Traces of Encounter: The Rothko Chapel and its Visitors

Explore visitor experience from an international perspective, join a panel discussion, and visit the Rothko Chapel Archives.
About this Event

Join us for a scholarly presentation on visitor experience from an international perspective, a panel discussion, and open visitation of the Rothko Chapel Archives. Can't attend in person? Register for virtual attendance here:

About the Event
What do visitors bring to the Rothko Chapel and what do they leave behind? This program brings together two international scholars whose research approaches that question from complementary directions: one through the Chapel's own archival record of visitor response, the other through a comparative theory of how contemplative artworks invite viewers into relation.

The evening opens with presentations by Beatrice Fellegara (Milan) and Thomas Bieker (Eichstätt), followed by a moderated panel discussion led by Rothko Chapel Director of Research & Education, Carolyn King, and an audience Q&A. Guests are then invited to an open visitation of the Rothko Chapel Archives, where materials related to the presenters' research will be available for viewing, and a closing reception. Together, these two projects illuminate the Chapel not simply as a site to be seen, but as a place that is continually practiced, felt, and co-created by those who enter it, collectively forming a living archive of encounter spanning more than five decades.

About the Presenters
Beatrice Fellegara is a curator and art critic from Milan affiliated with ICONE UniSR. She is the first scholar to study the Rothko Chapel's guest books, more than fifty years of visitor reflections, using them to explore how people around the world experience the Chapel. This landmark research will be published in an upcoming dedicated monograph.

Thomas Bieker is a doctoral researcher at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt in Germany. His work asks why certain artworks, from Caspar David Friedrich's paintings to the Rothko Chapel to James Turrell's light installations, invite quiet contemplation and leave visitors feeling changed.