Student Exhibition at Duke Chapel Depicts Saints, Past and Present—See Video

Duke Chapel has selected Duke Divinity School student Rebekah Schultz as this year’s C. Eric Lincoln Fellow in Theology and Art.

As part of the fellowship, the Chapel is presenting an exhibition of Schultz’s prints, titled Communion of Saints: A Reflection on the Body of Christ through Time and Space. The exhibition will be on view in the Chapel from April 18 through May 16. During that time, it can be seen during the Chapel’s daily open hours from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., unless there is a service or event in progress. See the Chapel calendar.

Watch a video of Schultz discussing her exhibition based on a talk she gave on April 26 at the Chapel:

For Communion of Saints, Schultz created a series of woodcut prints of saints and historical figures alongside current students, faculty, and staff at Duke.

“By depicting exemplars of faith across time, space, and culture, I hope to point toward the beautiful diversity of God’s people as seen through the particularity of my twenty-four prints,” said Schultz, who is pursuing a master of theological studies at Duke with a certificate in theology and the arts. “Placing the prints on the walls of the Chapel below the stained-glass windows of biblical figures illustrates the ways that past and present believers stand in a tradition of faith and acknowledges our rich inheritance.”
 

A native of Grand Rapids, Michigan, Schultz said the fellowship has allowed her to return to making art in a way that connects with her studies.

“I really wanted to get back into the making of art and get back into block printing,” she said. “Getting to do a project like this let me take what I was learning in the classroom and put it into practice.”

To create the prints, Schultz used the Innovation Co-Lab and the Smith Warehouse printmaking studio on campus. In an iterative process, she created the images on wood blocks through a combination of laser cutting and hand carving, and then printed the images using green and gold ink.

Schultz has previously had her artwork published by the Artists’ Literacies Institute. She sells her prints on Etsy and posts photos of her work on Instagram at @aletheia.creative.
 

A committee led by the Chapel’s Rev. Kathryn Lester-Bacon, director of Religious Life, selected Schultz to be this year’s C. Eric Lincoln Fellow.

“Rebekah’s woodcuts offer an exquisite creative vision, revealing beautiful spiritual depths,” Rev. Lester-Bacon said. “Through her art, we witness the interplay between the faith of an individual and that of a community.”

The committee also recognized two runner-up finalists for this year’s fellowship: graduate student Ivy Nicole- Jonét (@ivynicolejonet on Instagram) for her project Black Madonna and junior Josephine Vonk (@jvonk_photography) for her project Bread: This is My Body.
 
The Chapel’s arts and theology fellowship, named in honor of the late Duke religion professor C. Eric Lincoln, provides funding to a student for a sacred art project that employs theological concepts, illuminates one’s personal faith, and engages the topics of gender, race and religion.