The Sheen Center Presents Inside HEAVENLY BODIES: Fashion And The Catholic Imagination

On Monday, May 21 at 7:00 p.m., come to the Sheen Center for Thought & Culture (18 Bleecker Street, at the corner of Elizabeth Street) for Inside "Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination," a conversation with curators about the largest exhibition in the history of The Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, featuring a significant loan of papal robes and accessories from the Vatican's Sistine Chapel Sacristy. Tickets are $20 and available at SheenCenter.org, by phone at (212) 925-2812, or in-person at The Sheen Center box office.

Fr. James Martin, S.J. discusses this groundbreaking exhibition with Andrew Bolton, Wendy Yu Curator in Charge of The Costume Institute, and C. Griffith Mann, Michel David-Weill Curator in Charge of the Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The conversation will explore art and fashion as it shapes and moves through the evolving landscape of the Catholic imagination. The Costume Institute's spring 2018 exhibition opens May 10, 2018 in both The Met Fifth Avenue and The Met Cloisters, and will feature a dialogue between fashion and religious artworks from The Met collection to examine the relationship between creativity and the religious imagination.

The cornerstone of the exhibition is approximately 40 ecclesiastical masterworks from the Sistine Chapel sacristy, many of which have never been seen outside the Vatican. These will be on view in the Anna Wintour Costume Center galleries and will include papal vestments and accessories, such as rings and tiaras, from the 18th to the early 21st century, encompassing more than 15 papacies. The last time the Vatican sent a loan of this magnitude to The Met was in 1983, for The Vatican Collections exhibition, which is the Museum's third most-visited show. In addition, approximately 150 ensembles from the early 20th century to the present, primarily womenswear by a panoply of well-known fashion designers, will be shown in the medieval galleries and The Met Cloisters alongside religious art from The Met collection, providing a context for fashion's engagement with Catholicism.

The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture (www.sheencenter.org) is a New York City arts center located in NoHo that presents a vibrant mix of theater, film, music, art and talk events. An initiative of the Archdiocese of New York, The Sheen Center serves all New Yorkers by presenting performances and artists that reflect the true, the good, and the beautiful.

Named for the late Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, best remembered as an inspirational author, radio host and two-time Emmy Award-winning television personality, The Sheen Center reflects his modern-day approach to contemporary topics. The Sheen Center is a state-of-the-art theater complex that includes the 270-seat off-Broadway Loreto Theater, equipped with five-camera high-definition TV and live-stream capability and a multi-track recording studio; the 80-seat off-off-Broadway Black Box Theater; four rehearsal studios; and an art gallery.

ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS

Andrew Bolton joined The Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2002, as Associate Curator, was named Curator in 2006, and become Curator in Charge in January 2016 upon the retirement of his predecessor, Harold Koda. Mr. Bolton worked alongside Mr. Koda on exhibitions including "Dangerous Liaisons" (2004), "Chanel" (2005), "Poiret" (2007), and "Schiaparelli and Prada" (2012); and alone on "AngloMania" (2006), "Superheroes" (2008), "American Woman" (2010), "Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty" (2011), "Punk" (2013), "China: Through the Looking Glass" (2015), "Manus x Machina" (2016), and "Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between" (2017). Bolton has authored and co-authored more than 15 books. He lectures and contributes scholarly articles to various publications. Prior to joining The Met, Mr. Bolton worked at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London for nine years, as Senior Research Fellow in Contemporary Fashion, and prior to that as Curatorial Assistant in the Far Eastern Department. During this period, he also curated exhibitions at the London College of Fashion. Born in Great Britain, Mr. Bolton earned a B.A. in social anthropology and an M.A. in Non-Western Art from the University of East Anglia.

DR. C. GRIFFITH MANN was appointed The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Michel David-Weill Curator in Charge of the Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters in September 2013. He is responsible for the medieval collections and curatorial staff at The Met Fifth Avenue (the Museum's main building) and for directing the staff and operations of The Met Cloisters (the branch of the Museum dedicated to the art and architecture of medieval Europe). Dr. Mann received his B.A. in art history and history from Williams College, and his Ph.D. in medieval art from The Johns Hopkins University. A specialist in the arts of late medieval Italy, he has published on civic patronage, painting, and devotion in Tuscany. As a curator, Dr. Mann has worked on exhibitions on the medieval cult of relics, the art and archaeology of medieval Novgorod, and French manuscript illumination of the 13th century. Prior to joining The Met, Dr. Mann served as the Chief Curator and Deputy Director at The Cleveland Museum of Art, where he helped to lead the museum's reinstallation, acquisition, and exhibition programs. And, as medieval curator and Director of the Curatorial Division at The Walters Art Museum, he worked on exhibitions and the permanent collection.

FR. James J. Martin, S.J. (Moderator) is a Jesuit priest, editor at large of America magazine, and bestselling author of Jesus: A Pilgrimage, The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything, and Between Heaven and Mirth. Father Martin has written for many publications, including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, and he is a regular commentator in the national and international media. He has appeared on all the major radio and television networks, as well as in venues ranging from NPR's "Fresh Air", Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor", and PBS's "NewsHour" to Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report." Before entering the Jesuits in 1988, Father Martin graduated from the Wharton School of Business and worked for General Electric for six years. In 2017, Pope Francis appointed him to be a Consultor for the Vatican's Secretariat for Communication.

THE COSTUME INSTITUTE's collection of more than 35,000 costumes and accessories represents five continents and seven centuries of fashionable dress, regional costumes, and accessories for men, women, and children, from the fifteenth century to the present. The Costume Institute's Anna Wintour Costume Center includes the Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch Gallery, the main showcase space with a flexible design that lends itself to frequent transformation with the latest video, sound, and wireless technology. The Center also includes the Carl and Iris Barrel Apfel Gallery and behind the scenes is a state-of-the-art costume conservation laboratory; an expanded study/storage facility; and The Irene Lewisohn Costume Reference Library, one of the world's foremost fashion libraries.