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On October 16, 2026, the Icon Museum and Study Center celebrates its milestone twentieth anniversary with the exhibition, Light from the East: Masterpieces from the Ikonen-Museum Recklinghausen , presenting highlights from the largest and most important collection of Orthodox Icons in Western Europe, on view for the first time in the United States.
This exhibition follows the twin branches of Greek and Russian icon painting from the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 to the outbreak of the Russian Revolution in 1917 and testifies to icon-painters crafting holy images in the face of conquest, war, and the dawn of modernity.
Icons including a jewel-like image of the Annunciation painted during the final decades of the Romanov Dynasty and a rare Byzantine image of St. Luke painting the Madonna, to a deeply moving and world famous image of Christ the Man of Sorrows painted on Crete after the Fall of Constantinople, and a somber meditation on old age in a portrait of the righteous elder Symeon , offer American audiences an exceptional opportunity to encounter the devotional power and psychological weight of holy icons.
At a time when Americans and Westerners are increasingly aware of Eastern Christianity and as Orthodoxy gains new prominence in the social, political, and religious landscape of the West, this exhibition showcases masterpieces of Byzantine, Russian, and Greek icon-painting from the largest collection of icons in Western Europe, offering American audiences an invaluable opportunity to encounter old Orthodox icons of the highest caliber.
The exhibition is curated by Dr. Elliot Mackin, Associate Curator and Study Center Manager of the Icon Museum.
About the Icon Museum and Study Center
The Icon Museum and Study Center holds the most comprehensive collection of icons and Eastern Christian art in the U.S. with special galleries and collections dedicated to Russian, Greek, Veneto-Cretan, and Ethiopian icons, spanning nearly two thousand years of art. Housed in a beautifully restored historic building in a picturesque New England mill town, the Icon Museum features five galleries, a research library, and an auditorium.
The Museum’s exhibitions and programs offer a compelling blend of history, spirituality, and culture, all within a serene, contemplative space. The Study Center connects scholars, academic institutions, and museums around the globe through lectures, conferences, workshops, and internships.
Light from the East will be held in conjunction with an international symposium, Encountering the Sacred Image , which will bring together leading scholars from around the world to share new research on Greek and Russian icons in the Icon Museum’s collection, October 15–16, 2026. The symposium is made possible through the generous support of the Still Water Foundation, the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture, the Kent dur Russell Fund, and Catherine Mannick.
Visitor Information
Light from the East: Masterpieces from the Ikonen-Museum Recklinghausen
October 16, 2026 – March 21, 2027
Thursday – Sunday, 10 AM – 4 PM.
The Museum is closed Monday – Wednesday.
Admission: Adults $15, seniors (65+) $12, Students (with ID) FREE, Children and Youth (0-17) FREE.
Follow the Icon Museum and Study Center on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
Visit the website, www.iconmuseum.org, home of the online collection (including research papers on individual icons), the Journal of Icon Studies, and the British Museum’s catalogue of Byzantine and Greek icons.
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