One of the director’s biggest challenges is working within the college’s financial structure while recognizing the center’s ongoing and future needs— whether it’s maintenance and security, acquisitions, staffing, technology, or physical space and lighting.

In 2000, the center received its first endowment (from Fr. Iain’s cousin, Hugh MacIsaac). Late last year, the college welcomed an anonymous bequest of $1 million for acquisitions to the Chapel Art Center.

But when talking about improving the gallery’s physical space, the visionary director has to rein in his imagination. His artist’s eye contains a vivid image fed by his experience, his natural design sense, and his artistic training, and he envisions an ideal Chapel Art Center that utilizes the available space in a different way but is still distinctively Saint Anselm. He describes another entrance; separate function space; and a covered portico so that when paintings come and go, they would not have to be shielded from rain and snow under blankets and umbrellas.

With the sun pouring in his office windows—sketches taped to the wall, art books stacked on the floor, paintings leaning against the shelves—Fr. Iain brings the conversation back to his passion: the art itself. “Art has an enormous ability to be a place of understanding. Art resolves things. It teaches. It questions. It is a consolation in the course of life.”   

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