What’s a parish to do when it owns a number of extraordinary paintings by a famous 20th century American modernist, but almost no one knows they’re there?

In the case of St. Francis of Assisi church in Windsor, which has the distinction of holding religious works by George Tooker, the question is: do you bring the paintings to the public, or do you bring the public to the paintings?

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Vermont, headed by Bishop Christopher J. Coyne, has asked 511 Gallery, a New York City gallery that specializes in the sale of American art and photography, as well as curating exhibitions, to come up with ways to bring more attention to The Seven Sacraments and the 14 panels that constitute the Stations of the Cross, which Tooker, who was noted for his use of egg tempera, painted in the late 1970s.

Mara Miller, the managing director of 511 Gallery, said in a phone interview from New York that the best way to let not only the public, but the art world, know about these remarkable works might be to persuade a major national or regional museum to include them in an exhibition of 20th century American painting.

The gallery will approach some major American museums to see whether there is interest in exhibiting the Tooker paintings from St. Francis, she said.

“They are unusual and they are absolutely stunning — and I’ve been to more churches for art reasons than you can imagine,” Miller said. “They’re sacred treasures, but also secular treasures.”

In the fall of 2014, there was discussion about whether the church could even afford to hang on to the paintings.

Tooker, who lived in Hartland for many years, converted to Catholicism in the 1970s after the death of his partner, William Christopher. After the original St. Francis of Assisi burned down in a fire in 1977, then-pastor Rev. Forrest Rouelle asked Tooker to paint a work that the church could raffle to raise funds to rebuild. Tooker declined, but said he would donate work to the new church, which opened in 1980. Tooker died in 2011.

The dilemma faced by the parish is similar to that of many churches or other smaller public institutions that possess works of cultural and financial value.

Does a public or religious institution keep the works because they are part of their cultural heritage, or sell them to help keep the doors open?

In the fall of 2014 then-pastor Thomas Mosher, who has since left the parish, said that the decision whether to sell would have to wait until a new bishop was named to head the Roman Catholic diocese in Vermont. There was division within the parish about what to do with the paintings.

In the 18 months since he was ordained as head of the Vermont diocese, Coyne has been to Windsor twice to look at the Tooker paintings. The paintings will stay where they are, he said in a phone interview from Burlington, where the diocese is located.

“They’re part of the patrimony of the parish, so there really isn’t any need to sell them,” Coyne said.

The paintings will need to be cleaned, however. There are also some minor areas of wear and tear that will have to be repaired, Coyne said. Once those things are done, the paintings will need to be appraised for current value.

If the people of the parish were open to the idea, Coyne said, perhaps the Tooker paintings could be exhibited in Burlington for a few months.

“It would be great to see the Stations of the Cross together,” Coyne said.

But this is at the discretion of the parishioners, and the paintings would return to Windsor, Coyne emphasized: “I don’t want to do anything that would lead the parishioners to think this was a swoop.”

In addition, a new pastor will come to St. Francis of Assisi at the end of June, Coyne said.

Wherever they are exhibited, the Tooker paintings deserve an audience, Miller said.

Tooker “knew how to mix egg with paint, and how to refract light into paint. That’s what Bellini and Botticelli knew, they just had more limited types of pigment... (The Tooker works are) amazing works of art, especially the sacraments. They’re humanistic, they’re about human beings. It’s a treasure for that parish.”

Openings and Receptions

The Senior Majors exhibition, which is the culminating exhibition of the academic year for the department of Studio Art at Dartmouth College, opened this week at the Jaffe-Friede and Strauss Galleries in the Hopkins Center, and also at the Nearburg Arts Forum in the Black Family Visual Arts Center at the college. The exhibiting seniors are: Lynne E. Jones, Pauline M. Lewis, Benjamin N. Albrecht, Jenny Seong, Eun “Jinny” Seo, Ham Sonnenfeld, Angelica Carello Leal, Darby A. Raymond-Overstreet, Jennifer M. Ontiveros, Emily N. Harwell, Corinne K. Hardy and Dalia C. McGill.

Cider Hill Art Gallery and Gardens in Windsor is now open for the season until the fall. Co-owner Gary Milek will exhibit his paintings of “Plant Forms” through June.

Ongoing

Arabella, Windsor. The gallery exhibits works by local artists and artisans in a variety of media including jewelry, oils, acrylics, photography, watercolors, pastels and textiles.

BigTown Gallery, Rochester, Vt. “Director’s Choice,” a show of work by Varujan Boghosian, Ira Matteson, Helen Matteson, Nicholas Santoro, Hugh Townley, John Udvardy, and Pat dipaula Klein, continues through July 9.

Converse Free Library, Lyme. The collages of Barbara Newton can be seen through June 30.

Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon. Watercolors by Marlene Kramer, digital art by Eric Hasse, photographs by John Rush, oil paintings by Emily Ridgway, and pastels, acrylics and oils by Gail Barton, are on view through June.

Aidron Duckworth Museum, Meriden. The paintings of Lucy Mink-Covello can be seen through June 5. “Color–A Theory in Action,” a show of works by Duckworth runs through July 24.

Kilton Public Library, West Lebanon. An exhibition of artwork by West Lebanon students runs through May 31.

Library Arts Center, Newport. The Juried Regional Exhibition, a group show, runs through June 16.

Long River Galleries and Gifts, Lyme. “Paradise Found,” a show of oil paintings by South Woodstock artist Liliana Paradiso runs through June 2.

Main Street Museum of Art, White River Junction. “Odalesque and Other Recent Paintings,” a show of works by Daisy Rockwell ends Friday.

Royalton Memorial Library, South Royalton. The exhibition “Louis Sheldon Newton: Architect Extraordinaire of Vermont” is on view through June 4.

Scavenger Gallery, White River Junction. “Cataclysms,” a series of pastels of cyclones by Randolph artist Laurie Sverdlove, are on view through June 28.

Tunbridge Public Library. “National Park Landscapes: Celebrating National Park Service Centennial 2016,” landscape paintings by Royalton artist Joan Hoffmann, ends today.

Two Rivers Printmaking Studio, White River Junction. Lynn Newcomb exhibits her prints at through May 31.

Norman Williams Library, Woodstock. “Vermont Is On Our Minds,” an exhibition of work by artists from Zack’s Place, continues through Saturday.

White River Gallery at BALE, South Royalton. The oil paintings of Charlotte, Vt. artist James Vogler are on view through June.

Nicola Smith can be reached at nsmith@vnews.com.

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