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Public Art

Photo: Grace Lutheran Church Mosaic
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Grace Lutheran Church Mosaic

Prof. Donald Gregory
Minnesota
Materials: Unknown

Artist Statement:

The mosaic on the outside of the church facing Fourth Street depicts “Grace.” It was made by Scuola Mosaicisti del Friuli (Fruili School of Mosaic) located in Splimbergo, Italy. On the school’s website, it states that “The school is one of a kind as it brings students from all over the world into the region and exports works of art to some of the most important places, from New York to Peking and from Tokyo to Saint Antonio.” Grace Lutheran’s mosaic was installed in 1967.

Location: 320 E. Main, Mankato

About Prof. Donald Gregory

Mr. Donald Gregory from Gustavus Adolphus College prepared the painting for the mosaic. Mr. Gregory was faculty at GAC in St. Peter, MN from 1946 to 1979 in the Art Department. Mr. Gregory also created the Baptismal Font in Christ Chapel, the GAC sign at the top of College Avenue (1959), and the sculpture on the front of the Alfred Nobel Hall of Science.

Mr. Gregory wrote this description:  “Believing it to be most suitable I chose to use as my theme the scriptural concept of grace, ‘Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus’–Romans 3:24.

In order to symbolize in concrete terms the intangible, abstract concept of grace, I selected as my device the Sacrament of the Altar, ‘The visible form of invisible grace.’ Grace, the inexhaustible, limitless, forgiveness of God, is represented by the great hand offering the ultimate sacrifice–Christ to the world, a hand open to giving and forgiving.

The figures about the altar represent people in varying states of what is called ‘The Human Condition’ – people between doubt and faith, between hope and despair. From out of the distance come people, through their trials, seeking the answers that God places before them, without denial, upon the altar.”

Sited from Grace Lutheran Church