Past MOCRA Events

MOCRA joined with Saint Louis University's Campus Ministry, the Archdiocese of Saint Louis, and numerous other local organizations, in a weeklong St. Louis celebration of the canonization of Archbi...

A master calligrapher and manuscript illuminator, artist Bernard Maisner brings together materials and design in unexpected ways. From tiny illuminated manuscripts to large-scale paintings reminisc...

Colombian artist Erika Diettes has received international acclaim for a body of work that draws upon her training as both an artist and an anthropologist. In 2011 she set up a studio in the Colombi...

This program explores historic and contemporary approaches to Islamic art, from perspectives both within and outside of Islam.

The guiding concept of the program is interculturality. When...

Art historian and theologian John Handley will shed light on a scarcely known aspect of the career of the renowned twentieth-century artist Pablo Picasso: his religious beliefs and his incorporatio...

Celebrate SLU's Bicentennial with a Floral Art Walk taking place throughout campus and the nearby Grand Center Arts District, and see art in a new way through the magic of flowers. Each stop along ...

Gift involves moving out of oneself.
The economy of gift questions the dominant measure of value in the art world and beyond.
Socially engag...

MOCRA's neighbor institution, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, offers an opportunity to view a special ...

Hailed as a leading artist of the Afro-Cuban diaspora, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons' work encompasses installation art, performative photography, painting and cultural activism, all of which, says a...

Patrick Graham has been credited with changing the face of contemporary painting i...

The Jewish holiday of Passover recalls and celebrates the freeing of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. The haggadah is the book that contains the ritual guide to the Passover Seder meal, along ...

MOCRA's Director, Terrence Dempsey, S.J., delivers the Loyola Chair Lecture at Fordham University.

“The Image of the Wounded Body of Christ and the Modern Social Consciousness” will o...

MOCRA's Director, Terrence Dempsey, S.J., delivers the Loyola Chair Lecture at Fordham University.

“The Pursuit of the Spirit: The Renewed Interest in the Spiritual and Religious Dimens...

From his earliest works, Georges Rouault selected subjects that combined a stron...

Rev. Terrence Dempsey, S.J., founding Director of MOCRA, presents the lecture "Creating a Religious Environment Through Contemporary Art and Architecture." Celebrating his 25th year as a Jesuit pri...

MOCRA Director Terrence Dempsey, S.J., offers an overview of how images associated with the suffering and death of Jesus still have vitality, even in a pluralistic world. Images referring to the ev...

MOCRA observes the twentieth anniversary of Day With(out) Art, a national day of actio...

Artist Michael Byron will discuss the development of his Cosmic ...

MOCRA assembles a panel of distinguished museum directors and theologians to discuss the roles that secular and religious art museums can play in the presentation of art with spiritual and religiou...

The curator of the MOCRA exhibition Miao Xiaochun: The Last...

In conjunction with the exhibition The Celluloid Bible: Marketing Films Inspired by Sc...

In conjunction with the exhibition The Celluloid Bible: Marketing Films Inspired by Scrip...

Professor and Dominican priest Rev. Michael Morris, O.P., gives a wry and highly informed survey of Hollywood's relationship with Judeo-Christian scripture (in fact, the motion picture's interest ...

Peter Frank, curator of the MOCRA exhibition Oskar Fischinger: Movem...

MOCRA observes Day With(out) Art, a national day of action and mourning in response to...

Renowned art historian Robert Rosenblum places the work of photographer DoDo Jin Ming

MOCRA presents an interfaith panel discussion that considers the wide range in form, use, and significance of sacred objects across the world's religious traditions.

This event is held on t...

With this panel discussion about the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, approached from diverse disciplines and personal backgrounds, we seek to encourage the St. Louis community to assess the ramificat...

Fred D. Gray is a civil rights attorney whose career spans...

MOCRA presents several of St. Louis' finest dancers performing two evenings of improvisatory dance with and amidst Pop artist Andy Warhol's Silver Clouds. The dancers respond to the mutable,...

Thomas Sokolowski examines Pop artist Andy Warhol’s outlook on art and aesthetics as t...

MOCRA observes Day With(out) Art, a national day of action and mourning in response to...

The Bare Naked Statues, Saint Louis University’s premier all-male a capella ensemble, present their debu...

MOCRA presents lectures by two distinguished scholars.

Ellen Dissanayake
“In the Beginning, Art”

An innovative scholar makes a case for an innate hu...

Bernard Maisner, considered one of today's foremost practitione...

MOCRA presents a lecture and a public conversation.

Dr. Carolyn Valone
“Matrons and Motives: Why Women Built in 16th-century Rome”

Carolyn Valone is Pr...

Join artist Manfred Stumpf and members of the St. Louis arts community in an exploration of the role of the computer in contemporary art, examined from the perspectives of the artist, the art histo...

Dr. Jennifer Biddle, of the department of Anthropology, Macquar...

MOCRA presents an afternoon symposium focusing on the art of the Aborigines of Australia's Central Desert. In the unique setting of the world's first museum of contemporary interfaith art, surround...

In conjunction with the exhibition Steven Heilmer: Pietre Sante...

MOCRA observes Day With(out) Art, a national day of action and mourning in response to...

In conjunction with the joint exhibition Edward Boccia: Eye of the Paint...

Artist Ian Friend delivers a lecture focusing on his series of paintings ...

In this lecture, renowned art historian, author and curator Peter Selz examines the 1937 Nazi-organized Entartete Kunst (“Degenerate Art”) exhibition, the most virulent campaign ever org...

MOCRA welcomes Lynn Hague of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra in a solo violin recital. The program includes works by Bach and Paganini, as well as original improvisations that take advantage of ...

MOCRA’s exhibition Consecrations: The Spiritual ...

MOCRA observes Day With(out) Art, a national day of action and mourning in response to...

Thomas Sokolowski is the Director of the Grey Art Gallery and Study Center of New York University. He is also a co-founder of Day Without Art, an annual observance by galleries and...

The Amici Quartet performs an evening recital in the elegant setting of Historic Samuel Cupples House. This pe...

MOCRA marks the opening of the first national group e...

Three people closely connected with Alvin Ailey reminisce about their experiences with t...

Living legend Katherine Dunham discusses the famous “Dunham Technique” and provides valuable in...

This symposium held in conjunction with the Fall 1992 meeting of The Society for the Arts, Religion, and Contemporary Culture ...

Trinidadian-American artist Gary Logan uses the visual language of abstraction to convey encounters with the sublime and explore challenging dimensions of the human experience. In this conversation...

On June 30, 2019, MOCRA Founding Director Terrence Dempsey, S.J., retired from Saint Louis University after nearly three decades of teaching and museum leadership. Fr. Dempsey jokes that he may be ...

The Religion and Complex Social Issues series began in fall 2017 to provide informative, thoughtful, discussion-oriented opportunities for students, faculty, and various other communities of Saint ...

Dr. Daisy Vargas explores life and death at the Mexico-U.S. borderlands through the material objects that migrants bring on their journeys.

The Religion and Complex Social Issues series b...

Join us in the gallery for informal conversations with photographer Tom Kiefer about his exhibition “Pertenencias / Belongings,” currently on display at MOCRA. No formal talk is planned. Kiefer...

This event took place in person at the Anheuser-Busch Auditorium on the campus of Saint Louis University, with a simultaneous Zoom feed. The event was co-sponsored by MOCRA, the Saint Louis Univers...

Fr. Tom Lucas, S.J., speaks about Art in the Jesuit Tradition, an illustrated presentation that surveys the important role of art in Jesuit education and spirituality from the earliest days of the ...

On September 29, 2022, MOCRA welcomed acclaimed visual artist Lesley Dill for a virtual, Zoom-based presentation. Dill was joined by poet Tom Sleigh and Rene Paul Barilleaux, head of curatorial aff...

This event, held in conjunction with the MOCRA exhibition Jordan Eagles: VIRAL...

René Paul Barilleaux, Chief of Curatorial Affairs at the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, TX, traces the evolution of his curatorial practice over a forty-year period, including a sustained intere...