Catholic sisters and nuns, also called women religious, working as professional artists have been uniquely distinct from secular and other religious artists both because they live in community and also because of their three vows: poverty, chastity, and obedience. Women religious artists had access to arts education before secular women, and went on to teach future generations. Each artist among them is distinct and yet shares the commonalities of religious life, influencing their local arts communities while also set apart from them. Although religious themes are common in their work, they’ve also created traditional portraits, still lifes, and landscapes. Additionally, those in the USA in the 20th-21st centuries anticipated the aesthetic shifts of both Vatican II and also of the feminist art movement.
The Women Religious Artists Project (WRAP) collects stories and artwork of these women religious artists to highlight connections between them and to keep them alive as many of these communities decline. WRAP shares this information through in-person presentations focusing on local congregations, as well as via social media:
Women Religious Artists Project LLC 