4 / 24
Message from the Director
Dear Members and Friends:
In 2015 LUMA celebrated its 10th anniversary. As we looked back over ten
years of accomplishments and growth, we saw that the early years were full of
challenges. However, an operational and programmatic platform was built
making LUMA one of the most unique university museums in the country. The
LUMA mission, focusing on the exploration of the spiritual in art, grew to not
only examine how art, religion and spirituality have been linked for millennia,
but also began to encompass ideas of social justice and the extraordinary lengths
human beings will rise to in service to humanity. Along the way, our staff
worked with our university faculty, museum curators and private collectors to
organize exhibitions that expanded perceptions with new insights such as in the
exhibitions:
The Missing Peace
; Georges Rouault’s
Misèrere et Guerre; Pilgrimage
and Faith
; Andra Samelson’s
Cosmologies; Back to the Future
; and our current
exhibition,
William Utermohlen: Persistence of Memory
in which the subject
of Alzheimer’s disease and the creative impulse is clearly illustrated through
Utermohlen’s courage and persistence to continue making art as the disease
progressed. The Martin D’Arcy Collection became a pivotal collection under the
development of Curator, Jonathan Canning (see my farewell to Jonathan in this
issue). Jonathan’s skillful interpretation of the collection demonstrates that the
history of Western art up to the late 17th century was indeed focused on religion.
The annual
Art and Faith of the Crèche
exhibition proved to be a perfect example
of how the Christian story is interpreted throughout the western and non-
western world as a family story told by many different cultures. James Govan
who generously donated over 500 crèches and nativity sets to LUMA, gave us our
own
Gift of the Magi
, in his designating LUMA as the appropriate home for the
collection he and his wife, Emilia, selectively curated over many years.
LUMA’s collections began to expand from the moment the doors opened to
embrace contemporary and modern art and artifacts from other Non-Western
cultures. The D’Arcy expanded with new acquisitions adding to the collection
Fr. Don Rowe, S.J., began in 1969. Many of our education programs have centered
on youth, and this will continue with the new Jean Unsworth Art Expressways
program for K–12 students. However, recognizing that the fastest growing
segment of the United States population is a senior demographic, we have begun
to concentrate more and more on programs such as “Tea with the Jesuits” and
now the three-year-old IlLUMAnations program that works with Alzheimer’s
patients and their caregivers.
Cover Image:
Santa Sabina,
Marcella Hackbardt, Courtesy of the Artist
Inside:
Santa Teresa
, Marcella
Hackbardt, Courtesy of the Artist; Courtesy of the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros;
Santo Spirito
,
Marcella Hackbardt, Courtesy of the Artist
2
BOARD OF ADVISORS
Kathleen Beaulieu
Matthew Dattilo
Patrick Dorsey, S.J.
Marsha Goldstein
Nevin Hedlund
Virginia Hogan
Vadim Katznelson
Ellen Landgraf
Peter LoGiudice
Darlene Markovich
Judy McCaskey
Denis McNamara
Denise Noell
Frank Novel
Francesca Parvizyar
Adrienne Traisman
Debra Yates
EX-OFFICIO:
Pamela E. Ambrose
Director of Cultural Affairs
Loyola University Chicago
John Pelissero, PhD
Interim President
Loyola University Chicago