This semester, the Gallery features works of art selected by faculty members who teach classes
and lead programs in theology, art history, global affairs, the Initiative on Race and Resilience,
and the Moreau First-Year Seminar.

By displaying works of art currently not on view, the gallery bridges academic scholarship and
visual art. The diversity of works of art and classes represented make the dynamic,
interdisciplinary learning at Notre Dame visible both to campus visitors and the public.

“The Raclin Murphy welcomes faculty from any discipline to select works of art that support
their specific course goals,” said Bridget Hoyt, curator of education for academic programs. “It
allows us to use our collection as a core teaching resource while giving all visitors a window into
how art intersects with history, theology, human rights, and literature.”

The current installation highlights three distinct academic partnerships:

Professor of Migration Amy Hsin selected works of art that complement coursework examining
legal status as a primary axis of social stratification for her class in the Keough School of
Global Affairs. These works explore U.S. immigration policy from the 19th-century era of mass
migration to modern climate displacement. This section challenges students to examine the
human drivers of mobility—economic necessity, state violence, and human rights—to place
legal frameworks alongside personal, lived experiences.

The Raclin Murphy is thrilled to partner again with the Initiative on Race and Resilience by
displaying works of art selected by Lauren Francis-Sharma, the Initiative’s 2026–2027 artist-in-
residence. This section of the installation features works geographically connected to the
Caribbean, the setting of her acclaimed novels ’Til the Well Runs Dry (2015) and Book of the
Little Axe (2020). The selections explore the artistic, translinguistic, and cultural dimensions of
racial and ethnic hierarchies in the region. During her residency, Francis-Sharma will use these
works to inform her historical fiction and lead workshops for campus and community writers.

Anchored by the work of Brazilian photographer Marc Ferrez (1843–1923), Professor Tatiana
Reinoza chose a focused case study for examining imperial and modern Brazil in her Latin
American and Latinx Photography course. Students will analyze how photography shaped
ideas about nationalism, modernity, and migration, placing Ferrez in dialogue with artists from
the nineteenth century to the present whose work also speaks to race, class, gender, and other
social issues.

The Raclin Murphy Museum of Art extends a special thanks to faculty and partners Neil Arner,
Lauren Francis-Sharma, Amy Hsin, Emily Normand, Tatiana Reinoza, and Elyse Speaks for
their collaboration on this semester’s installation.

The Teaching Gallery is open to all during Museum hours throughout the academic semester.

About the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art

With origins dating to 1875, the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art (formerly Snite Museum of Art)
is one of the oldest and most highly regarded university art museums in America. The renowned
permanent collection contains more than 31,000 works representing many cultures and periods in world art history.

Through its collections, exhibitions, and programs, the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art serves
and welcomes all to engage in wonder, spiritual reflection, inquiry, and research. For more
information, visit raclinmurphymuseum.nd.edu.

Media contact:
Gina Costa
Communications Program Director
Raclin Murphy Museum of Art
574-631-4720, gcosta@nd.edu

This guide joins hundreds of cultural institutions around the globe. Beyond unique content, the guide offers tools to enhance in-person visits. It is designed with a variety of built-in accessibility features including voiceover, captions and audio transcripts, image zoom, font size adjustment, and Google Translate integration in 60 languages.

“For the enrichment of campus and community, we are honored to be working in partnership with Bloomberg Connects,” shares Joseph Antenucci Becherer, Director of the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art. “Such partnerships underscore that we are here to serve and welcome all.”

The app will allow visitors to the Raclin Murphy Museum to turn their phones into a hands-free experience and a centralized place for important information. Off-site, it will let users explore the Museum and other cultural institutions from anywhere, providing information about the collections, artists, and special highlights.

The Raclin Murphy Museum of Art

With origins dating to 1875, the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art (formerly Snite Museum of Art) is one of the oldest and most highly regarded university art museums in America. The renowned permanent collection contains more than 31,000 works representing many cultures and periods of world art history.

Through its collections, exhibitions, and programs, the Museum serves and welcomes all to engage in wonder, spiritual reflection, inquiry, and research. For more information, visit raclinmurphymuseum.nd.edu.

Media contact:

Gina Costa
Communications Program Director
Raclin Murphy Museum of Art
gcosta@nd.edu

Notre Dame, IN – The Raclin Murphy Museum of Art is honored to announce the landmark exhibition of internationally acclaimed Italian artist Mimmo Paladino (b. 1948). A leading figure of the Italian avant-garde, Paladino’s paintings, sculptures, installations, films, prints, and illustrations are held in renowned public and private collections worldwide, including at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tate Modern, and the Vatican Museums. He is also highly regarded for his site-specific commissions, which include the mosaic, stained-glass, and wall drawings of the Mary, Queen of Families Chapel at the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art.

An overview of Paladino’s career will introduce audiences to the artist’s repertoire and highlight his position within the currents of art history through his paintings and sculptures. Following that contextualization, the exhibition will illuminate the master’s passion with literature and the art of the book through illustrations including his imagery for the Roman Messale for Pope Francis and a special edition of Dante’s Divine Comedy.

The final section will examine the commission and creation of the Mary, Queen of Families Chapel, including the premier presentation of Paladino’s unique handmade vestments that he has donated to the Museum and University. Although Paladino is not exclusively a religious artist, this exhibition highlights his commitment to the great humanistic and spiritual traditions that have shaped his work while also acknowledging the contribution his contemporary voice has added to the history of art.

“We are deeply honored to have worked with Mimmno Paladino for many years on many site-specific commissions and now this extraordinary exhibition. Most of this work—a celebration of humanity through art—has never been shown in the United States”, shares Joseph Antennucci Becherer, Director and Curator of Contemporary Art, Raclin Murphy Museum of Art.

Born and trained in southern Italy, Paladino first gained critical acclaim in the 1980s as a member of the Transavanguardia movement, whose artists sought a renewal of figurative art and a willingness to experiment with materials in the wake of successive waves of abstraction in America and Europe. Living briefly in New York, Paladino’s life and work have always maintained a close connection to Italy’s broad artistic heritage, its people, and traditions. Although commissions from the Vatican and the University of Notre Dame have focused attention on his liturgical work, Paladino’s oeuvre is vast; he explores history, literature, and dream imagery through his iconography, creative vision, and innovative use of materials.

Mimmo Paladino (Italian, b.1948)
Senza Titolo, (Untitled), 2019
Mixed media on canvas on wood
79.13 x 118.50 x 2.36 in.
Courtesy of the artist

Mimmo Paladino (Italian, b. 1948)
Rightly Fallen (Saint Francis), 1995, Caduto a Ragione (San Francesco)
Bronze
85.83 x 38.19 x 23.23 in.
Courtesy of the artist

Mimmo Paladino (Italian, b. 1948)
Divine Comedy, Canto XXX, page 331
Watercolor
16 x 12 in.
Courtesy of the artist

This exhibition is made possible with a grant from Lilly Endowment Inc.

About the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art

With origins dating to 1875, the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art (formerly Snite Museum of Art) at the University of Notre Dame is one of the oldest and most highly regarded university art museums in America. The renowned permanent collection contains over 32,000 works representing many cultures and periods in world art history.

Through its collections, exhibitions, and programs, the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art serves and welcomes all to engage in wonder, spiritual reflection, inquiry, and research. For more information, visit raclinmurphymuseum.nd.edu.

Media contact:
Gina Costa, Communications Program Director
Raclin Murphy Museum of Art
gcosta@nd.edu

The grant is one of 12 invitational grants that Lilly Endowment is making to help Indiana art museums strengthen and enhance their ability to contribute to cultural vibrancy in their communities and regions.

Grounded in the Raclin Murphy’s new strategic plan and with detailed attention to engage all aspects of the Museum and its communities, this grant is organized around several initiatives including: research across collections areas, new membership and collection databases and systems, audience analytics and communication strategies, collection care and object display enhancements, and a unified, state-of-the art infrastructure for the Museum’s renowned collections of prints, drawings, and photographs.

“This insightful and inspirational grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. provides exceptional opportunities for the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art to fulfill its potential on many fronts for the benefit of the communities we serve, from campus to the region and beyond,” shares Director Joseph Antenucci Becherer, Ph.D. “From providing multiple scholarly research opportunities, to enhanced visitor and membership experiences, to increased accessibility and awareness of the collections and exhibitions with which we have been entrusted, this grant provides extraordinary opportunities we would otherwise not be able to realize.”

About the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art

With origins dating to 1875, the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art (formerly Snite Museum of Art) at the University of Notre Dame is one of the oldest and most highly regarded university art museums in America. The renowned permanent collection contains more than 32,000 works representing many cultures and periods in world art history.

Through its collections, exhibitions, and programs, the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art serves and welcomes all to engage in wonder, spiritual reflection, inquiry, and research. For more information, visit raclinmurphymuseum.nd.edu. East facade of Raclin Murphy Museum=

About Lilly Endowment Inc.

Lilly Endowment Inc. is an Indianapolis-based private foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly, Sr. and his sons Eli and J.K. Jr. through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. Although the gifts of stock remain a financial bedrock of the Endowment, it is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff, and location. In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports community development, education, and religion. While the Endowment funds programs throughout the United States on an invitational basis to support these causes, especially in the field of religion, it maintains a special commitment to its founders’ hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana

Media contact: Gina Costa, Communications Program Director, Raclin Murphy Museum Art,
gcosta@nd.edu

Held on select Thursday evenings from May through August, performances take place from 5:30–7:30 p.m. on the Hiler Family Terrace. Guests are encouraged to bring a blanket or lawn chair, enjoy food and beverages from local vendors, and explore the Museum’s galleries—open during each event—for a uniquely immersive arts experience.

Curated by Stephen and Mary Merriman of Merrimans’ Playhouse, the series highlights a range of jazz styles and musicians from across the Midwest and beyond:

• May 21 – Merrimans’ Play-House Players
  The series opens with Stephen and Mary Merriman, along with an ensemble of standout regional musicians, in a lively performance inspired by jazz’s open-session tradition.
• June 11 – The Jim Cooper/Kenny Cooper Quartet
  Vibraphonist Jim Cooper and trumpeter Kenny Cooper lead a tribute to jazz legends, including Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Louis Armstrong.
• July 23 – Chicago Street Orchestra
  Chicago’s premier Latin jazz ensemble brings high-energy sounds spanning salsa, samba, cumbia, Afro-beat, and more.
• August 27 – Abram Collier Nonet
  Vocalist and baritone saxophonist Abram Collier leads a dynamic nine-piece ensemble blending jazz standards, original compositions, and inventive arrangements of
  contemporary music.

Each evening features food and beverage offerings for purchase from Ivan’s Café, Oh Mamma’s, and Perry Vine, creating a vibrant, community-centered atmosphere. 

“Our long partnership with Stephen and Mary Merriman continues to bring extraordinary musicians and joyful experiences to our community,” said Sarah Martin, Curator of Education, Public Programs. “This series reflects our shared commitment to making the arts accessible, social, and deeply engaging.”

Parking for the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art is available in the Visitor Lot, located directly behind the Museum, and becomes free to the public after 4:30 p.m. Additional street parking is available along Angela Boulevard. The Museum is accessible by public transit via South Bend Transpo Route 7, with a stop near the main entrance. All entrances are clearly marked for easy access.

All events are free and open to the public.

About the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art. With origins dating to 1875, the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art (formerly Snite Museum of Art) is one of the oldest and most highly regarded university art museums in America. The renowned permanent collection contains more than 31,000 works that represent many cultures and periods of world art history. 

Through its collections, exhibitions, and programs, the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art serves and welcomes all to engage in wonder, spiritual reflection, inquiry, and research. For more information, visit raclinmurphymuseum.nd.edu.

Media contact:
Gina Costa
Communications Program Director
Raclin Murphy Museum of Art
574-631-4720
gcosta@nd.edu

Najarro will give a talk and read a selection of her art-inspired poems on Wednesday, March 18, at 5:30 p.m. in the atrium of the Raclin Murphy Museum. In addition to her public talk, Najarro will be a Poet-in-Residence at the Museum on Thursday, March 19, and Friday, March 20, studying and researching in the galleries for material for new ekphrastic pieces. On one of those days, Najarro will be joined by Beth Ann Fennely, a Notre Dame alum and former Poet Laureate of Mississippi., who will occupy a one day ekphrastic residency as part of our multi-year initiative.

On Saturday, March 21, Najarro will offer an ekphrastic writing workshop in the galleries for members of the South Bend community. She will also spend time with students who are studying her work in the undergraduate seminar "Central American Narratives in the United States," taught by Latino Studies post-doctoral fellow, Maryam Parhizkar, and in the class “Latinx Poetry Now,” taught by Francisco Aragón, director of Letras Latinas, the literary initiative of the ILS.

Najarro is the author of five poetry collections, including Variations in Blue, selected for publication in 2025 through the Letras Latinas/Red Hen Press Collaborative. The California Arts Council recognized Najarro as an established artist for the Central California Region and appointed her as an Individual Artist Fellow. Her extended family left Nicaragua and arrived in San Francisco during the 1940s. After the fall of the Somoza regime in 1979, the last of the family settled in the Los Angeles area. Najarro is the Board President for Círculo de Poetas and Writers, and works with the Latinx community nationwide to promote the intersection of creative writing and social justice.

“We are eager to welcome Adela Najarro to the Raclin Murphy,” said Bridget Hoyt, curator of education for academic programs at the Raclin Murphy. “We look forward to learning with Ms. Najarro as her poetry illuminates new ways of understanding and connecting with the Museum’s collection.”

“Poets & Art: Ekphrasis at the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art” is a multi-year collaboration that emerged from conversations between Aragón and Hoyt. The initiative is in the process of showcasing six poets in three years, each giving a public presentation at the Museum, offering a community workshop, and meeting with Notre Dame students. Brenda Cárdenas, Poet Laureate of Wisconsin, spent a week on campus in September to inaugurate the initiative. Emma Trelles, the former Poet Laureate of Santa Barbara, California, and Alexandra Lytton Regalado, former winner of the National Poetry Series, will collaborate on these residency projects over the course of the 2026–27 academic year.

About the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art

With origins dating to 1875, the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art (formerly Snite Museum of Art) is one of the oldest and most highly regarded university art museums in America. Founded on the principle that art is essential to understanding individual, shared and diverse human experiences and beliefs, the Museum encourages close looking and critical thinking. Experiences with significant, original works of art are intended to stimulate inquiry, dialogue and wonder for audiences across the academy, the community and around the world—all in support of the University of Notre Dame’s Catholic mission. The renowned permanent collection contains more than 32,000 works that represent many cultures and periods of world art history. For more information, visit raclinmurphymuseum.nd.edu.

About Letras Latinas

Letras Latinas, the literary initiative at the Institute for Latino Studies (ILS), strives to enhance the visibility, appreciation, and study of Latino literature both on and off the campus of the University of Notre Dame. It emphasizes programs that support newer voices, foster a sense of community among writers, and place Latino writers in community spaces. Letras Latinas is a founding member of the Poetry Coalition, a national alliance working to promote the values poets bring to our culture and the important contribution poetry makes in the lives of people of all ages and backgrounds. Letras Latinas celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2024.

Media contacts:

Francisco Aragón
Director, Letras Latinas.
Institute for Latino Studies
University of Notre Dame
faragon@nd.edu
(574) 229-2933

Gina Costa
Communications Program Director
Raclin Murphy Museum of Art
gcosta@nd.edu
(574) 631-4720

Notre Dame, IN: With origins dating from 1875, the art collection at the University of Notre Dame is one of the oldest and most esteemed academic collections in the United States. To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the collection, the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art is hosting a major exhibition that highlights many of the recent gifts it has received to commemorate the anniversary. The gifts range from single works of art to entire collections, including highlights from the Ernestine Morris Carmichael Raclin Bequest.

Virtually every part of the permanent collection has benefited from the generosity of devoted alumni, supporters, and friends from across the country and worldwide. Iconic paintings from Thomas Gainsborough to John Singer Sargent, Georges Rouault to Julie Mehretu are included, as are prints and drawings ranging from Martin Schongauer to Pablo Picasso to Elizabeth Catlett, among many others. Works from across the Indigenous Americas are represented by Veracruz sculptures and Cuzco altarpieces, as well as recent work by Diego Romero and Jaime Okuma. Photographs by such canonical figures as Ansel Adams, Andreas Gursky, and Marilyn Minter will also be exhibited. 

This monumental exhibition, on view from February 17 to June 14, 2026, will be presented in the temporary exhibition galleries and sited in select permanent collection spaces across the Museum and in the Charles B. Hayes Family Sculpture Park. Bridging Time and Place is a highlight of a sesquicentennial celebration of exhibitions and events that will run from August through December 2026.

The Exhibition and Sesquicentennial Celebration are made possible by the Sesquicentennial Fund and The Friends of the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art. Additional support comes from the Marilynn and James W. Alsdorf Endowment, the Ashbaugh Endowment, the Alice Tully Endowment, and the Susan and Justin Driscoll Endowment.

About the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art. With origins dating to 1875, the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art (formerly Snite Museum of Art) is one of the oldest and most highly regarded university art museums in America. The renowned permanent collection contains more than 31,000 works that represent many cultures and periods of world art history.

Through its collections, exhibitions, and programs, the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art serves and welcomes all to engage in wonder, spiritual reflection, inquiry, and research. For more information, visit raclinmurphymuseum.nd.edu.

Media contact:
Gina Costa
Communications Program Director
Raclin Murphy Museum of Art
574-631-4720
gcosta@nd.edu

The Teaching Gallery makes visible to all visitors to the Museum—not only the University community—the focused learning taking place at Notre Dame and the opportunities provided by an academic art museum.

PhotoFutures: Collecting Art for Notre Dame

Of special note this semester is the display of the latest acquisition by PhotoFutures, the Museum’s collaborative student collecting group that acquires contemporary photography for the Museum’s permanent collection. Challenged by the Museum to acquire a work of art addressing the theme of “food,” Solbee Kang ’27, Emmelia Kromkowski ’26, Ellanie Fernandez ’29, Ava Casey ’29, Antonio Dominguez De Obaldia ’28, Iván Álvarez Sancho ’26, Patrick Rodriguez ’27, and Ruthanne Sandner ’26 considered hundreds of images by a score of contemporary photographers.

Ultimately, the PhotoFutures students chose Carrying Sorghum Home for Dinner, a 2010 photograph by Jim Richardson from his “Women Farmers” series. Richardson’s photograph invites viewers to encounter an Ethiopian farmer carrying a massive bundle of sorghum, likely harvested from land her family has gathering rights to but does not own. The heat- and drought-resistant ancient grain is indigenous to this part of East Africa, and she will use it for food and as animal forage. One of the students’ reasons for selecting it was the opportunity to discuss the role of women farmers, who constitute over half of the labor force that grows our food around the world, yet lag in recognition, financial aid, and research assistance. The theme of women farmers is increasingly relevant as the United Nations declared 2026 the International Year of the Woman Farmer.

Only Connect Chemistry and Art

Representing a perhaps surprising discipline to make use of the Teaching Gallery, the chemistry class Only Connect Chemistry and Art has nine works of art on display to explore the shared ways of knowing and common approaches to inquiry practiced in the fields of chemistry and art. Co-taught in the galleries and science laboratories, this course is a collaboration between Professor Bahram Moasser from the department of chemistry and biochemistry and Professor Michael Schreffler from art history to show how the two fields enrich each other: both value observation, experimentation, and interpretation, and both combine image and structure to communicate the complexity of ideas and ways of knowing the world. At their heart, both disciplines involve creative acts.

In this course, students come into direct contact with works of art through visual analysis and gain knowledge and context relating to scientific ideas. They integrate each discipline’s concepts and theories into a more comprehensive and nuanced account of course themes while sharpening their critical analysis skills. While the course uses works of art throughout the Museum’s galleries, the Teaching Gallery display, which includes works of art ranging from a Dada collage by Kurt Schwitters to a Gothic revival dessert plate designed by A.W.N. Pugin, primarily serves units on formal symmetry, perspective, and chance in chemistry and art.

About the Teaching Gallery

The Teaching Gallery welcomes faculty from any discipline to select works of art not typically on view to be installed for an entire semester to support course goals. Faculty from any discipline are invited to use this space and the Museum’s extensive collection as resources in their course design. A special thank you to the following faculty for their partnership and collaboration on this semester’s installation: Sarah Carter (art history), Kathleen Cummings (American studies), Joris Geldhof (theology), Rev. Paul Kollman, C.S.C. (theology), Elizabeth Mazurek (classics), Bahram Moasser (chemistry and biochemistry), and Michael Schreffler (art history).

About the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art

With origins dating to 1875, the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art (formerly Snite Museum of Art) is one of the oldest and most highly regarded university art museums in America. The renowned permanent collection contains more than 31,000 works that represent many cultures and periods of world art history.

Through its collections, exhibitions, and programs, the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art serves and welcomes all to engage in wonder, spiritual reflection, inquiry, and research. For more information, visit raclinmurphymuseum.nd.edu.

Media contact:

Gina Costa
Communications Program Director
Raclin Murphy Museum of Art
574-631-4720
gcosta@nd.edu

The gift will confer the name “Marten Family Gallery” on the current east gallery of European Art before 1700.Works by Vicenzo Spisanelli, Claude Lorrain, Giuseppe Ribera, and Bartolomeo Veneto, among others, are featured in the gallery. With re-naming the gallery, a permanent feature, centered in the gallery, will be installed; to be called the “Marian Court,” it will be a permanent display featuring Marian imagery from the Raclin Murphy’s extensive holdings to honor Virginia Marten’s particular devotion to Mary, the Mother of Christ, and her love of art. Currently, images based on Marian iconography, ranging from paintings by Francesco Francia to Hans Memling to Giorgio Vasari, are highlighted in this space.

Complementing the named gallery, the second part of the gift establishes the Marten Family Endowment for Marian Art. The new endowment will provide support for research, conservation, acquisitions, interpretation, and programming to advance scholarship and the appreciation of the traditions of Marian Art. A unique endowment to the institution, it underscores both the Museum’s and the University’s commitment to research and inquiry.

"This gift is meant to honor my sweet mother, Virginia Marten’s love for both Notre Dame, the Blessed Mother, and her passion for the arts. We believe we found the perfect space in which to do just that at the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art. I know my mother would be thrilled and humbled by this," states Gini Marten Hupfer.

“The support of the Marten Family, beginning with Virginia and steadfastly followed by her children, is truly remarkable and inspiring,” states Joseph Antenucci Becherer, Director and Curator of Sculpture. “The Raclin Murphy Museum of Art and the University of Notre Dame are uniquely positioned to facilitate and celebrate the study and appreciation of Marian imagery, thus truly honoring the legacy of Virginia and her family. Their gift and endowment mark an exceptional moment when love, devotion, and scholarship converge.”

Admission to the Museum is free for all guests. For more information on hours of operation, exhibits, and special events, visit raclinmurphymuseum.nd.edu.

About the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art
With origins dating to 1875, the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art (formerly Snite Museum of Art) is one of the oldest and most highly regarded university art museums in America. The renowned permanent collection contains more than 31,000 works that represent many cultures and periods of world art history. Through its collections, exhibitions, and programs, the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art serves and welcomes all to engage in wonder, spiritual reflection, inquiry, and research. For more information, visit raclinmurphymuseum.nd.edu.

Media contact:
Gina Costa, Communications Program Director
Raclin Murphy Museum of Art
574-631-4720
gcosta@nd.edu

Moreau First-Year Seminar at the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art

The University of Notre Dame’s Raclin Murphy Museum of Art and the Institute for Latino Studies (ILS) are pleased to present “Poets & Art with Brenda Cárdenas,” featuring the Poet Laureate of Wisconsin, who will give a talk and perform a selection of her art-inspired poems. The program will take place on Wednesday, September 24, at 5:30 p.m. at the Museum, to launch a joint initiative between the Museum and the ILS.

“ILS is thrilled that one of our flagship programs, Letras Latinas, is partnering with the Raclin Murphy Museum to bring Brenda Cárdenas to campus. We can’t seriously study the Latino experience in the United States without consideration of Latino contributions to the arts. The event with Ms. Cárdenas exemplifies the Institute’s ongoing commitment to the arts,” said Jason Ruiz, director of the Institute for Latino Studies.

“Poets & Art: Ekphrasis at the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art” is a multi-year initiative that emerged from conversations between Francisco Aragón, director of the ILS’s literary initiative, and Bridget Hoyt, the Museum’s Curator of Education for Academic Programs. “Bridget has been facilitating my class visits to the Museum for years. The opening of our new Museum inspired us to dream up this more ambitious collaboration, which Brenda’s visit inaugurates,” said Aragón, a poet, Letras Latinas director, and ILS faculty fellow.

"We are delighted to host and inspire Brenda Cárdenas's visit. This important partnership with ILS furthers the importance of the arts and sense of community across Notre Dame," said Joe Becherer, director of the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art.

In addition to her public presentation on Wednesday, Cárdenas will be Poet-in-Residence at the Museum on Thursday and Friday, studying and researching in the galleries to write new ekphrastic pieces. On Saturday, September 27, she will offer an ekphrastic writing workshop in the galleries for members of the South Bend community. Cárdenas will also spend time with students, including MFA candidates in the Creative Writing Program and undergraduate students in Aragón’s literature course. A PhD student from the English Department will conduct an oral history interview with her.

"Brenda Cárdenas's visit occurs in the context of Notre Dame's broader, institutional support of the arts through the Arts Initiative. We are delighted to join the other sponsors in supporting this imaginative, interdisciplinary project,” said Michael Schreffler, director of the Notre Dame Arts Initiative. Other campus sponsors include the Initiative on Race and Resilience, the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, and Somos ND, the campus-wide initiative.

In all, “Poets & Art: Ekphrasis at the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art” will showcase six poets in the next three years, each giving a public presentation at the Museum, offering a community workshop, and meeting with Notre Dame students. Nicaraguan American poet Adela Najarro will be the second poet in the series next March.

About the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art

With origins dating to 1875, the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art (formerly Snite Museum of Art) is one of the oldest and most highly regarded university art museums in America. Founded on the principle that art is essential to understanding individual, shared and diverse human experiences and beliefs, the Museum encourages close looking and critical thinking. Experiences with significant, original works of art are intended to stimulate inquiry, dialogue and wonder for audiences across the academy, the community and around the world—all in support of the University of Notre Dame’s Catholic mission. The renowned permanent collection contains more than 31,000 works that represent many cultures and periods of world art history. For more information, visit raclinmurphymuseum.nd.edu.

About Letras Latinas

Letras Latinas, the literary initiative at the Institute for Latino Studies (ILS), strives to enhance the visibility, appreciation, and study of Latino literature both on and off the campus of the University of Notre Dame. It emphasizes programs that support newer voices, foster a sense of community among writers, and place Latino writers in community spaces. Letras Latinas is a founding member of the Poetry Coalition, a national alliance working to promote the values poets bring to our culture and the important contribution poetry makes in the lives of people of all ages and backgrounds. Letras Latinas celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2024.

Media contact:
Francisco Aragon
Director, Letras Latinas
Institute for Latino Studies
University of Notre Dame
faragon@nd.edu
(574) 229-2933

Media contact:
Gina Costa
Communications Program Director
Raclin Murphy Museum of Art
gcosta@nd.edu
(574) 631-4720

South Bend, IN: Partnering with departments across the Notre Dame campus, the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art’s Teaching Gallery opens its fall exhibition in collaboration with eight areas of study and numerous faculty. The Teaching Gallery is a unique space that provides greater access to objects for students working on research, presentations, and course engagement or other projects requiring the sustained study of objects; it also makes visible to all visitors the focused learning taking place at Notre Dame.

Although the Raclin Murphy considers all 23 permanent collection galleries in the Museum a welcoming forum for teaching and learning, the semester-long Teaching Gallery exhibition highlights the opportunities of an academic art museum. Faculty members from all disciplines are invited to use the gallery space and the Museum’s extensive collection as resources in their course design. This fall, the gallery will have works for close study for classes in history, classics, English, theology, biological sciences, and art history. In addition, the Institute for Latino Studies and the Moreau First-Year Seminar will be visiting the gallery for programs with their students. For these classes, the Museum and education department will collaborate with Professors Francisco Aragon, Christopher Baron, Emily Beck, John Deak, Brandon Menke, Stacey Noem, Elyse Speaks, and the Moreau First-Year Seminar faculty. Paintings, sculpture, photographs, and prints from the Classical Greek and Roman periods to the Post-Modern Era are featured.

Of special note, the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art is welcoming the entire first year class into the Museum this semester through the Moreau First-Year Experience Seminar. The seminar invites all first-year students to address perennial questions about worth, purpose, and relationships with others, the world, and God. Animated by Notre Dame’s Catholic mission and a sacramental vision of God working through persons, these students join their peers in stepping back from the routines and tasks of life to consider life at Notre Dame as a whole and participate in the lifelong endeavor of living well.

Admission to the Museum is free for all guests. For more information on hours of operation, exhibits, and special events, visit raclinmurphymuseum.nd.edu.

About the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art

With origins dating to 1875, the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art (formerly Snite Museum of Art) is one of the oldest and most highly regarded university art museums in America. Founded on the principle that art is essential to understanding individual, shared and diverse human experiences and beliefs, the Museum encourages close looking and critical thinking. Experiences with significant, original works of art are intended to stimulate inquiry, dialogue and wonder for audiences across the academy, the community and around the world—all in support of the University of Notre Dame’s Catholic mission. The renowned permanent collection contains more than 31,000 works that represent many cultures and periods of world art history. For more information, visit raclinmurphymuseum.nd.edu.

Media contact:
Gina Costa
Communications Program Director
Raclin Murphy Museum of Art
574-631-4720
gcosta@nd.edu

August 19–December 7, 2025

July 16, 2025

South Bend, IN. Long favored as one of Ireland’s modern artists, Walter Osborne (1859–1903) is the focus of a new exhibition this fall at the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art at the University of Notre Dame.

Homecoming: Walter Osborne’s Portraits of Dublin 1880–1900—the first one of its kind in this country—brings together Osborne’s masterpieces from public and private collections in Ireland and the United States to examine the trajectory of his tragically short career. From his student work in Dublin and Antwerp to his sparkling portraits of Dublin’s elite that earned him international acclaim, Osborne was an astute witness to the dramatic changes unfolding in his native city in the late 1800s.

His painting At the Breakfast Table (1894), acquired by the Raclin Murphy Museum in 2019, is regarded by scholars as signaling a pivotal point in his career and is the springboard for this presentation. The canvas marks his return to Ireland following the death of his sister, Violet, to help raise her infant daughter who was sent to be raised by the artist’s aging parents in the family home in Rathmines. Osborne himself noted that it was one of his best paintings and showed it in key exhibitions soon after he completed it.

“Hibernophiles and art lovers alike will find Osborne’s observations of modern life in Dublin and its environs intriguing,” said Cheryl Snay, curator of European and American art before 1900. At the time, very few Irish professional artists were making a living there due to limited patronage, art markets, and opportunity. Osborne’s return to Dublin after studying in Antwerp and traveling the French and English countrysides painting landscapes offers a unique vision of urban Ireland. Snay continued, “The close analysis of his subjects and pictorial strategies reveals the history of a city bracing for imminent political, social, and economic change.”

With loans of important paintings and drawings from the National Gallery of Ireland, Hugh Lane Gallery, Limerick City Gallery of Art, the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork, and private collectors in Ireland and the United States, this exhibition introduces to American audiences a beloved Irish artist whose embrace of a luminous palette and fluid brushwork rivals that of J.A.M. Whistler and John Singer Sargent.

“A deeply engaging exhibition for all audiences, it is a landmark opportunity for important research in the field and the Museum’s exhibitions and collections program,” stated Joseph Antenucci Becherer, director of the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art. “Representing years of dedicated curatorial effort in Ireland, England, and across the United States, the exhibition freshly illuminates an exceptional artist and the city and people of Dublin itself,” Becherer said.

A fully illustrated catalogue co-published with Giles, Ltd., accompanies the exhibition and contributes to the scholarship of Irish studies. Essays written by Dr. Judith Stapleton, research fellow at the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies; Curators Brendan Rooney and Logan Sisley at the National Gallery of Ireland and the Hugh Lane Gallery, respectively, and Irish art scholar Kathryn Milligan provide new insights into Walter Osborne’s Dublin.

Osborn Exhibition special programs

• Lecture: Kathryn Milligan, independent Scholar and Assistant Librarian at the Edward Murphy Library at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin: “At Home: Walter Osborne’s Paintings of Family Life,” Wednesday, September 3, 5:30 p.m.
• Lecture: Brendan Rooney, Head Curator, National Gallery of Ireland: “ ‘All the Reality of Life’: Osborn, People, and Portraiture,” Wednesday, November 5, 5:30 p.m.
• Lecture: Logan Sisley, Head of Collections, The Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin: “‘One of Our Few Geniuses’: Walter Osborne and Hugh Lane’s Gallery of Modern Art.” Wednesday, November 12, 5:30 p.m

Admission to the museum is free for all guests. For more information on hours of operation, exhibits and special events, visit raclinmurphymuseum.nd.edu.

About the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art
With origins dating to 1875, the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art (formerly Snite Museum of Art) is one of the oldest and most highly regarded university art museums in America. Founded on the principle that art is essential to understanding individual, shared and diverse human experiences and beliefs, the Museum encourages close looking and critical thinking. Experiences with significant, original works of art are intended to stimulate inquiry, dialogue and wonder for audiences across the academy, the community and around the world—all in support of the University of Notre Dame’s Catholic mission. The renowned permanent collection contains more than 31,000 works that represent many cultures and periods of world art history. For more information, visit raclinmurphymuseum.nd.edu.

Media contact:
Gina Costa
Communications Program Director
Raclin Murphy Museum of Art
574-631-4720
gcosta@nd.edu

The image of Mary and the infant Jesus joined by Mary’s mother, Anne, emphasizes genealogy and increases the elderly saint’s role in the salvation of the faithful. Such groupings of the trio appeared as early as 1290, but the cult of Saint Anne reached its peak in Germany and the Low Countries from about 1480 through the 1520s. The stories and legends about Anne featured her roles as a wife, mother, and as a source of charitable giving and service, making her an apt model for women in medieval society.

"The Raclin Murphy Museum of Art is honored to celebrate this important acquisition—especially during this, our Sesquicentennial. Although Marian imagery, in general, resonates powerfully at the University of Notre Dame, this strategic opportunity will certainly impact generations of visitors," said Joseph Antenucci Becherer, Director and Curator of Sculpture, Raclin Murphy Museum of Art.

In this variation on the theme of the holy family, often referred to as Anna Selbdritt, Mary and Anne sit next to each other on a bench as equals. Anne is seated on the right, veiled as any respectable married woman would be around 1500 in Germany, and is slightly larger than her daughter, indicating her status as an elder. She holds an open book in her hand and looks down towards the nude baby Jesus, who holds his hand in a gesture of blessing over the book. In his other hand, he holds an orb, symbol of the world. He is presented as the “word made flesh.” Mary is a young maiden with long flowing hair and the high hairline that was fashionable at the time. As Queen of Heaven, she wears a crown and smiles warmly at the viewer while steadying her active child standing on her knees.

Cheryl Snay, Curator of European and American Art before 1900, noted, “The artist invested the family with naturalistic, if idealized, gestures and features; and the realistic scale of the figures relative to one another and the overall balance of the composition signal the Church’s embrace of humanism.” She continued, “Symbolically, the graceful arc of Jesus’s body and his outstretched arms prefigure his resurrection and triumph over death and anticipate believers’ redemption.”

Although the artist’s name is unrecorded, the placid features of Mary’s face, the broad sweep of the drapery folds and the deep carving are typical of Upper Rhine and Swabian sculpture of this period. The artist succeeded in combining refined elegance and beauty with the tenderness and intimacy of a family interaction, balancing theological content with the ordinary.

This important acquisition is made possible through the Fritz and Mildred Kaeser Liturgical Endowment.

Admission to the museum is free for all guests. For more information on hours of operation, exhibits and special events, visit raclinmurphymuseum.nd.edu.

About the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art

With origins dating to 1875, the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art (formerly Snite Museum of Art) is one of the oldest and most highly regarded university art museums in America. Founded on the principle that art is essential to understanding individual, shared and diverse human experiences and beliefs, the Museum encourages close looking and critical thinking. Experiences with significant, original works of art are intended to stimulate inquiry, dialogue and wonder for audiences across the academy, the community and around the world—all in support of the University of Notre Dame’s Catholic mission. The renowned permanent collection contains more than 31,000 works that represent many cultures and periods of world art history. For more information, visit raclinmurphymuseum.nd.edu.

Media contact:
Gina Costa
Communications Program Director
Raclin Murphy Museum of Art
574-631-4720
gcosta@nd.edu

Line-Up:

• May 8 – Merrimans' Play-House Players
• June 12 – Harry Tonchev Trio
• July 17 – Visions Jazz Ensemble
• August 28 – Javier Red Quartet

All performances are from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. For more information, visit our website raclinmurphymuseum.nd.edu

Museum galleries will be open so you can explore the work of art paired with the performance.

Series curated by Stephen and Mary Merriman of Merrimans’ Playhouse.

Parking is available in the Visitor Lot immediately north of the Sculpture Park for a fee during the week (before 4:30 p.m.). Free two-hour parking is available in the Eddy Street Commons Parking Garage or along Angela Blvd. After 4:30 p.m. and on weekends, parking is free and available in any non-gated lot. If traveling via South Bend Transpo, take the No.7 bus and use the stop for Eddy St. Commons (at the intersection of Angela & Eddy St).

Spend the Summer @ Your Museum

Discover, create, and be inspired at your Raclin Murphy Museum of Art! From hands-on workshops to engaging gallery experiences, our summer programs offer fun and creative ways for all ages to connect with art.

Meet Your Museum Tours
Every Sunday at 1:00 p.m.

Art + Insight
First Thursday of Every Month

Open Studio
First Sunday of Every Month, Noon– 5:00 p.m.

Artful Storytime with the St. Joseph County Public Library
One Saturday Each Month, 1:00–2:00 p.m.

StoryWalk in the Charles B. Hayes Family Sculpture Park
July 1–September 2

For more information and a complete listing of all summer programs, visit our website raclinmurphymuseum.nd.edu. The events are free and open for all!

About the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art 

With origins dating to 1875, the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art (formerly Snite Museum of Art) is one of the oldest and most highly regarded university art museums in America. Founded on the principle that art is essential to understanding individual, shared, and diverse human experiences and beliefs, the Museum encourages close looking and critical thinking. Experiences with significant, original works of art are intended to stimulate inquiry, dialogue, and wonder for audiences across the academy, the community, and around the world—all in support of the University of Notre Dame’s Catholic mission. The renowned permanent collection contains more than 30,000 works representing many cultures and periods of world art history. For more information, visit raclinmurphymuseum.nd.edu.

Media contact:

Gina Costa
Communications Program Director
Raclin Murphy Museum of Art
574-631-4720
gcosta@nd.edu

About the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art

With origins dating to 1875, the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art (formerly the Snite Museum of Art) is one of the oldest and most highly regarded university art museums in America. Founded on the principle that art is essential to understanding individual, shared, and diverse human experiences and beliefs, the Museum encourages close looking and critical thinking. Experiences with significant, original works of art are intended to stimulate inquiry, dialogue, and wonder for audiences across the academy, the community, and around the world—all in support of the University of Notre Dame’s Catholic mission. The renowned permanent collection contains more than 30,000 works representing many cultures and periods of world art history. For more information, visit raclinmurphymuseum.nd.edu.

2:30–4:00 p.m.

Brendan Fernandes’s Moving Through is a site-specific work that will be performed by six dancers at the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art at the University of Notre Dame. Fernandes intends the work to dissolve the boundaries among visual art, dancers, and audience members. The performance will take place in the Museum atrium and throughout the galleries; visitors can expect to see dancers in the galleries as they respond to a dynamic score composed collaboratively by students. Rather than stage a stationary performance, dancers will move through the Museum, allowing visitors to watch the fluid performance and come and go as they wish.

Notre Dame students who know the Museum intimately through their committed work on the Museum’s Student Programming Committee and in the Gallery Teaching Program will have the opportunity to select works of art to be featured and contribute to the score. These textual prompts—poetic, symbolic, and descriptive—emerging from a collaborative process will transform the dancers' engagement with specific artworks in the Museum’s collection into a Fluxus-inspired happening in a dialogue between text and movement.

As the dancers search for specific works of art, they will progress through the gallery spaces, pausing, interacting, and building relationships with each work of art while using gesture and movement as a form of communication. While certain gestures and phrases are choreographed, the performance remains deeply rooted in improvisation, allowing for a fluid and evolving exchange between dance and art.

The work will unfold as a meditative act, inviting an extended, slow process of looking, sensing, and interpreting. Audience members may come upon a dancer by chance or follow them as they respond to an artwork, thereby transforming observation into an immersive experience.

Though largely silent, the performance will be punctuated by sound. At key points, dancers will gather and play soft ambient or classical music via personal radios and sound devices to create fleeting sonic landscapes. At times, the soundscape will become a cacophony of overlapping tones; at others, a call-and-response dialogue among dancers or a rhythmic interplay of sound will emerge and then disappear as they switch their radios on and off. These auditory moments will animate the space, providing tempo and rhythm for movement.

By integrating movement, stillness, and sonic interplay, Fernandes reimagines the Museum as a living, breathing space where art and dance converge, challenging how we see, experience, and interpret both art forms. The performance will invite audiences into an active, meditative process of seeing, experiencing, and engaging with art in new and transformative ways.

Dancers
Katlin Bourgeois
Hanna DiLorenzo
Princess Gates
Kara Hunsinger
Brian Martinez
Morgan McDaniel

Sound 
Claire Staples

Brendan Fernandes is the 2025 artist-in-residence in the Notre Dame Initiative on Race and Resilience. The site-specific commissioned piece Moving Through is made possible through collaboration among, and support from the Initiative on Race and Resilience, the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center, and the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art.

Brendan Fernandes (b. 1979, Nairobi, Kenya) is an internationally recognized Canadian artist working at the intersection of dance and visual arts. Rooted in collaboration and fostering solidarity, Fernandes’s projects take hybrid forms to address issues of race, queer culture, migration, protest, and other forms of collective movement. He is a graduate of the Whitney Independent Study Program (2007) and a recipient of a Robert Rauschenberg Fellowship (2014). In 2010, he was shortlisted for the Sobey Art Award and received a prestigious 2017 Canada Council New Chapters grant. Fernandes is also the recipient of the Platform Award (2024), the Artadia Award (2019), a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (2020), and a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation grant (2019). His projects have been shown at the 2019 Whitney Biennial (New York); the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York); the Museum of Modern Art (New York); the Getty Museum (Los Angeles); the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa); MAC (Montreal), among a great many others. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Art Theory and Practice at Northwestern University. Fernandes is represented by Monique Meloche Gallery in Chicago and Susan Inglett Gallery in New York. Recent and upcoming projects include performances and solo presentations at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation (St. Louis), MCA Denver, The Fabric Workshop (Philadelphia), and Prospect 6 (New Orleans).

February 4–June 1, 2025

January 7, 2025

South Bend, Indiana: The Raclin Murphy Museum of Art is delighted to announce a solo exhibition with artist Clarissa Tossin, a native of Brazil living and working in Los Angeles. Clarissa Tossin: All That You Touch, You Change will feature moving-image, sculpture, drawing, weaving, and installation works. A highlight of the exhibition is the film installation Mojo'q che b'ixan r  ixkanulab’ / Antes de que los Volcanes Canten / Before the Volcanoes Sing, which marks the first collaboration between Tossin and guest curator Jared Katz, former associate curator of the Americas and Africa at the Museum. The installaMon was recently featured in the 2024 Whitney Biennial in New York.

The title of the exhibition is drawn from Octavia Butler’s novel Parable of the Sower, which opens with the verses, “All that you touch / You change. / All that you Change / Changes you. / The only lasting truth / Is Change.” The verses encapsulate Tossin’s belief in our capacity to influence Earth’s ecological future. Within this exhibition, the artist explores how legacies of colonialism lead to harmful appropriative practices, rampant consumption, and destruction of Earth’s life-sustaining biodiversity, as well as the attempted privatization of, and extraction from, sovereign celestial bodies. Working in diverse mediums, she cautions that we are already experiencing climate crisis. 

Throughout Tossin’s work, she encourages people to join together to move away from our consumeristic behaviors in order to create lasting change. The exhibition brings together three bodies of Tossin’s work. The first comprises her reflections on Maya revival architecture, including two films—Mojo’q che b’ixan ri ixkanulab’ / Antes de que los Volcanes Canten / Before the Volcanoes Sing and Ch’u Mayaa—as well as a series of sculptures on loan from the Whitney Museum of American Art. She recontextualizes Maya revival buildings, an architectonic style realized primarily by United States-based architects who borrowed motifs from a variety of Mesoamerican cultures at the beginning of the twentieth century. Tossin’s work imbues these colonized spaces with performances inspired by ancient Maya musical instruments, depictions of dance, and contemporary Maya poetry to reclaim this contentious revivalist architecture for Maya-descendant communities.

The next body of work explores the impact of extraction and consumerism on the environment in works such as Encontro das Águas and Rising Temperature Casualty. Tossin places traditional Amazonian weaving practices in conversation with digital technology and consumeristic waste, primarily that of corporate Amazon delivery boxes and envelopes, she emphasize how this global corporation is harming the very environment and peoples after which it is named. 

Finally, the artist considers the impact of expansionist and extractive colonial mentalities that are embedded in our approaches to the privatization of space exploration and mining. Works such as Maritime Arrivals, Future Geography, and new commissions by the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art address how celestial bodies are recognized as sovereign under international law and are sacred to many cultures worldwide. Tossin views current international space law insufficient to regulate private corporations, the very ones that are primary contributors to global climate change. Her exhibition reveals how legacies of colonialism continue to have a profound impact on people, the planet, and now, space.

This exhibition is organized by Jared Katz, former Associate Curator of the Americas and Africa at the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, and is made possible by the Duncan Family Endowment, with additional support from the Kathleen and Richard Champlin Endowment, and the Friends of the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, Charter membership. 

Clarissa Tossin (b. 1973, Porto Alegre, Brazil; lives in Los Angeles) has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Frye Art Museum, Seattle (2023), the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver (2022), and La Kunsthalle Mulhouse, France (2021), among others. Her work has been exhibited in numerous notable group exhibitions, including at the Whitney Biennial, New York (2024); Prospect 6 Triennial, New Orleans (2024); Shanghai Biennale (2023); Chicago Architecture Biennial (2023); Dhaka Art Summit, Bangladesh (2020); Gwangju Biennale, South Korea (2018); and the Hammer Museum’s Made in L.A., Los Angeles (2014). She is the recipient of numerous awards, grants, and fellowships, including those from the Smithsonian Institute (2023), Graham Foundation (2020), Foundation for Contemporary Arts (2019), Artadia (2018), and Harvard Radcliffe Institute (2017–18). Tossin’s work is included in permanent collections of major institutions throughout the United States and Brazil. Tossin holds an MFA from the Californ Institute of the Arts and a BFA from Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado, São Paulo, Brazil.

The all-day symposium on Friday will be held in the Annenberg Auditorium of the Snite Research Center in the Visual Arts from 9:30 AM through 5:30 PM and is open to everyone. 

A life-long supporter of the arts, Raclin began collecting in earnest in the 1980s and 1990s, assembling the highest quality works that reflected her taste for old master and nineteenth-century aesthetics. A devoted supporter of the University of Notre Dame, and its first female Trustee, and committed to cultural institutions in and around her home of South Bend, Ind., Raclin planned the donation to further the University’s mission to foster an appreciation for the greatest human achievements and intellectual exchange. She sincerely wished to encourage the growth of the museum that now bears her name, the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art.

“Our mother loved the arts and was devoted to the community in which she lived,” shared daughter, Carmi, and son-in-law, Chris Murphy. “She collected and displayed beautiful things in her home, and joyously shared her art collection entertaining people from across the region and country. It is only appropriate that this gift can now be shared with the community she loved through the beautiful new Raclin Murphy Museum of Art and the University of Notre Dame.”

The Raclin Bequest includes works from the fifteenth through the early twentieth centuries but is especially strong in eighteenth-century art. A portrait by Jean-Baptiste Greuze, a landscape sketch by Hubert Robert, and a fête champêtre by Nicolas Lancret, for example, offer further depth to holdings by French masters Elisabeth Vigée Lebrun and François Boucher already in the University’s collection. Portraits by Thomas Gainsborough and Joshua Reynolds bolster the representation of British art in the collection with impressive demonstrations of costume and technique. Jean-Antoine Houdon’s patinated terracotta portrait bust of his infant daughter is the first of its kind in the collection.

The University’s nineteenth-century collection is best known for its French academic works and oil sketches. The Raclin gift complements those holdings with proto-Impressionist, Impressionist and post-Impressionist examples. Landscapes by Camille Corot and Johan Jongkind are the types of paintings that inspired the Impressionists and heralded a new approach to painting founded on advances in color theory. Hippolyte Petitjean, for example, is most closely aligned with Pointillism, a technique of placing dots or very short strokes of pure color next to each other recognizing that the human eye will combine the colors when viewed at a distance. In his painting of the Cathedral of Notre Dame, he uses a seemingly mechanical technique and further suggests the angst of an increasingly industrialized world by juxtaposing the buttresses of the medieval church with the crane in the foreground loading cargo onto a barge. The lone American work in the gift, John Alexander White’s Reflection, is notable for its synthesis of various avant-garde trends that make it difficult to categorize his work. He combines sinuous lines, abstract shapes, the limited, muted tones of his American compatriot J.A.M. Whistler, and a deep interest in psychological effects and technical experimentation to arrive at a unique revelation of the fin-de-siècle spirit.

“Throughout her extraordinary life, Ernestine Raclin demonstrated time and again her commitment to her local community and to increasing accessibility and appreciation of the arts,” said Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., University president. “We are grateful for her generous support that enabled the creation of the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, as well as this additional gift which will delight museum attendees for many generations to come.”

With origins that date to 1875, the University’s art museum is among the first and most esteemed academic art museums in the nation. The Raclin Bequest is cornerstone to a major initiative, 150 for 150: Art for Notre Dame the Sesquicentennial Campaign, to strategically build the collection for students, faculty, researchers, and the nation. The goal is to achieve 150 gifts for 150 years. A gift could be a single object or, as with the Raclin Bequest, an entire collection.

The campaign is focused on Museum collecting priorities including: Art of the Indigenous Americas, European and American Art before 1900, International Modern and Contemporary Art, Irish Art, Sculpture, and Works on Paper (prints, drawings and photographs). Such extraordinary generosity is not limited to the Notre Dame family. Friends, old and new, have stepped forward with great care. The Raclin Bequest and other gifts will debut at the end of the campaign in a major celebratory exhibition in early 2026.

“Although Ernie had long been a supporter of the Museum and generously gifted numerous works to the collection over decades, this gift is quite special,” shares Joseph Antenucci Becherer, PhD, Director and Curator of Sculpture. “To know that she lived with and found profound enjoyment and inspiration in these objects, and wanted to share that with the world, fills the Museum with her spirit of grace, passion, and love of others.”

It is critical to note that art is central to learning and research across the academy, and the Museum collections are available to the region, the nation, and beyond. At Notre Dame, the collections are annually utilized by more than forty departments, representing nearly every college and school on campus. Recent research shows that 91% of graduating seniors had visited the museum—an astonishing number. Additionally, the Museum welcomes more than 11,000 K-12 students yearly from a three-state area. Beyond those outreach efforts, the Museum lends works to the highest caliber exhibitions nationwide and worldwide; recently, works were lent to venues in Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Rome, and Washington, D.C., among others.

Jean Baptiste Greuze (French, 1725–1805)
Portrait of a Man, said to be Louis-François Robin, 1790
Oil on walnut panel
26 x 21 7/8 in.
2024.008.006

Joshua Reynolds (British, 1723–1792)
Portrait of Miss Barwell, 1785
Oil on canvas
30 x 25 in.
2024.008.014

Hubert Robert (French, 1733–1808)
The Washerwomen of Charenton, 1767–70
Oil on cradled panel
15 x 11 in.
2024.008.011

Jean Baptiste Camille Corot (French, 1796–1875)
The Fisherman’s Shed at Mothois near Gournay-en-Bray, 1855–60
Oil on canvas
13 x 8 in.
2024. 008. 020

Armand Guillaumin (French, 1841–1927)
Wheatstacks in a Prairie in Damiette, 1887
Oil on canvas
35 1/8 x 45 in.
2024.008.023

Hippolyte Petitjean (French, 1854–1929)
Notre Dame,1895
Oil on canvas
21 3/4 x 28 in.
2024.008.025

Admission to the museum is free for all guests. For more information on hours of operation, exhibits and special events, visit raclinmurphymuseum.nd.edu.

About the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art

With origins dating to 1875, the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art (formerly Snite Museum of Art) is one of the oldest and most highly regarded university art museums in America. Founded on the principle that art is essential to understanding individual, shared and diverse human experiences and beliefs, the Museum encourages close looking and critical thinking. Experiences with significant, original works of art are intended to stimulate inquiry, dialogue and wonder for audiences across the academy, the community and around the world—all in support of the University of Notre Dame’s Catholic mission. The renowned permanent collection contains more than 30,000 works that represent many cultures and periods of world art history. For more information, visit raclinmurphymuseum.nd.edu.

Media contact:
Gina Costa
Communications Program Director
Raclin Murphy Museum of Art
574-631-4720
gcosta@nd.edu