A photo essay. To view all 35 images, check out the email version.
Peace on Earth, this year’s nativity scene exhibit at the Knights of Columbus Museum, is a nice title in addition to a fine holiday wish.
Earth, you see, is well represented here. The show’s mix of fine and folk art hails from more than 60 nations, and even without signs announcing this country or that region, visitors would easily see the exhibit’s cultural diversity—in slinky, lanky stone shaped in Zimbabwe; in shimmering pearl and abalone laid in Israel; in colorful, stylized woodwork crafted in El Salvador; in aluminum forged and engraved in the United States (Grove City, Pennsylvania, to be specific).
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The museum, which has liked to highlight different traditions and regions in the 13 years since it began putting on Christmastime crèche exhibits, usually curates a set of displays borrowed mostly from other institutions. Not this year. Having built up its own collection along the way, roughly 80% of Peace on Earth’s pieces are owned by the museum itself—a local twist on a show that makes you feel significantly more worldly.
Peace on Earth: Crèches of the World
Knights of Columbus Museum – 1 State St, New Haven (map)
Daily 10am-5pm through 2/19. Closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
(203) 865-0400
www.kofcmuseum.org/…
Written and photographed by Dan Mims.
