Abby Cronin

a letter to artists, artists

How can art flourish because of the presence of the liturgy?

In his Letter to Artists, St. John Paul the II writes, “All artists experience the unbridgeable gap which lies between the work of their hands, however successful it may be, and the dazzling perfection of the beauty glimpsed in the ardour of the creative moment.” He continues on in the letter to form the argument that the Church needs art because the work made by artists, ingenious creators of beauty, produces a fruitful alliance between the Gospel and art.

As a branch that grows from a vine, this project seeks to support this argument by seeking an answer to the question, How does art flourish in the presence of the liturgy? Located in the abandoned St. Mark’s Catholic Church in Norwood, programming for this project requires a co-existing chapel and art residency. This interiors argument is formed on the basis that one of these programs could not exist in this space without the presence of the other. The site maintains many of it’s existing details including Corinthian columns, renaissance archways and the processional aisle that leads to the tabernacle of the church. The architecture added to the site relates to these elements yet redirects the path of the user and first emphasizes the art that leads one to the Gospel. The existing architecture is defined by the design principles of symmetry, rhythm, and hierarchy. The new design relates to these existing elements, drawing from the same well of principles but differs in the materials used to create a new language of line work.

The answer to this interiors question is uncovered through a series of collage and rendering to prove that art does flourish due to the presence of the liturgy.

This project began with a series of collage to investigate the relationship between art and the liturgy as they both lay under the canopy of creation. In these collages, various sets of differences were found. In art, the artist gives purpose to his space while in the liturgy, dominion is given to God and the action is set. In art, a personal action is taken while in the liturgy, a communal meal is celebrated. In art, the artist gives aesthetic form to ideas while in the liturgy, existing works are contemplated. And in art, art is made sacred by the artist, while in the liturgy lies an inherent sacredness.

Site St. Mark’s Catholic Church Built in 1914, St. Mark’s Catholic Church is an abandoned, Renaissance style church located in the heart of Norwood, a suburb just northeast of downtown Cincinnati.

Located just half a mile down the road from the Catholic Xavier University and a mere three miles from the University of Cincinnati’s design school, St. Marks is in a location that gives it a front seat to both religious and artistic communities. These two attributes of the community easily designate the programming of the new St. Mark’s Church to be defined by three key functions: the gallery, the chapel, and the studio.

1” = 40’

1” = 25’

1 The Gallery

Entering the site, the viewer is immediately greeted by the processional aisle of art and architecture that leads to the most sacred area of the church, the tabernacle and dwelling place. This design made an effort to maintain the central aisle that defines Catholic churches by it’s direct emphasis on a line that connects the person with Christ.

1 The Gallery

The nave of the church is largely constituted by the gallery that features work made by the artists of St. Mark’s art residency studios. The gallery pieces were created from glass and concrete to allow for transparency, lightness and suspension. These elements draw an emphasis to the vertical magnitude both of the site itself and in the emphasis that vertical lines draw one’s eye toward heaven. On the back of the panels is a metal piece that affixes the art to the panel.

2 The Chapel

The viewer enters the chapel in the crossing between the alter and the nave. Shortly after entering, the viewer can notice the qualities of the space have changed largely due to the use of materials and lighting. While in the studio spaces lighting relied on daylight or cool light, the chapel relies on warm, soft light that asks for rest and reside.

2 The Chapel

The materials within the chapel area were chosen to provide complimentary conversation with the existing architecture.

The rich materials bring a warmth to this space that furnishes a comfort for conversation between the person and God. Metal line work is maintained in the construction of the pews to allow for the language of the new architecture to exist within this space and remind the viewer of the metal line work that lined their journey to the chapel.

3 The Studio

The existing choir loft of St. Mark’s has been extended to allow for a large studio to be added. In a place where creation already occurred, it is now amplified and exists above the art that has been made. Using the same language of the new architecture. Studios are divided by panels of concrete and glass that allow for pin up space yet do not restrict the artist’s view to the chapel.

3 The Studio

Private art studios line the existing side aisles of St. Mark’s. Walls of plaster and doors of glass and metal fit in to the width of the existing Renaissance style archways. The materials allow for areas of privacy within the studios while still allowing viewers to glimpse into the creative studios before the art has made it’s way into the gallery.

1” = 25’

St. Mark’s Catholic Church a chapel within an art residency The two programs of art and the liturgy overlap in their seemingly different definitions of creation - where art is produced from the work of our bodies, the liturgy provides a space of offering our work to the Lord. This project emphasizes this difference through quality of space. The studios differ from the chapel, yet are connected by the nave gallery that leads one to the chapel and speaks the language of the studio.

The question of this project remains, how does art flourish in the presence of the liturgy? Yet, instead this question remains unanswered and this project has shown that the liturgy, the Church, needs art to flourish. This is proven in the ways that the new architecture relates to the sacred site and does not seek to diminish what is existing, but rather it asks art to uphold what co-exists within the space and lead the viewer to the sacred space where the qualities of the space are made exceptional by art.

1” = 25’

sincerely, Abby Cronin