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Springfield, Illinois, April 24, 2026 – Single Catholic women, ages 20 to 45 who are discerning a call to religious life as a Dominican Sister, are invited to the hometown of President Lincoln in June for a national event hosted by the Springfield Dominican Sisters. The collaborative event is co-sponsored by the Dominican Sisters of Adrian, Sinsinawa, and Peace.

Applications are being received now, and up to 15 women will be selected to participate in this event, scheduled for Tuesday, June 16, 2026, through Saturday, June 20, 2026. The group will live at Sacred Heart Convent and experience the rhythms of apostolic religious life, including community life, prayer, active service, and theological reflection. They will have the opportunity to serve at local nonprofit organizations.

“Springfield is the perfect place to give women a taste of the foundations, or pillars, of Dominican life: community life, prayer, study, and preaching or service,” said Sister Denise Glazik, OP, Minister of Vocation Accompaniment for the Springfield Dominican Sisters. “Our senior sisters at the Motherhouse are gracious and welcoming, and the city is home to some stellar nonprofit organizations that will provide a wonderful immersion experience for participants.”

Sister Nancy Jurecki, OP, Coordinator of the Vocation Team for the Adrian Dominican Sisters, said the program is “an opportunity for young women who believe God might be tapping them on the shoulders to meet Dominican Sisters in person and experience, with them, the pillars of Dominican life.” 

The application deadline is Monday, June 1, 2026, and interested women are encouraged to apply as soon as possible here. 

The $50 registration fee should not be a barrier for any applicant. Scholarships are available for those who need them. 

April 20, 2026, Adrian, Michigan – Engage: The Art of Women, the opening exhibit of the Adrian Dominican Sisters new INAI at Madden Gallery, features the artwork of Adrian Dominican Sisters and Associates, as well as members of the Adrian Center for the Arts. 

The new gallery was moved to Madden Hall from its original home on the Adrian Dominican Sisters Campus. The original INAI, founded by the late Sisters Barbara Chenicek, OP, and Rita Schiltz, OP, offered exhibits for more than 40 years. The INAI at Madden Gallery has space near Holy Rosary Chapel and is accessible from Weber Retreat and Conference Center on the Motherhouse Campus. 

Three of the featured artists took time to reflect on their lives as artists, art as preaching, and what art and beauty mean to them. Associate Judith Engel, a former Adrian Dominican Sister, has been an artist since she was 2 years old and now focuses on watercolor and some sculpture. Sister Aneesah McNamee, OP, focuses on graphic design for nonprofit organizations, but has also created art through photography, watercolor, and book creation. Sister Janet Wright, OP, has painted and drawn since her childhood and now focuses on watercolor paintings of flowers. 

“My art is an expression of myself,” Sister Aneesah said. “Through my work with my clients, that’s preaching – it’s telling their story through my graphic design, through putting it together and publishing it. It’s telling their story, so that’s preaching. I think all artists are expressing themselves through what they do.”

Judith said that “being an artist means to be open to the creative spirit that God has given to all of us and to do our best to be a channel. It’s a way of communicating with people that sometimes uses words, sometimes music, colors, and shape – all of those avenues that God has given us in terms of communication and expression.”

The Adrian Dominican artists have discovered that their art – and encouraging art in others – can benefit others in significant ways. Sister Aneesah noted that artists are often called to speak out through their art in social justice issues. “I’ve read several articles [encouraging] artists to start speaking out more and more,” she said. 

In the current political climate, Sister Aneesah said, she doesn’t see too much appreciation for the arts, but she doesn’t believe that that attitude will last. “Everybody I know prioritizes the arts,” she said. For her part, she strives to post something artistic, beautiful, and positive on her Facebook and Instagram pages every day. “I think people are really hungry for that,” she said.

As an Associate, Judith has used her art to inspire and benefit people. As a teacher in the Detroit Public Schools retirement and GED programs and as an art teacher to refugees in Toronto, she helped people to use art to express their own perspectives on the challenges of their lives. “I discovered the whole idea of what art could do for people who are in difficult and painful situations – and the gift that it could be to give people a voice,” Judith said.

Sister Janet sees art as “an excellent medium for teaching people how to be people and the appreciation of the planet. It’s transformative. It has power, and it always has: in history, the arts, and the civilization of people.”

At times, Sister Janet said, she had to set her own artwork aside to teach art to children – first in elementary school and, in later years, in high school. As a teacher in the newly-created Gabriel Richard High School in Riverview, Michigan, she helped to grow the school so that, ultimately, she was a full-time art teacher. She taught drawing, painting, and crafts such as macrame. “What I enjoyed most in high school was taking [the students] to the museums and teaching them about art,” she said.

Sister Janet had time to focus on her own artwork during sabbaticals from teaching. Her retirement also affords her the time to work on art – particularly focusing on painting flowers. “I never cease to find fascinating flowers to paint,” she said. “I think they’re dramatic pieces of creation and they’re transformative, too.” 

Judith also sees the need for transformation through beauty and the arts. “Beauty goes way beyond being pretty,” she said. “Beauty is a way of getting to what’s real …. When we can’t find beauty, what we find is a distortion of the reality of our connectedness, our humanity.”

The INAI at Madden Gallery is open to the public from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. Park at and enter through Weber Retreat and Conference Center on the Adrian Dominican Sisters Motherhouse Campus, 1257 E. Siena Heights Drive. To visit INAI outside of its regular hours, call 517-266-4000 to make an appointment.
 

Caption for above feature photo: The INAI at Madden Gallery opens with the exhibit, Engage: The Art of Women.
Photo by Sister Suzanne Schreiber, OP