Jewish and Catholic Art Collections Inspire Exhibition

Two local collections of religious art have inspired artists to create their own works that bridge actual and perceived cultural distances between the Christian and Jewish faith communities. "Between Thee and Me" opens at Rockhurst University's Greenlease Gallery Friday, Aug. 26, with a panel discussion at 5:30 p.m. and a reception from 7 to 9 p.m.

The Greenlease Gallery is home to the Van Ackeren Collection of Religious Art, and the Epsten Gallery at Village Shalom, a program of the Kansas City Jewish Museum of Contemporary Art, houses the Judaica Collection. The director of the Greenlease Gallery, and Marcus Cain, curator of the KCJMCA, invited area artists to select an object in the collections that stimulated a visual response and to create a work from this inspiration.

The resulting works are featured in two independent, invitational group exhibitions. "Between Thee and Me" will be on display until Oct. 1 and an exhibition at Epsten Gallery will be on display until Sept. 4.

The Greenlease Gallery is located between Van Ackeren and Sedgwick halls on the Rockhurst University campus, 54th Street and Troost Avenue. The exhibit is free and open to the public from noon to 5 p.m. Thursday-Saturday.