Chaplets

The chaplets of Marjorie Schlossman are 'sacred spaces, open to the public, open to people of all religious and secular belief systems, free of charge, and full of art.'

In 2001, Marjorie purchased a mid-twentieth century buildingin downtown Fargo, North Dakota, and 'hired architect Bruce Hella to renovate it, instructing him to fill it with light from as many sources as possible. A plunging skylight on the roof, curved interior glass block walls and wide storefront windows bring light in from all four directions.

Three long walls of this “ecumenical meditation or art chapel” contain Marjorie’s vibrant canvases. The artist has compared the three walls to the movements of a symphony, thereby linking her three passions – art, music and architecture – through the creation of this beautiful space', which opened to the public in 2002 free of charge.

'The completion and success of the Roberts Street Chapel compelled Marjorie to create more structures with the same purpose.' In 2006 she enlisted six area architects to create inspiring, portable spaces for under $25,000, to which she added her art on walls, ceilings and floors.

The chaplet in the first two photos above, by Richard Moorhead and sons, used looping carbon-coated fiberglass rods that sway in the wind like prairie grasses to echo the shape of the Conestoga wagons that crossed the Great Plains.

'The Roberts Street Chaplet Project opened in July 2006 on the grounds of the North Dakota Museum of Art in Grand Forks, North Dakota. After a month’s stay there, it moved to an unusual site in Fargo – the parking lot between a Sears and Best Buy store outside West Acres Mall. '

Images and text from Marjorie's website; more info at Metropolismag