Homecoming
The Monastery Gallery of Art
Holy Family Passionist Retreat Center
West Hartford
July 29, 2026
I’ve been to church more times in the last three years than in the previous 30.
That’s because local churches and other religious sites have some of the most beautiful art galleries in the area. It makes sense– what better way to describe the wonder of glory of God than through artistic expression?
I found a new gallery tucked away on the border of West Hartford and Farmington, the Monastery Gallery of Art, located on the lowest floor of the Holy Family Passionist Retreat Center. I have to admit, I felt a bit like Thomas Crown as I took the elevator down to the second basement, which opened directly into the gallery.
Homecoming is a celebration of the 75th anniversary of the retreat center, which began in 1951. The artwork on display ranges from the personal to the grandiose, representing the many different forms that God takes around us. All One, by artist Elisabeth Moss, focuses on the personal, using warm colors and angelic imagery to visualize the embrace of the individual by the eternal. Moss’s use of texture also communicates this, with the creative use of dots and striping to reinforce the connection between the larger angel and the smaller individual. Moss described the painting, writing “I am home in the One that unites us all.”
On the other side of the spectrum, Amy LaBossiere’s The Part of Me That’s You Will Never Die takes on an almost cosmic level. The deep reds and golds she employs gives the feeling of the enormous gas and dust clouds that were swirling endlessly at the creation of the universe, and she represents that motion with her use of circles throughout the work. The central circle looks like a planet emerging, and all those parts that are part of it will become part of the oceans, trees, clouds and maybe even people that will inhabit it someday.
While these reviews are designed to discuss art, I want to take a moment to say how impressed I was by the retreat center. I visited on a day when the building was full of children. I overheard some great conversations between them.
One young lady spoke to her friend about how she’d read ten books of the Bible on her own already, and was on her way to completing them all. Her friend responded with his own list of reading. As I waited for my ride, I enjoyed their discussion of religion and learning, and them just being kids. (They had un talking about the Samuel Adams shirt I wore there. Apparently the young lady’s grandfather shares the name.)
Something I’ve learned over the years of this job is that art and the heart are inexorably connected. I don’t just mean for the artist themselves, but also for the people who commission and display art. The beauty on display in the Monastery Gallery is a reflection of the warmth, kindness and curiosity I observed in the retreat center, simply as a visitor passing through. I’m looking forward to seeing how the next exhibit manifests those qualities, so I can eavesdrop on some more conversations.
NEXT
Homecoming continues at the Monastery Gallery of Art through Sept. 14.
Jamil goes back to the movies to watch the latest Spiderman movie.
