Art Exhibits

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Our congregation has created an art gallery in our main gathering space (known as Pilgrim Hall). We are pleased to display work from various artists in our community and beyond.  We feel blessed to be surrounded by these beauty and spiritually meaningful creations. We welcome inquiries from artists about showing your work.

Current Show Running: Book Arts by Cindy Gipple

Cindy Gipple’s book related art work will be on display at First Gallery throughout this spring and summer. These wonderful, small gems are a first for this type of artwork at First Gallery.

Cindy makes one-of-a-kind artists’ books, prints, shadow boxes, and paper basket vessels. Her projects are inspired by found and reused materials, woods and waterways, hand techniques, architecture, memories, and stories. She uses traditional knit, knot, sew, coil, stitch, print, and spin, hand techniques.

The book arts projects are heavily influenced by Cindy’s academic background in sociology and architecture. During her architectural years she became intrigued with paper architecture and model building, and these influences show up in her book arts projects today. She studied at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts (MCBA) and completed her MCBA certificate in paper, print and binding, all of which solidified her work in paper architecture and the book.

A print by Cindy Gipple, titled "Heron."
“Heron”
An image of a work by Cindy Gipple, entitled "Nest."
“Nest”

Here are some of the exhibits we have hosted in past years:

  • Life-size puppets created by children in the First Church community for the production of “Joseph’s Colorful Coat”
  • Photographs of church towers from around the world by Don Loegering
  • Minneapolis Public School exhibit of students’ artwork depicting “What Is Home to Me?” focusing on issues of affordable housing and homelessness
  • Serigraphs with religious themes by John August Swanson
  • Hooked art (textiles) by rug hooking artists Tish Murphy, Joan LeVine and Kathy Morton Mulvain
  • Nature photographs and poetry by Bob Ochtrup, photographer, and Jeff Wolvertine, poet
  • Watercolor paintings by Ann and Wayne Sisel
  • Nature prints by Jan Shogren
  • Favorite art pieces from the First Church community
  • Watercolors and pastels by Walter Breckenridge
  • Exhibit of prints by 21 different artists inspired by the poem “Laughing  Bear” by Katherine Tilton, which is about domestic abuse. “The Laughing Bear Portfolio” was the inspiration of Diane Eicher who is also one of the artists. First Church also hosted a fundraiser for the St. Paul Domestic Abuse Intervention Project.
  • Abstract paintings in oils and acrylics and pencil drawings by Amy Smith
  • Watercolors and sketches by Soon-Wai Wong.
  • Paintings by Jill Stebbins
  • Batik by Kim Gordon