Uploaded December 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
BYU students had a rare opportunity to experience the Nativity in a personal way, and to contemplate the Savior's birth, as part of a "Your Mark on the Masterpiece" art collaboration with the BYU Office of Belonging and renowned Argentine artist Jorge Cocco.
The Office of Belonging was created in 2021 to assist BYU in constructing "a community of belonging composed of students, faculty, and staff whose hearts are knit together in love" and to teach the world how to use gospel principles to create unified communities. Learn more about campus resources and how to help build belonging on campus at belonging.byu.edu. "We are all connected to each other through the family of God."
BYU students had a rare opportunity to experience the Nativity in a personal way, and to contemplate the Savior's birth, as part of a "Your Mark on the Masterpiece" art collaboration with the BYU Office of Belonging and renowned Argentine artist Jorge Cocco.
The Office of Belonging was created in 2021 to assist BYU in constructing "a community of belonging composed of students, faculty, and staff whose hearts are knit together in love" and to teach the world how to use gospel principles to create unified communities. Learn more about campus resources and how to help build belonging on campus at belonging.byu.edu. "We are all connected to each other through the family of God."







![Gates Of Paradise Unveiled at BYU MOA
The BYU Museum of Art has unveiled a rare original cast of the iconic 18-foot-tall Florence baptistery gates, beautifully restored and gilded, for public display. The stunning Renaissance-era panels, which depict 10 scenes from the Old Testament, took 27 years for artist Lorenzo Ghiberti to create. When he saw the completed doors, Michelangelo said they were truly worthy to be the Gates of Paradise.
The free exhibition titled “Gilded Paradise: Recasting Lorenzo Ghibertis Baptistery Doors” runs through October 2026. See moa.byu.edu for museum hours.
After decades in storage and nearly 10 years of restoration by BYU conservators, the Gates are now ready for display. With fewer than a dozen of these replicas still intact and even fewer on display, this replica stands as an important addition to BYU.
This piece isn’t just anywhere,” Samantha Atzbatch, a former student assistant who helped restore the piece, said. “There arent many copies of it, so for BYU to have [one] is very unique and important. It will be a great educational resource for the entire region.
Art historian Elliott Wise, Head Fabricator John Adams and MOA Director Janalee Emmer were instrumental in the restoration and celebration of the Gates.
“It is a profound honor to be entrusted with this plaster cast of Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise,” Emmer said. “We have accepted this responsibility with humility . . . and we hope visitors will be inspired and amazed by the remarkable story of its journey from Florence to Provo for generations to come.”
The panels were transferred to Provo 10 years ago, and the long restoration process began. This included repairing damage, restoring lost detail, applying gold leaf, building custom structural support and prepping for installation.
Much of this work was made possible by students who contributed an estimated 13,000 hours of work over the course of a decade under the direction of a professional team led by Adams.
Students from a variety of majors gained hands-on experience and developed specialized skills while helping bring the sculptures back to life.
“As a student, . . . theres always something due in my classes, and things have to be rushed,” previous student assistant Rachel Maughan said. “But here I get to [make] sure that these relief sculptures, the figures, the plaster molds themselves are correct. . . . Its really nice to . . . focus on growing those skills and treating it like Ghiberti would.”
The original Gates of Paradise were created by Ghiberti between 1425 and 1452 as the doors of the Florence Baptistery. The Gates were considered revolutionary for their realism and depth and stood 18 feet tall with 10 ornate panels — a scale and detail not easily recreated.
To preserve the design, molds were taken shortly after World War II, and the replica currently displayed at the MOA was cast from those molds in the 1980s. After being acquired by BYU Hawaii and stored in crates for 32 years, they were rediscovered by former BYU art education professor and current service missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Sharon Gray.
With so few replicas of the Gates of Paradise remaining in the world, the exhibition represents a rare opportunity. Its display — made possible by years of dedicated student work — ensures that this Renaissance masterpiece will educate and inspire visitors for generations to come. Gates Of Paradise Unveiled at BYU MOA](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/zf1ZJD9udJg/mqdefault.jpg)


