Good Friday is not the holiday it was a few decades ago. No longer can every Christian employee count on getting time off to attend Good Friday services. And for those who do get the day off, a new dilemma: attend the traditional afternoon services or the evening services that some churches now offer.
For Madison residents the coming Good Friday offers one additional option, a display of art and music by local Christian artists focusing on the events of the Passion narrative, from Jesus’ betrayel to the resurrection.
The Stations of the Cross exhibit is located in the Commonwealth Gallery, on the third floor of the Madison Enterprise Center at 100 S. Baldwin, just off of East Washington Avenue. It will be open from 4pm to 10pm on Good Friday. It’s also open tomorrow, Sunday April 1st, 2pm-5pm; and Wednesday April 4th, 3pm-7pm.
Madison’s Christian Artists
The opening reception was last night, and offered a first look at the work of 16 local artists and musicians that portrays the 14 events identified in the Stations of the Cross tradition of Holy Week. The artists are mainly from Madison’s evangelical Christian community, even though the Stations of the Cross is from the Roman Catholic tradition.
The exhibit’s website urges attendees to bring their smartphones and/or tablet computers. Each piece of visual art has a QR code, so that the viewer can connect with the musical theme that accompanies that work. The website also has a blog for pre-attendance or post-attendance reading to find out more about what the artists were thinking as they created their works.
Plan Ahead
If you don’t have a smart phone or tablet computer you can download the music to take with you, or even listen ahead of time.
I attended with my teenage son and enjoyed viewing the various pieces and discussing them with him as he stood, chin in hand, thoughtfully studying them. The variety and creativity of the pieces was just one of the enjoyable aspects of the exhibit. The visual art includes mosaics, fabric art, linocuts, photographs, and paintings.
No, Good Friday is not quite the holiday it used to be in Madison. But like new wineskins for new wines, the Stations of the Cross exhibit offers a fresh contemporary perspective on the 2,000-year old Passion narrative that is worth a visit. Maybe after the afternoon Good Friday service, or before the evening Good Friday service.