What's Happening

April 24, 2026, Adrian, Michigan – The new iteration and venue of the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ long-time INAI art gallery opened in Madden Hall with an artists’ reception and the opportunity for featured artists and others to view Engaged: The Art of Women, the new gallery’s first exhibit. The reception was held on the afternoon of Sunday, April 12, 2026.

The INAI at Madden Gallery occupies an area of Madden hall near the entrance to Holy Rosary Chapel and the Congregation’s historical area and is accessible through Weber Retreat and Conference Center. The original INAI Gallery was adjacent to Weber Retreat and Conference Center.

The new space “was an excellent choice” for the site of the new INAI, explained Sister Suzanne Schreiber, OP, long-time coordinator of INAI. “I could envision it as a nice place for art.”

Other aspects of the former INAI have also been recreated in Madden Hall. A meditation area is part of the gallery and what had once been a formal dining room has become a quiet room, with a library of books on art and spirituality, comfortable chairs and sofas, and a table to offer Weber Center guests, Sisters, Associates, and Co-workers a quiet place to read and reflect. “We want to create a space where people can come and be quiet, be inspired, appreciate art, and give some thought to what [the artists] are saying,” Sister Sue said.

The first exhibit at INAI at Madden was created by a committee. The late Sister Barbara Cervenka, OP, a member of the Congregation’s Women’s Enactment Circle, “proposed that there would be some aspect of that Enactment that would not just deal with the problems women struggle with but also with art and women’s expression through art,” Sister Sue explained. She involved Sisters and Associates who were artists, as well as women from the Adrian Center for the Arts, to develop the first exhibit. 

“I felt that, after its closing, INAI needed to be resurrected in some way,” said Connie Meyer, who served on Sister Barbara’s committee that planned and organized the INAI at Madden Gallery. “Having this space in this beautiful building used for women artists is a beautiful expression of the Adrian Dominicans’ mission.”

Connie expressed her hope that INAI at Madden would be “a special place for the community and the extended community, for those who come to Weber Center for retreats and for the community of Adrian.”

Julie Klein, an artist who specializes in watercolor, found the new gallery to be amazing. “It’s a beautiful room for art and a beautiful building. [Madden Hall] itself is a piece of art.” She described the former INAI gallery as a “beautiful, peaceful place,” which she periodically visited.

Jim and Amy Anderson, resident ceramicists with the Adrian Center for the Arts – a partner of INAI – were also pleased with the new INAI gallery. Amy, a member of the committee that planned the new gallery, especially likes the space and lighting of the new gallery.

“I’m glad Sister Sue is continuing her involvement with the gallery and shows, and I think she picked a really good topic” for the first exhibit, Jim said. “There are a lot of really thoughtful reflections on the pieces that she chose to put in the show.”

Many of the artists featured in the first exhibit expressed gratitude that their artwork was included. “There’s a saying among artists that ‘Anonymous’ was a woman,” said Judith Engel, an Associate. “In earlier times, women were considered inferior [in art]. Our sense with this is, ‘Women are not anonymous.’ The whole focus [of the exhibit] is on the voices of women and the thinking and the feeling and the imagery … of what it means to be a woman in the arts. I’m very delighted and happy and pleased to be part of that.”

Sister Janet Wright, OP, an artist who focuses on watercolor, said she is delighted with the new space. “When we heard that INAI was going to close, we knew we had to rebuild it…. Once we got over the shock of INAI closing, we thought, ‘Where could we go?’ This is just perfect. It’s a natural.” 

 

Caption for above feature photo: Guests of the INAI at Madden Gallery Artists’ Reception converse and examine the artwork of the opening exhibit.

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