The Long Keeping

Sanctuary of Eremo delle Carceri
Assisi, Italy
August 13, 2026

The Long Keeping is a durational performance inspired by the shared spiritual legacy of Saint Clare and Saint Francis in Assisi, Italy.

Artists from the Nido V/Acts of Care residency carried a linen tunic, embroidered with St. Clare's words in blonde hair, to the Franciscan Sanctuary on Mount Subasio. The silent, communal procession continued to the sacred forest, where the tunic was laid on the ground in a contemplative ritual, joined by offerings of a flashlight, gold teeth, and a double mirror. I delivered a handwritten letter, accompanied by a wooden Tau cross wrapped in blonde hair, to Father Matteo Curina at the hermitage, requesting that he keep it in the sanctuary as an enduring ex-voto

Leah Dalton, Keeley Haftner, Stevie Imuakalani Hanley, Mark Jeffery, Kelly Kaczynski, Susan Krueger-Barber, Asé Selah, Ray Seebeck, Joel Silverman, Peter Walz, Nick Wylie

Letter presented to the Franciscan brothers along with the ex-voto Tau cross wrapped in blonde hair

To the Brothers at the Eremo,

I send you greetings of peace during this solemn year of the 800th Centenary of the Transitus of Holy Father Francis. As a traveler on a shared path, I come to your threshold with an offering created in silent contemplation.

I place into your keeping a votive: a Tau cross wrapped with blond hair as a sign of Clare’s radical detachment, sacred vows, and the trading of worldly adornment for spiritual devotion.

In Audite Sorelle, their centenary letter to the global Franciscan Family, the Ministers General emphasized that the 800-year-old legacy does not belong to one branch alone. They explicitly highlighted Clare and the sisters of San Damiano as foundational to the shared Gospel movement, declaring the charism incomplete without both.

I ask that you receive this work into your sanctuary for this centenary year not as an artifact of the past, but as a living expression of the institutional wholeness your leadership has proclaimed. The Franciscan spirit is only truly whole when the brother and the sister are together.

Thank you for your stewardship of this holy ground.

Peace and Good,
Kiki McGrath

Image credits: Ray Seebeck
Conceptual research and planning: Nick Wylie
With gratitude to the artists at The Poor Farm,
Living within the Play/Nido V in Monte Castello di Vibio, Italy