A sneak peek of UNL’s Newman Center has turned into a golden opportunity for Anneliese Feldner.
During a tour of the new campus church earlier this year, the sophomore art major met Bill Adair, a master gilder and frame conservator who started his career at the Smithsonian Institution.
Feldner had spent most of the tour asking questions, absorbing facts about the new church and the history behind its altars and adornment. The questions stopped briefly when she became fixated on the Adair’s gold glasses.
“Before I even said, ‘hello,’ I blurted out something about liking his glasses,” Feldner said. “They were so distracting that I didn’t catch his name. Then we started talking.”
The brief conversation led to Adair asking Feldner to join his team for the Newman Center project.
“I’m standing there by the altar and this famous artist guy — who I can’t remember the name of — asks if I would help him,” Feldner said. “He knew I was an artist. He didn’t ask to see my portfolio. He didn’t ask for a recommendation. All I could think is that it had to be divine providence, so I said, ‘absolutely.’”
About a week later, Feldner was learning the basics of gold leaf work and helping adorn the Newman Center’s main chapel doors.
“It was just a serendipitous kind of thing,” Adair said. “With the natural curiosity she showed, I thought Anneliese deserved a chance.”
That chance has grown to include an entry into an international art exhibition and a summer internship at Adair’s Washington, D.C., studio.
“She’ll be learning the craft from the ground up,” Adair said. “We take on summer interns from time to time when we have a lot of work. It’s important thing to me because it is a way to pass a traditional craft on to the next generation.”
Feldner will also get the opportunity to assist Adair with the restoration of the frame around Henry Sargent’s nearly 200-year-old “Landing of the Pilgrims” oil painting. The 13-foot-by-16-foot masterpiece is located at Pilgrim Hall in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
The door exhibit is also another of Adair’s projects. It features 31 repurposed doors covered with gold leaf and converted into conceptual art pieces. Doors in the exhibit will show at the Statue of Liberty in New York City on Memorial Day. They will also be on display at Joshua Tree National Park in California in 2017.
Feldner learned of the project while working with Adair in the Newman Center.
“He was talking about this abandoned doors project during a lunch break,” Feldner said. “I thought it sounded amazing. Then, one day while I was taking out the trash at my apartment, I found a door in the Dumpster.”
Feldner sent a text asking if Adair was still looking for doors for the project. The text exchange led to her designing a door that features the work of a German laser specialist who came to the United States after World War II and worked for NASA.
After showing at the Statue of Liberty, Feldner’s door will go to Berlin, Germany, and be on display at the Brandenburg Gate.
Feldner will also assist Adair with future projects (including some leaf work on the baptismal font) in the Newman Center.
“I still don’t know what I want to do with my career yet, but this is such a great opportunity,” Feldner said. “I’m going to go along for the ride and experience all that I can, learn all there is to learn, and see where it takes me.
“It’s still amazing to me that this all literally fell in my lap. All because I talked to a guy while touring a church at UNL.”
