Scholars working in disciplines such as "theological aesthetics" and "theology and the arts" in the context of anglophone theology tend to approach art in decontextualized ways, presuming a transparent and homogenous epistemology in which artworks illustrate or represent academic claims without regard for the circumstances of production or reception. Our research challenges these assumptions by asking how art-making is a distinct, embodied epistemology that shares parallels with religious ritual, and this paper describes how research being conducted at the Pontifical University of Chile in Santiago on art in the context of local religious festivals advances and challenges this research. In particular, we will argue that conceptualizing art as gift and as devotion, as is the case for the art that is part of these festivals, gives new meaning and significance to the idea that art is a form of knowledge. If art is a way of knowing the world, then art that is offered in devotion may itself be considered epistemically, namely, as a particular way of knowing something through making contact with it in a reciprocal relationship. This, in turn, requires a different method of study based on alternative epistemic assumptions. As the researchers at the Pontifical University of Chile demonstrate, we know this way of knowing best, not through observation, but by participating in the relationships of reciprocity in which art is understood as gift through the researchers' offering of their own art as gift in return.