Profile

Given the number of artworks influenced by the Testaments (both Old and New), the nation’s first museum devoted to biblical art is surprisingly diminutive. Taking up a mere 2,830-square-feet in a twelve-story building, the institution has no permanent collection, instead borrowing up to seventy God-minded pieces from artists, galleries, and museums. Exhibitions are thankfully free of religious dogma (no Vatican, this), instead exploring various artists’ sometimes ambivalent attitudes towards faith. The Word on the Street: The Photographs of Larry Racioppo featured a graffiti-ed mural of Jesus Christ; Biblical Art in a Secular Century displayed an Andy Warhol silkscreen of twelve blue crosses that was less than reverential. Which is not to say MoBIA hasn’t trotted out the expected piety via Renaissance triptychs and oil lamps from Jerusalem. It has. But the museum’s willingness to court controversy and to host dialogues more academic than ecclesiastic ensures that MoBIA will leave a mark that’s greater, and more lasting, than its size. — Melissa Noble

Guided tours are  available free of charge to groups of ten or more, and they must be scheduled at least two weeks in advance. To schedule a tour, call 212-408-8703.