Monday, November 23, 2009

DAYTON DEANERY — The University of Dayton will welcome the Christmas season with an open house and community celebration of a new gift that nearly doubled the Marian Library’s collection of Nativity scenes making it one of the largest collections in the United States.

The university will host an open house featuring music, refreshments and children’s activities for the premiere of “At the Manger: World Nativity Traditions,” an exhibit of more than 200 Nativity scenes, also called crèches. The free, public event is scheduled for 1-4 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 28, on three floors of Roesch Library on the University of Dayton campus.

The open house will launch the annual Marian Library crèche displays from Nov. 28 through Jan. 24 at Roesch Library and four other locations in the region. The Roesch exhibit will feature highlights from the collection of Elisabeth van Mullekom, an Australian collector who last year donated more than 2,000 Nativity scenes to the Marian Library, increasing the collection to more than 3,600.

At the Marian Library Gallery on the seventh floor, the “Rich and Poor” exhibit will compare and contrast Nativity scenes created by emerging artists from developing countries with pieces by more affluent artists from the collection of Annie and Bill Baker.

Selections from the Marian Library collection will be on display in several locations in the greater Dayton area throughout the Christmas season. Visit http://library.udayton.edu/manger for more information on the exhibit.