Sweet Briar chaplain Adam White will be the first speaker in a new informal lecture series hosted by the College’s art galleries. White will lead an interdisciplinary “conversation in the gallery” at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 8 in Pannell Gallery.

His subject, broadly speaking, will be the Book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament which foretells the end of the world. More narrowly, the talk will relate to artist Barbara Benish’s “The Book of Revelation,” which is included in the current exhibition, “Language Arts: Images, Words, and Stories Selected From the Permanent Collection.”

The work combines the text of Revelation with Benish’s linoleum cut illustrations printed on a continuous strip of paper and folded into an accordion book. In the exhibit, the book is under glass and opened to the center pages, but SBC galleries director Karol Lawson plans to bring it out for the occasion.

White, who describes his topic as the “Revelation to John in artistic expression,” lends his expertise as a minister and religious scholar, not as an art historian. That is as Lawson envisioned the conversations when she conceived the series.

“The focus is on the interesting story behind the images,” Lawson said. “Sometimes people are intimidated by art history. With these informal gallery talks, I hope visitors will realize that they can learn about art while they’re also enjoying thrilling stories of derring-do, drama, romance, skullduggery.”

Each conversation will revolve around a piece in the exhibit. For his part, White clearly grasps the spirit of the series. “Everybody loves a good Apocalypse,” he said.

Lawson noted that Revelation’s wild, dramatic imagery is what attracts so many artists to base works upon the text. “If you’re a visual artist, that really gets your juices going,” she said.

By hosting the informal discussions, Lawson’s aim is to get people back in the habit of dropping by Pannell, even those who don’t find an art gallery to be their natural milieu. She points out that the campus’ “center of gravity” has shifted to Prothro Commons and, soon, to the new fitness center. But there is much going on in the buildings that were once and in many ways still are the heart of the College.

Two more talks are scheduled this semester on works included in “Language Arts.” On Oct. 29, associate professor of classics Eric Casey will discuss an image of the sorceress Circe and the hero Ulysses, from Homer’s “Odyssey.” The exhibited work is an illustration by the workshop of Michael Wolgemut from the “Nuremberg Chronicle.”

Religion professor John Goulde will speak on Nov. 19 about Suzuki Harunobu’s woodblock print illustrating the ancient Japanese classic known as “The Tale of Genji.”

The gallery conversations will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. in Pannell. They are free and open to the public, as is regular admission. Pannell has new regular hours of operation this year. It will be open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday and closed on Saturday.

The conversations will resume next semester when a second exhibition featuring works from the College’s permanent collection, titled “Art/Art History,” will be open from Jan. 20 to April 4 in Pannell.

For more information, please contact Lawson at klawson@sbc.edu or (434) 381-6248.