS ON VIEW AT THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF CATHOLIC ART
AND HISTORY IN HONOR OF THE POPE BENEDICT XVI VISIT TO NYC THIS APRIL.
Christina
Cox, German American Founder / Executive Director and Italian-Spanish Mariavelia
Savino, Art Curator have planned an extraordinary religious art exhibition for
the unprivileged Spanish and Mexican children of Harlem around the teaching and
philosophy of Pope Benedict’s new books “The Apostles” and “Jesus of
Nazareth”. With the visit of His Holiness this April to NYC, we have
invited all the neighborhood Spanish children to learn about Pope Benedict XVI,
the life of Jesus and the teachings of the Doctors of the Church. The name of the show is “The Holy Theologians!”
One
day last November, a Mexican American artist named Fred Villanueva came
knocking at the door and he had some beautiful paintings of the Virgin Mary and
Our Lady of Guadalupe. He turned to paint religious subjects after he was
married and received the personal marriage
blessing from Pope Benedict XVI in January of 2007 at the Vatican.
Christina and Mariavelia commissioned him to create a special oil painting for
the Mexican American children in Spanish Harlem of the Pope praying with all
the great doctors of the Church around him. We wanted the children to learn
about the work of the wonderful Saints that inspired His Holiness, explained to
them through art. We commissioned Fred to do a special painting which now is a
huge hit in the museum! “The Holy
Theologians” is 13 feet long and a masterpiece!!
Christina
Cox began this museum in 1992 after she had first received the blessing of Pope
John Paul II in a diplomatic audience at the Vatican. She set forth to build
the first major Catholic museum in the United States. It was written in
Newsweek 16 years ago. After raising $15 million with her Board of Trustees
writing grants, producing galas and receptions, the 40,000 square ft and 11 art
galleries were finally finished last week to perfection. The first major Catholic
Museum in this country dedicated to Christian art, music and literature for
children of all nationalities with high quality exhibits.
Father
Peter Rofrano, A Palantine Priest and former Pastor of Our Lady of Mt Carmel
Shrine in East Harlem was a wonderful mentor and a former board member of the
museum until he passed away last May. He helped Christina with her inspiration
to turn a former historic 1884 Catholic Elementary School and Sisters of
Charity Convent into a major Catholic museum. “Father showed her the Papal Bull signed by Pope Leo XIII
to build a special place for pilgrimages to Our Lady”. She knew it was a place
of many miracles. The annual feast of Our Lady Of Mt Carmel is held every year
on July 16th. It brings thousands of people to the Shrine to pray.
Father Tony Kelly, the new Pastor is thrilled with the new museum and he is
planning to have special group masses for all the new visitors to the area.
They
have been searching worldwide for the most gifted international and American
artists who have painted the life of Jesus, Last Suppers, Portraits of Bishop
John Carroll, Bishop Fulton Sheen, Dorothy Day, or John F. Kennedy for the
museum to display. We have been collecting for 16 years the history of
Christianity in America with Christopher Columbus and The Declaration of
Independence through oil paintings. They
commission special artists to develop certain artworks, which they cannot find
such as a portrait of Charles Carroll of Carrollton. They were lucky when they
received their very first painting in 1995 to launch the museum. It was a
famous Anthony Van Dyck’s “Betrayal of Christ” a Dutch Flemish master towering
9ft high by 5ft wide that is now worth $3 million dollars.
“But
now we are in the exciting stage of art collecting some of the most
contemporary new spiritual and religious paintings. We have selected the best
artists in the world to donate their artworks from Egypt, Cuba, Venezuela,
Mexico, Miami, Poland, Portugal, Boston, LA, Italy, Columbia, Chicago, Italy,
Geneva, Romania, Peru and Russia. We also have Warhol, Botero, and a large
collection of Christian mystics and saints from Antonio Roig’s Spanish Colonial
collection from a Puerto Rican museum,” says curator Mariavelia.
Other
fabulous works of art are Frank Hyder’s paintings of “The Fishes” and Sydia Reyes “Urban Host”
made of steel and bread. These artworks teach the story from the Bible about
Jesus multiplying the loaves of bread and fishes for the masses. There is a life size contemporary “Last
Supper” called “The Morsel” by Paul A. Gatto. Here the children learn about
Judas at the last supper as Jesus tells the Apostles, “One of you will betray
me!” Another interesting Italian artist Fabio D’Aroma shows his masterwork of
“The Lost Caravaggio”. It is an exquisite oil painting of renaissance favor of
St. Mathew writing the gospels with an angel!
The children love this museum because we have created such a beautiful
home for the artists such as the Venice Biennale winner Venezuelan Henry
Bermudez who created “The Heavens” and Virginia Maksymowicz, a sculptress who
has designed a series of “Stations of the Cross” like no other! From Botero to
Warhol, fulfilled by great works of art, this museum is extraordinary to people
of all religions.
After
the school children visit the museum, they are so impressed that they write
letters back to us to tell us their opinions. We love that! We are going to
publish a Children’s Magazine with their inspirational letters and their
drawings of Jesus, Mary or the Saints. A group from The NY Archdiocese called
Creative Class room visual art programs came to us asking to bring 2000 kids
this spring to the museum but they had no funds for admission. The Director’s
challenge is to get corporate underwriting for the schools admission, a goody
bag filled with glow in the dark rosaries beads, prayer cards, a published
magazine, art tools for the kids and free pizza and soda for each class. It is
a $100,000 to $250,000 project to meet these requirements for both Catholic and
private school students each year by inviting a total of 5000 school students.
It is worth it because they benefit artistically and spiritually. We had
support in the past from Home Depot, Donald Trump and Pepsi Cola so we plan to
reach out to them again plus many other businesses.
For more
information and tours: 212-828-5209 and email: info@nmcah.org
We are located
at 443 East 115 Street, New York City 10029
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