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Bells chime, sounds of an organ and piano play, a chorus sings “holy, holy, holy,” and familiar sounds of children shouting ring throughout the entrance of “Allan Rohan Crite: Urban Glory.” The exhibition preluded by these tracks opened at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum on Oct. 23. “Urban Glory” opens a door into the vibrant spaces Allan Rohan Crite — graduate and part-time librarian of the Harvard Extension School — inhabited during his life, specifically Boston’s neighborhoods and sites of Christian worship.

Crite was born on March 20, 1910 in North Plainfield, New Jersey, but relocated to Boston shortly after — where he would spend the rest of his life until his death in 2007. From his youth, Crite pursued art, ultimately leading him to attend the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and HES. Crite’s main subject matter was the vibrant Black community that surrounded him, mainly in the South End and Lower Roxbury, where he resided.

This exhibition is the first retrospective of Crite’s career. It is accompanied by a companion exhibition at The Boston Athenaeum, “Allan Rohan Crite: Griot of Boston,” which highlights his role as a storyteller and knowledge keeper for his community. Together, the exhibitions reveal the changes in Crite’s life — in his art styles and in the mediums he used — as well as many changes in Boston’s history which coincided with his artistic development.

“Community is at the center of Allan Rohan Crite’s art. For nearly eight decades he religiously documented the diverse neighborhoods he inhabited, devoting himself to preserving the stories of those around him,” said Peggy Fogelman, Norma Jean Calderwood Director of the Gardner Museum, in a press release.

The start of the exhibition showcases Crite’s early works, many of which are oil paintings. One painting, “School’s Out” (1936), depicts a sidewalk in front of a school with Black girls and women walking side by side, running, holding hands, and gathered in circles. All of the subjects are dressed in vibrantly colored and designed dresses. This depiction epitomizes Crite’s mission to portray a flourishing, Black middle class community — in contrast to stereotypical presentations of sharecroppers or Harlem jazz musicians.

“Something I like about his work is that he’s portraying the neighborhoods, and that he is portraying a variety of skin colors of people, so that the population could identify with the topics that he was painting about,” said museum visitor Sarah Liepert.

In another painting, “Harriet and Leon” (1941), Crite paints a double portrait of the titular subjects’ side profiles. Both are Black and well-dressed, with Leon — the man on the right — in a black trench coat and top hat and Harriet — the woman on the left — in a plaid green dress, a green hat, and a black clutch. Next to “Harriet and Leon” is “Ice” (1939), a painting that depicts a woman and man in the exact same position as the former. This piece, however, features a different stylization of the duo, showcasing the versatility within Crite’s art style.

Although Crite began with oil painting, he ultimately abandoned it in favor of printmaking, so that he could pursue broader dissemination of his faith-based images. Alongside Crite’s depictions of daily neighborhood life, the exhibition displays many pieces that work Black holy figures into everyday spaces.

One painting, “Streetcar Madonna” (1946), portrays a Black Virgin Mary and a young Jesus sitting in a streetcar among others. This piece is situated among many other works by Crite that portray holy figures as Black — including a series of five ink-on-paper drawings that he made in the 1930s for one of his earliest publications: “Three Spirituals from Earth to Heaven” (1937). These drawings illustrate the lyrics of spiritual songs line by line, each piece retelling Biblical stories through the experiences of American slavery.

“It’s not all one race in a painting, as might be more common, at least for the type of art that I see. You know, everybody is white, or everybody is black. Having historical figures as well, like the Madonna and Child — I really like seeing historical figures portrayed in a way that I haven’t seen before,” Liepert said.

Embracing the diversity of his community and portraying divinity through its eyes was critically important to Crite’s work. These themes recur throughout his paintings, in which he elevates the lived experiences of his neighbors to the level of the sacred. The exhibition also explores Crite’s career beyond his art, displaying collections of Crite’s essays on reproductive rights for women and urban gentrification.

Moreover, Crite’s house and its significance to his work are spotlighted. Crite opened his home to his community by hosting artistic and educational collaboration and discussion. This part of the exhibition showcases a variety of paintings, drawings, and prints, revealing the diversity of Crite’s style and works in a disorganized format, hinting at what his “art-brimmed” house looked like. Crite aimed to convert his property into a house museum, similar to the Gardner Museum, but would ultimately be unsuccessful due to a lack of financial and legal resources.

“He sounds like he was a true Renaissance man— like someone who had so many different interests and intellectually was just growing, and growing, and growing, and always challenging himself,” said museum visitor Donna Rigg.

Taken altogether, “Allan Rohan Crite: Urban Glory” is a comprehensive retrospective of Crite’s career — one which reveals his remarkable creative vision and unique way of depicting the Black community around him during a time of historic change.

“Allan Rohan Crite: Urban Glory” is on view at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum through Jan. 19.