September 18, 2020

Nationally known stained-glass consultant to present Sept. 20 lecture at local church

REGIONAL
Story and photo by Stephen Kiltonic

Stained-glass conservation consultant Julie Sloan is pictured in her North Adams home.

AMHERST – Julie Sloan, a nationally-recognized stained-glass conservation consultant, will present a lecture on the stained-glass windows of St. Brigid’s Church in Amherst at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 20. The talk, to be held in the church sanctuary, is open to the public and is part of the parish’s 150^th anniversary celebrations.

The windows, installed when the church was dedicated in 1925, were purchased from the renowned Franz Mayer & Company, a famous stained-glass design and manufacturing firm based in Munich, Germany, which has been in operation for over 150 years.

Mayer windows were very popular in many Catholic churches in the United States during the 19th and early 20th centuries, in part, because the company was the stained-glass artist to the Holy See. They were done in the same style and can be found in other churches in the Springfield Diocese including St. Peter’s in Great Barrington, St. Patrick’s in Monson, and St. Joseph’s in Stockbridge.

“They are very similar from one building to another but they are individually made,” said Sloan. 

Eleven of St. Brigid’s windows depict important events during the life of Christ. One window, the Flight into Egypt, was adapted by the United States Historical Society for its commemorative 1992 Christmas plate.

“One of the fascinating things to me about St. Brigid’s windows is that under every scene is a cherub’s head in the middle and every single one of them is different. They were obviously painted individually. They are not stenciled. They are not silkscreened,” Sloan said.

Sloan’s “soup to nuts” lecture will include the history of St. Brigid’s windows, how stained-glass windows are made, and the differences between European and American stained-glass companies. Through her discussion, she hopes to increase the appreciation of windows not only as art but as objects.

Sloan, who lives in North Adams, has worked in stained glass since 1982. She has been an adjunct professor of historic preservation at Columbia University since 1985 and gives lectures and seminars throughout the country. She also is an appraiser of American stained glass which is her specialty. Her conservation and research projects have won many awards.

Sloan has written many articles on stained-glass history and conservation and is the author of Conservation of Stained Glass in America; Light Screen: The Complete Leaded Glass Windows of Frank Lloyd Wright; and Frederic Crowinshield: A Renaissance Man of the Gilded Age.