Arts Advancement
With the debut of the spectacular Marie P. DeBartolo Center for the Performing Arts (DPAC) in 2004, the continued evolution of the Snite Museum of Art, and expanding programs in the visual and performing arts, Notre Dame is now in better stead than ever before to achieve prominence as an academic and entertainment destination in the arts.
The programming, collections, exhibition, and capital needs required for cultivating a respected position in the arts remain considerable, however. The Office of Arts Advancement works closely with benefactors who want to help the University meet these challenges. Only with robust donor support can we ensure a vibrant and diverse cultural climate at Notre Dame—one that will enrich not just the campus but surrounding communities as well.
At present, top funding priorities include:
- Underwriting student performances in the arts, as presenting major artists in the relatively small venues available on campus requires significant and ongoing funding in order to keep ticket prices affordable for students.
- Building endowments to bring to campus world-class symphonies (in the tradition of DPAC’s inaugural concert by the New York Philharmonic) and to develop an annual series in Celtic music.
- Creating an artist-in-residency program to avail students of opportunities to work closely with extraordinary artists in master classes.
- Developing permanent collections in the Snite Museum that speak to our greatest strengths and have the potential to attract scholars and curators for research, exhibitions, and publications. Collections to be developed include Mesoamerican art, 19th- and 20th-century photography, Old Master drawings and paintings, 19th-century French paintings, design and the decorative arts, modern and contemporary art, American art, and the sculpture of Ivan Mestrovic.
- Strengthening Notre Dame’s impact on local communities through outreach initiatives that will bring art programs to school children, enhance collaborative productions between DPAC and the Michiana arts community, and implement resident artists programs.
To learn more about these and other priorities in support of the arts at Notre Dame, please contact:
ND Professor Donates Collection of National Significance
The latest addition to the Snite Museum’s permanent collection was donated by a familiar face: Professor Gilberto Cárdenas, the Julian Samora Chair in Latino Studies and the director of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies.
Thrice named by Hispanic Business Magazine as one of the 100 most influential Latinos in the United States, Cárdenas has gained international renown as a scholar of Mexican immigration. But he is also a devoted collector of Latino art and an artist in his own right, having published his photographs in journals, textbooks, and brochures. He also founded the Galería sin Fronteras Inc. in Austin, Texas, a commercial gallery exhibiting the work of Chicano/Latino artists.
Cárdenas’ gift of 20 outstanding Latino works was recently displayed as part of the Snite Museum’s Caras Vemos (Faces Seen, Hearts Unknown) exhibition. With Latinos estimated to become the largest ethnic group in the United States by the middle of this century—and the overwhelming majority of them Catholic—Cárdenas says, “there is no place better than Notre Dame for this collection.”
“The Snite is one of the best university museums in the country,” he adds. And now, because of his generosity, the Snite is home to what has been described as one of nation’s best collections of Latino art—a collection that will serve not only as a research and teaching tool, but as a tool for enhancing Notre Dame’s presence on the national art scene.
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