Oct 20, 2025
The Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts at St. Bonaventure University invites visitors to experience a new kind of journey through time and beauty with “The Art of Storytelling,” now open in the center’s Beltz Gallery.
This immersive exhibition features an audio tour of the artwork narrated by retired St. Bonaventure theater professor and longtime NPR host Ed. Simone, who offers commentary and insight on select pieces from the university’s renowned art collections.
The exhibition features more than 50 artists from the 15th through 20th centuries. The audio tour is available online for those unable to attend in person.
The exhibit opens with a portrait of “Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints” by Fra Angelico (1387-1455), one of the great masters of Italian art whose work is being celebrated now through Jan. 25 at two museums in Florence, Italy.
Supported by the generous gifts of Dr. T. Edward Hanley and the Col. Michael Friedsam Collections, the Beltz exhibit brings together centuries of visually expressive and illustrative works that reveal how artists have used their craft to share stories and shape cultural understanding.
“Art has always been a way of telling stories — a bridge between mind and heart,” said Dr. Rachel Harris, executive director of the Quick Center. “This exhibition connects visitors not only to the past, but also to the way we experience and share beauty in today’s digital world.”
From Renaissance masterpieces to 19th-century landscapes, the exhibition explores how art has long served as a “portal to beauty” — what Franciscans describe as an expression of haecceity, or “thisness.” Coined by John Duns Scotus, O.F.M., haecceity is the belief that every created being possesses a unique, inherent beauty that distinguishes it from all others.
As visitors move through the gallery, they are invited to reflect on how each artwork — whether sacred, portrait, or pastoral — embodies a distinct sense of presence and place. The journey begins in the 15th and early 16th centuries, during the height of the Italian Renaissance, an era marked by artistic rebirth and exploration.
Several featured artists were contemporaries of Raphael, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci, evoking the spirit of Florence, Rome and Venice at a time when creativity and faith converged to produce some of the most influential works in human history.
Simone’s eloquent narration enhances that dialogue, guiding guests through layers of historical, theological, and emotional context that connect classical art traditions to today’s culture of digital storytelling and social media.
“Walking through the gallery and listening to Ed.’s narration feels like walking beside the artists themselves,” Harris said. “You begin to understand how they saw the world — and how we can still learn from that vision.”
All five Quick Center galleries are open, when classes are in session, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, and noon to 4 p.m. on weekends. Admission is free and open to the public.
The exhibition continues the Quick Center’s celebration of its 30th anniversary season, which began this fall with performances by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and several new gallery premieres.
To learn more about the Quick Center’s 30th anniversary season and upcoming events and exhibitions, visit www.sbu.edu/QuickCenter.
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About the University: The nation’s first Franciscan university, St. Bonaventure is a community committed to transforming the lives of its students inside and outside the classroom, inspiring in them a commitment to academic excellence and lifelong civic engagement. Out of 167 regional universities in the North, St. Bonaventure was ranked #8 for value and #19 overall by U.S. News and World Report (2025).