Decade of the Universityarts of Notre Dame Decade of the Arts
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Decade of the UniversityArts of Notre Dame Decade of the Arts Table of Contents The Arts and Notre Dame 2 A Distinctive Education 4 Space to Create 6 Studying the Sacred Arts 8 Blueprint for the Future 10 “Better to illuminate than merely to shine, to deliver to others contemplated truths than merely to contemplate.” —St. Thomas Aquinas I have spent much of my academic life studying the philosophy of In the Catholic tradition, the arts have always been closely tied St. Thomas Aquinas. In retrospect, such a course of study seems to worship and the experience of the sacred; art has always fitting, given that Aquinas is the patron of Catholic universities, been central to the University’s commitment to learning, colleges, and schools, and Notre Dame is often regarded as teaching, and serving, and it is of crucial importance to our the face of Catholic education. Aquinas is called the “Angelic continued growth as a community of learning. Doctor” because so much of his work deals with the nature of angels; St. Thomas spends pages in his works speculating on With the opening of the Marie P. DeBartolo Center for the how they communicate without voices, come to know the world Performing Arts in 2004, Notre Dame entered its “Decade of without sense organs, and express themselves without bodies. By the Arts”—a celebration of our arts legacy and fulfillment of reflecting on the incorporeity of angels, we can better understand our future. through contrast what it means to be a human being with a body. You and I are not angels. Through the arts, however, we can Unlike angels, we do communicate with voices, experience the have the experience of the beauty and transcendence that the world through sense organs, and express ourselves through angels enjoy. the movements of our bodies. Through art we come to a most Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C. profound understanding of what is good, beautiful, and true. President, University of Notre Dame 2 3 Said Maria Tomasula oil on canvas The Arts and Notre Dame “Beauty is the vocation bestowed on the artist by the Creator in the gift of ‘artistic talent.’ Those who perceive in themselves this kind of divine spark which is the artistic vocation as poet, writer, sculptor, musician, and actor feel at the same time the obligation not to waste this talent but to For Catholicism, the arts have also proven to develop it, in order to put it to service of their neighbor and of humanity as a whole.” be one of the most important incarnations of —Pope John Paul II, Letter to Artists sacramentality: through the arts, the transcendent reveals itself in finite reality. Whether we’re admiring the Golden Dome amidst the activity of Commencement weekend or quietly reflecting near Ivan Meštrović’s Pietà in the Basilica of the Sacred Great universities are “great” because they pursue the difficult whole of human experience. Heart, something moves within us that expresses Art is one of the most important tools we have in this pursuit. what would otherwise be inexpressible. Art can be uplifting, but it can also be shocking. Art is a privileged way in which humanity learns to express itself, to innovate, and to create, reminding Art can show us what should be, but it can also challenge us with the reality of what is. us of the uniqueness of the human spirit. At the spirit that is Notre Dame been captured as well as Notre Dame, Our Art can be comforting, but it can also be disturbing. University’s core since its founding, the arts also Universal Mother remind us of the distinction of Notre Dame, a it has been in the work of the numerous artists, all Amy Peterson (ND ’05) place equally devoted to scholarly advance and its the way through to the present, who have made this oil on canvas Catholic character. Perhaps nowhere else has the campus their home. Notre Dame’s Arts Timeline • 1845 Supported by a • 1847 Henry IV is • 1865 The Music • 1865 The University finishes its new Main Building. This version features • 1870 Construction starts dedicated “Music Saloon” performed, marking Hall is built within on a new Sacred Heart • 1842 The University Notre Dame’s first “Dome”—which was made of wood, covered in tin, and in the University’s first the first performance the new Junior Church (today known as of Notre Dame is painted white—crowned Main Building, the Notre of a Shakespearean Recreation Hall. the Basilica of the Sacred founded by Rev. by a 12-foot tall statue Dame Concert Band is play at Notre Dame. Washington Hall Heart), although its Edward Sorin, of the Virgin Mary. The established. The “Notre will be moved steeple won’t be built for C.S.C. building’s large parlor will Dame Band” will grow to 90 degrees the come to rival Washington almost 20 years. Vatican include other ensembles, following year to Hall as a performance artist Luigi Gregori will including the Marching parallel this new venue. adorn the church with Band, and is today the structure to its murals and 14 Stations of country’s oldest university north. the Cross, and its stained- • 1862 Notre Dame’s original Exhibition Hall is built within band in continuous glass windows will be the Senior Recreation Hall. Two years later, Fr. Sorin will existence. crafted at the Carmel du dedicate the space as Washington Hall in honor of the Mans Glass Works in France. country’s first president. 4 5 A Distinctive Education Our faculty is composed equally of distinguished “Notre Dame is a special and prayerful place, and the University’s art and architecture are part scholars who study art and acclaimed practitioners of of its living history. Whether you’re a visitor seeing the Basilica for the first time or a graduate the arts themselves, making it possible to support the full spectrum of art-related interests. Here, a student returning to your former residence hall, the campus gives physical shape to Notre Dame’s who aspires to write the definitive history of silent distinctive identity. Without it, the place in which we live, learn, and worship—the place we call films will receive the same quality education as the ‘home’—would lose much of the pervading spirit that makes it ‘Our Lady’s University.’” one who hopes someday to win an Oscar. For those students who do want to pursue careers as artists, —Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., President Emeritus they are more fully prepared to do so after receiving their education in a liberal arts context. The School of Architecture applies this same integrated approach by not limiting its curriculum to principles of design and construction. Instead, Water freezes at 32 degrees. The earth orbits the sun. Light travels faster than sound. the School’s distinctive program is rooted in the These are incontrovertible facts—no shades of gray, no ambiguities, the same reality for all of us. application of traditional and classical architecture to the modern world, teaching students that the What elicits joy in one viewer might bring sorrow to another, and even the artist can’t articulate buildings they design must fit into the larger concerns precisely what the ultimate meaning of the work should be. Art can provoke us with its truth just of the communities they serve. as easily as it can provide us solace in its beauty. Among university art programs, those at Notre Dame place a unique focus on outreach programming, embodying the Catholic ideal of turning scholarship and creativity into service. • 1879 The Great Fire of 1879 destroys the Main Building and • 1882 A brick performing • 1898 Notre • 1908 Fr. Michael Shea • 1915 The Notre Dame Glee Club, which will come to • 1915 Early • 1925 Under the Junior Recreation Hall (which contained the Music Hall). arts center called the Dame becomes (ND ’04, ’05) and his be regarded as one of the best all-male collegiate films—at the the direction Now in its third incarnation, the Main Building is rebuilt on a Academy of Music—which the first Catholic brother John (ND ’06, choral groups in the United States, will operate without time known as of Professor grander scale that same year, although some of its most familiar houses a new Music Hall university in the ’08) write the Notre interruption from this date forward. However, a campus “photo-plays”— Frank Kelly, the features—paintings and Exhibition Hall, United States to Dame Victory March, • 1913 Junior Knute glee club are screened premiere season by Gregori and the combining the functions of offer a degree in which will become Rockne (ND ’14)—yes, existed as in Washington of University Golden Dome topped the two earlier buildings— architecture. one of the most widely that Knute Rockne— early as Hall. Films will Theatre is by a larger statue of is dedicated in June. recognized college plays flute in the 1874 and be shown in the launched, Mary standing over That same month, the fight songs. University’s orchestra. performed building on a continuing The University establishes the 18-feet tall—will original Washington Hall In 1915, he will play regularly, regular basis for • 1924 a campus Charles A. Wightman Memorial Art be added over the is demolished; the new two roles in the senior if not nearly 70 years. theatrical Gallery, a dedicated exhibition space in course of the next Exhibition Hall within the • 1887 The Notre Dame Marching Band plays at Notre play, The Girl of the continuously, tradition dating Bond Hall, which at the time houses the decade.