Raiment for Liturgy Opens March 8 at the Kent State University Museum

The Kent State University Museum presents Raiment for Liturgy: Vestments, part of the university collection located in the Higbee Gallery, from March 8 through February 2014. The Kent State University Museum is located at 515 Hilltop Dr. on the corner of Main Street and South Lincoln Street in Kent. Hours are Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4:45p.m.; Thursday, 10 a.m. to 8:45 p.m.; and Sunday, noon to 4:45 p.m.

The exhibition will highlight a variety of religious garments and textiles from the Kent State Museum's permanent collection, many of which are made from lavish materials.

"The Roman Catholic Church decreed that vestments be made of silk, the most expensive and precious of all textiles, because bishops and priests celebrating mass should wear only the finest materials," says Museum Director Jean Druesedow. "For this reason, many of the vestments in the exhibition are made of luxurious woven silks brocaded in gold and silver or embroidered in polychrome and precious metallic threads."

Shannon Rodgers acquired liturgical vestments as part of the collection that formed the original gift establishing the Kent State University Museum. Along with these pieces, Raiment for Liturgy includes textiles from the Fulton-Lucien Collection, acquired in 1986, and the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College, transferred to the Kent State Museum in 1995. These pieces were collected primarily as examples of the textile art of the 17th and 18th centuries.

"Together, these vestments serve as a survey of the extraordinary textile art of the periods of their creation," Druesedow says.

Admission to the Kent State University Museum is $5 for adults, $4 for seniors and $3 for children under 18. Entry to the museum is free with a Kent State University I.D. and free to the public on Sundays. The museum also offers free parking. For more information, call 330-672-3450 or visit www.kent.edu/museum.

Opened to the public in October 1985, the Kent State University Museum was founded with an initial contribution from New York dress manufacturers Jerry Silverman and Shannon Rodgers. Their gift included 4,000 costumes and accessories, nearly 1,000 pieces of decorative art and a 5,000-volume reference library. In the 1960s, Shannon Rodgers began collecting what is now considered one of the finest period costume collections in the United States, today totaling more than 40,000 pieces.

The Tarter/Miller collection of some 10,000 pieces of glass formed the second major gift to the museum. Together with the other decorative arts collected by Rodgers and Silverman, the museum holds one of the most comprehensive teaching collections of fashionable design from the 18th century to the present.

The museum receives support from an Ohio Arts Council Sustainability Grant.