As my final installment of the Praedicare, I share this offering from Sister Suzanne Schreiber, OP one of our Sister artists who is the Coordinator of the recently reopened INAI: A Space Apart, a place adjacent to Weber Center for quiet and meditation, which includes an art gallery. It has been my pleasure to serve as the Preaching Promoter for the last two-and-a-half years and I look forward to seeing where our preaching will take us in the future. 

Sincerely,
Sister Mary Jones, OP

Not all preaching has words. At the INAI art gallery in Adrian, artists preach with paintings, photographs, prints, digital art, ceramics, sculpture, weavings, and fabric art. Sisters, Associates, and artists from southeast Michigan and beyond are invited to show their work; exhibits change every four months.

In her quilting and weaving Sister Nancyann Turner, OP, brings together many pieces and many threads. “I have enjoyed creating in various media,” Nancyann said, “but working with fiber and cloth seems to be my home. Experience with both processes speak to my soul of integration and creation, unity out of diversity.”

Gerene Starratt, an Adrian Dominican Associate, exhibited her mini-quilt made of patch pieces. “The diversity of fabric,” she says, “which shows through the cathedral window pattern, embodies the Dominican Enactment, ‘… rooted in the joy of the Gospel, we will embrace and nurture our rich diversity…’ ”

For Sister Janice Holkup, OP, “being an artist is a way of seeing and being in the world. It’s about perception, a way of knowing, and then giving expression to what is perceived.” Art, she says, “often makes visible the invisible realities of our lives. In and through images we can know and grasp the meaning of experiences that might otherwise be missed.” Sister Janice works in mixed media and photography.

As part of the Dominican contemplative tradition, INAI offers a silence and quiet feel within the various spaces: the reading room, meditation space, and art gallery. Visitors come from near and far seeking a time of stillness, away from the busyness and noise of everyday life.

INAI: A Space Apart is part of Weber Retreat and Conference Center.

The Vision of INAI

• To offer the public a way to share in the charism and spirituality of the Adrian Dominican Sisters.
• To provide quiet spaces for reflection, reading, and prayer.
• To feature a space for silence and meditation.
• To offer a gallery space for artists to exhibit work.
• To foster relationships with artists, with Adrian and the surrounding communities, and with the Siena Heights University community through invitation, celebration and collaboration.
• To respond, through art and contemplation, to the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ mission of being co-creators of justice and peace, and their commitment to live in right relationship with Earth community.

Dedication

This space is dedicated to the creative spirit of Sisters Barbara Chenicek, OP, and Rita Schiltz, OP, who, for 43 years, on this site created “sacred space,” designing chapels and churches that invited contemplation, reflection, and response to the presence of the Spirit in today’s world.

History of INAI

For more than 40 years INAI has stood as a center for exploration, for contemplation, for the experience of the sacred. In 1973, INAI opened eyes to the power of sacred space, the clarity of light, and the unanticipated beauty of nature.

In the words of its founders, Sisters Barbara and Rita: 

INAI attempts to illuminate, to bring light, to be a quiet but real testimony to the presence of realities beyond our sight, to be a place where our restlessness can, for a moment, come to rest.

INAI attempts to heal and restore our capacity for immediate personal experience and reawaken the reflective possibilities inherent within us: for hope, for meaning, for God.

In 2018, INAI continues with renewed vitality, embodying the original mission of offering a sacred space for reflection, meditation, and art.

Sister Suzanne Schreiber, OP
INAI Coordinator