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September 9, 2022, Adrian, Michigan – The early months of the COVID-19 pandemic brought about death, sickness, isolation, grief – and a great deal of creativity. The creative aspect of the pandemic – as well as the mourning – were showcased by Art in the Time of COVID, an art exhibit at the INAI Gallery near Weber Retreat and Conference Center.

The exhibit featured works by a group of Adrian Dominican Sisters, Associates, and friends who met monthly via Zoom, shared progress on their artwork, and encouraged one another. The exhibit also included a memorial to the 14 Adrian Dominican Sisters who died of COVID-19. Guests were invited to write down the names of the people they had lost to the virus.

Sister Suzanne Schreiber, OP

Featured in a Catholic News Service (CNS) article about the memorial were Sister Suzanne Schreiber, OP, an artist and coordinator of INAI, and Sister Nancyann Turner, OP, who created three quilts that were featured in the exhibit. The artwork “was an effort to both process the COVID reality and the pandemic and all that was going on and a lot of the loss that was happening, and the illness and death that was happening, plus to give expression to our own creative selves,” Sister Suzanne told Gabriella Patti of CNS.

Sister Nancyann Turner, OP, left, and Sister Margaret Heinz, OP, with one of Sister Nancyann’s quilts on display at the Art in the Time of COVID exhibit

Sister Nancyann described the artwork as “another example of feminine creativity” and noted the comfort she derived from her quilting. Working on the quilts helped her “to remember again my mom and my grandmother as I selected and stitched those different colors, which helped me lament but also helped me have hope and peace,” she said.

Read the entire CNS article, as printed in Catholic Review, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Baltimore.