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You will find on this page a growing number of Crèche sets, all of them presented to the public in and around Dayton since 1998. They represent a fraction of the Marian Library's Crèches Collection. 
Our trademark is to create a special setting for each of the sets highlighting their special cultural, symbolic and aesthetic values. Michel Forest, a Canadian artist of creative and exquisite taste, is our master decorator. It is our goal to make these nativity sets objects of meditation. Thus, each one of the sets presented here comes with a description. These descriptions vary according to country, artist, aesthetic and cultural expressions. For all of them we try to emphasize the appropriate religious message hoping it will lead the visitor to pondering and meditating the mystery of the Incarnation.
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Corn and Rain |
Sacred Conversation |
Broken Pieces |
In Praise of Mothering |
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Faceless Beauty |
Simple Beauty |
A Nativity for the |
Christmas Comics |
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Making a Difference |
Gourd and Rooster |
Sleeping Mary |
A Humble Praise |
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What Goes Around ... |
Happy to Serve |
Wonders of Life |
Paradise Lost |
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The Dark Side of Life |
A Moveable Feast |
Ox and Ass in Waiting |
Adobe Nativity |
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Heavenly Music |
The Nose |
Faithful Companions |
From the Frog’s Mouth |
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From the Earth |
No Rest |
The Wedding Shawl |
Christmas Enters the Kiva |
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When the Magpie Sings |
Sun, Moon, and Stars |
Then and Now |
Hats Everywhere |
Empty Hands |
Trigonometry |
African Symphony |
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Non-descript? |
Sealed Scroll |
Cradle and Cross |
The Accident |
The Star That Was No Star |
Twins |
Horse, Elephant and Camel |
Lightness of Being |
Child Prodigies |
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O Lord, you search me ... |
No Island |
Romanesque Realism |
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Only A Taste |
Vegetal Reign |
Angel and Devil |
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Rough and Tumble |
Bulging Eyes |
Pin People |
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House of Bread |
Flying Camels |
Masks |
Blues |
A Collectible? |
Ice Queen? |
Like Wife, Like Husband |
Open House |
Heavenly Music |
From Mud to Marvel |
Adored and Persecuted |
To the Farthest Ends |
The Best of Two Worlds |
Of Fragile Beauty |
Heaven on Earth |
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Nutcracker Suite |
Hymn of Creation |
He Always Comes Our Way |
New Life and Old Skins |
From the Mountain Tops |
To the Little and
the Simple |
Black and Beautiful |
A Labor of Love |
A Heavenly Ballet |
As It Was in the Beginning |
"God will conceal me ..." |
Between Light and Darkness |
In Deep Winter |
The Jar That Was a Mountain |
Back to the Essentials |
A Starry Night |
To the Center of the Earth |
Shelter-Seeking |
The Global Village |
All Roads Lead to the Manger |
Flight to Egypt on Wheels |
Jesus Christ in Heidi Land |
The Magic Lantern |
Carved in Bone |
In Search of Truth |
Life is Theater |
Jesus in the Box |
From the Orient ... |
26 Family Portrait |
My House Is a House of Prayer |
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With Children's Eyes |
Anonymous Christmas? |
Carved in Stone |
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Breaking and Sharing the Light |
Lying on a Bed of Straw |
A Sense of Humor |
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A Cajun Nativity |
Tattoos |
A Children's Play |
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Candle Stuffers |
Minimal Art? |
House of Bread |
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Ringing in Eternal Spring |
"Holzknoddl" |
A New Look |
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A Moving Feast |
It's the Gesture ... |
A Common Yearning |
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Counting Sheep |
At the Crossroads |
Out of Tolkien |
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Cast in Brass |
Silent Animation |
Elegant Piety |
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A Logo For Life |
... In What
Is Most Precious |
As in Icons |
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From the Tyrolean Alps |
Bamboo Nativity |
Ebony |
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The Piper on the Roof |
Like Screen Savers |
Wonders of Wood |
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The Nativity of the Pauper
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The Nativity of the Pauper
II |
In Praise of Life |
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Gathering Creation |
Sound of Music |
Braving the Times |
Return to Crèches International
This page, maintained by The Marian Library/International Marian Research Institute, Dayton, Ohio 45469-1390, and created by Kelly Bodner was last modified Friday, 11/14/2008 14:42:43 EST by Michael P. Duricy. Please send any comments to Johann.Roten@udayton.edu.
URL for this page is http://campus.udayton.edu/mary//gallery/creches/crechesworld.html
The artifacts presented here convey a
variety of interpretations of the Christmas event. Some of the sets are little monuments to artistic creativity and thus a
simple statement of beauty. Others will take the visitor to faraway countries and their genius of telling the story of the
Incarnation. Most of the scenes speak about human life as much as
they speak of religion and God. There are allusions to life's
ordinariness and mystery, and attempts to deal visually with suffering
and injustice. Sometimes the story crests in a symbol pregnant
with meaning, at other times the tale ends with a question mark.
In all of these nativity sets the challenge of the Incarnation remains intact.
