Friday, November 24, 2023–Sunday, January 28, 2024
12:00–4:30 pm
$5 Suggested donation
Exhibition access times can be pre-booked online at 12:00, 1:00, 2:00, and 3:00 pm
Exhibition access is included with the Christmas in the Castle guided tour.
Unavailable Mondays in January
Glencairn Museum’s annual World Nativities exhibition presents dozens of three-dimensional Nativity scenes collected from around the globe. For many Christians, the Nativity scene is a meaningful expression of religious faith, providing a compelling visual focus during the Christmas season. World Nativities shows how artists adapt the Nativity scene to represent their own spiritual, intellectual, cultural, and regional environments. Original settings for many of the Nativities have been created by Bryn Athyn artist Kathleen Glenn Pitcairn.
Read more about this year’s World Nativities exhibition, and see more photos, in this issue of Glencairn Museum News: “World Nativities Exhibition and Christmas in the Castle Tour.”
New Jersey artists Karen Loccisano and R. Michael Palan, a husband-and-wife team, handcrafted this Nativity scene between 2014 and 2023. Their inspiration was a 16th-century painting by Flemish artist Pieter Brueghel depicting Mary and Joseph in a snowy Flemish village.
Created in 2023 for Glencairn Museum’s World Nativities exhibition, The Grand Cartapesta Presepe draws inspiration from the iconic “Angel Tree” and the Neapolitan Nativity scene at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The installation, made by A.J. DiAntonio of Navidad Nativities in Bucks County, PA, features his personal collection of paper mache Nativity figures made by the Italian companies Fontanini and Euromarchi (1930s–1960s). For more information and an interview with DiAntonio, see Glencairn Museum News 11, 2023: “The Grand Cartapesta Presepe: A Collector’s Vision.”
Born in Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico, Alma Loretto Maestas began making pottery at the age of nine. She started crafting Nacimientos(Nativities) in the 1960s, several of which are now in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution. The Christ Child rests within a traditional cradleboard, and the angel’s mouth is open, in the tradition of the renowned Pueblo storyteller figures. The wise men hold gifts that reflect Pueblo culture: corn, bread, and chili peppers.
An artist working for the Presbyterian Handicraft Center in the Republic of Cameroon (West Central Africa) created this 17-piece Nativity. The pieces were shaped from clay, fired, and dipped in a solution containing eucalyptus to give them a bronze-like appearance. The animals in this Nativity include a sheep, camels, and the distinctive local zebu cattle.