Notre Dame's spacious new art museum pulls treasures out of hiding and adds fresh finds

SOUTH BEND — Mere feet from the main doors to the University of Notre Dame’s new Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, a stainless steel sculpture reaches 36 feet to the sky with a towering jumble of letters from eight different alphabets from around the globe.

“Endless” is artist Jaume Plensa’s nod to the “search for knowledge.” But it also beckons to the local community — with the traffic of Eddy Street Commons within eyesight — calling them to this brand new museum that is always free to enter.

Go inside, and across the three-story atrium, flooded with natural light that predecessor Snite Museum of Art lacked any of, the designer of the Vietnam War Memorial has left a permanent mark on a wall. Artist Maya Lin used recycled silver to craft this two-dimensional sculpture that represents the watershed of the St. Joseph River, with all of the wiggling tributaries that feed into the waterway like tree roots.

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The Raclin Murphy Museum opens with free events Dec. 1-3 after more than two years of construction. It embraces the local community in many ways, but it also makes a global reach. It brings in artwork by eight major artists that the university commissioned just for its galleries and grounds.

As The Tribune found on an early walk-through, the new spaces within the brick, concrete and limestone structure weave together some of the Snite’s familiar pieces with stunning art from the museum’s collections that had been hidden in storage. Arranged in new ways, they tell new stories.

Museum Director Joseph Becherer says the new museum celebrates an impressive collection that has been a “candle under a bushel.”

Started in 1875, the permanent art collection has grown to nearly 31,000 objects. Of those, about 1,000 pieces are on display, or nearly 3%, which is up from the 1% that the Snite showed. The museum itself boasts 70,000 square feet, four levels and 23 permanent galleries, but it also sits on a nine-acre sculpture park, created in the past decade, that offers 22 outdoor sculptures.

Becherer, who sees museums as “major powerhouses of economic development,” believes it could draw visitors from across the U.S.

“To think of it as solely a Notre Dame museum or a regional museum is limited,” he said. “To imagine it as a national attraction puts us on the map, and this is what the region deserves.”

“While we cannot likely quantify the impact at this point in time,” said Jeff Jarnecke, executive director of Visit South Bend Mishawaka, “we fully believe and expect the museum will resonate and draw visitors from Chicago and Indianapolis among other major national metro areas specifically to see the museum."

A chapel by one of Italy’s finest

The museum adds many new rooms and spaces that the Snite never had.

Among them is a small, bright chapel on the second floor where noted Italian artist Mimmo Paladino crafted the blue stained glass at the altar — etched with Catholic symbols — and the mosaic across the ceiling with images like fish and patterned blankets. Together, they tell the story of the Congregation of Holy Cross, the local natural terrain and the indigenous peoples who’d lived here first. Paladino sent the mosaic in more than 100 sheets, which installers then cemented to the ceiling.

He also fashioned the branches, stars, swirls and words “spes unica” that are slightly incised into the white walls. Thirteenth and 16th century paintings also hang in the chapel.

Gina Costa, Italian born herself and the museum’s communications program director, said Paladino ranks among Italy’s most famous living artists — and is an example of the coup that the museum scored to commission such big names in the art world. He’s made works for popes and the Vatican.

Respecting indigenous art

Becherer said he’s known many of the commissioned artists for a long time.

“They were fascinated by the caliber of the collection and the caliber of Notre Dame,” he said, “and by the fact that the museum would be an entry to Notre Dame."

Becherer also credits his staff with assembling the galleries, saying, “I would put my museum team up against any museum team in the nation.”

Plensa, who made the stainless steel tower by the front doors, is a Barcelona-based artist who’d designed the Crown Fountain in Chicago’s Millennium Park.

Kiki Smith made the “Sea of Stars” with 39 individually shaped bronze stars scattered and embedded across 35 feet in the atrium’s terrazzo floor.

One commissioned artist is a member of the Pokagon Band of the Potawatomi and a southwest Michigan resident. Jason Wesaw crafted the piece “The Path” using green and gold fabrics and clay items that link the past and present of the Notre Dame campus.

Staff intentionally consulted with the Pokagon Band of the Potawatomi in placing art in the museum because, Costa said, “We wanted to be respectful of their objects.”

In its early years, she said, the Snite had indigenous art, but staff were unaware that they were ceremonial pieces.

Museum officials now say this is part of their effort to amplify indigenous voices through art and programs as an initial step toward reconciliation over land that was once theirs.

Surprising finds that had been hidden

Museum staff pulled works from storage that had almost been forgotten, tucked deep in the thousands of objects. But staff often had to send them for restoration because the ages hadn’t been so kind.

Placed prominently, the 1640 oil painting “Noli Me Tangere” grabs your gaze with an iridescent blue cloth flowing over the risen Jesus Christ and an equally bright red cloth over Mary Magdalene’s shoulder.

To resurrect Vincenzo Spisanelli’s piece from storage (Notre Dame had acquired it in 1958), the museum sent it to the Midwest Art Conservation Center in Minneapolis so that conservator Rita Berg could lift the thick layers of varnish, grime and overpaint by early restorers that had dulled its colors. It took a little more than a year of painstaking work that, among other things, stripped the full beard that early restorers had added to Jesus and showed his original goatee, which was fashionable in the 1600s.

Similarly cleaned up, a colonial Spanish American wooden sculpture of Christ on a crucifix from 1835 makes you feel as though you’ve entered an old mission church. The slender Christ drips blood and wears a red, white and green patterned cloth around his mid-section.

In and out of the galleries

Curators organized the galleries and gathered many pieces by theme, so that visitors can see how earlier art influenced later ages.

For example, a marble Roman head and Roman mask greet you as you enter the European and American Art 1700-1900 galleries. Above them is a quote from William Faulkner on the wall: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”

It’s part of a movement at museums to get away from strictly following timelines, Costa said.

At the entry to the African Art gallery stands the Egungun masquerade costume from Nigeria that the Snite had displayed, but, this time, the full body of different fabrics and patterns splay out as if it’s dancing to welcome you.

It is a mid-20th century piece, though much of the African art comes from ancient times.

“Earth Kid (Boy),” a 2020 piece that Nigerian-British artist Yinka Shonibare made, marks another prominent spot as a colorfully dressed African youth, whose head is a globe from school, hauls recyclable trash over his back in a net. Shonibare writes that it is a “call to action” to protect the Earth.

The Indigenous Art of the Americas spans continents and time from ancient Meso American pottery and art that was familiar at the Snite — grouped in glass display cases by Olmec, Zapotec, West Mexican, Maya and other cultures — on up to a curiously beautiful, freshly commissioned piece by Jamie Okuma: She took a pair of Prada boots and wrapped them with thousands of colorful, sometimes historic Venetian glass beads, which took hundreds of hours to stitch. Okuma is Luiseno, Shoshone-Bannock, Wailaki and Okinawan and a member of the La Jolla Band in California.

On the lower level, a new sculpture court fills with sunlight from above as several of South Bend native George Rickey’s mobile metal pieces dangle along the white walls. (One of his large steel pieces moves with the wind outdoors.)

Also on the lower level, the bright red, green and white oil painting of a “Roman Peasant” woman welcomes you into the International Modern and Contemporary Art galleries (it has been some years since she was out).

A few steps inside, Chinese painter Zhang Huan mixed ash from burnt incense rods at Buddhist temples — seeing them as remnants of prayers — into paint and crafted a gray version of Christ's Last Supper, a 2021 piece.

Among the added spaces that the Snite didn’t have, the entire top floor is for offices but also more spacious classrooms. There’s a maker’s space, too. Elsewhere in the museum, there’s an art object study room, a "learning commons” with moveable chairs and a cafe by the atrium.

A teaching gallery displays various art that is rotated in and out for specific classes and lectures. It now includes a newly acquired, large 18th century Peruvian oil painting of “Our Lady of Vizcaia” for a class that’s co-taught by a chemist and an art historian.

‘Committed to the community’

The Snite, built between 1976 and 1980, had outgrown its space in recent years. It also became difficult for the general public to access after expansion of the Notre Dame Stadium cut off nearby and accessible parking.

The Raclin Murphy Museum turned from dream to reality in 2017 when the leading gift came from major local philanthropist/art lover Ernestine Raclin, who died this year, and her daughter and son-in-law Carmi and Chris Murphy.

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Becherer joined the staff as director in the following year, 2018. The architects at Robert A.M. Stern Architects were hired in 2019 — including Melissa DelVecchio, Tony McConnell and Kasey Tilove who are Notre Dame alumni — who worked through the pandemic to design and build the museum.

This is the first of two phases. The second would be a 62,000-square-foot complex on the back side, between the museum and the sculpture park, that would host research, more galleries, space for teaching, administrative and curatorial offices, collections storage and an auditorium. The timing of that is indefinite, likely depending on major donors. In 2017, the university estimated the cost for the entire complex to be $66 million.

It sits in what the university considers an “arts district,” near its performance halls and architecture school.

In its time, the Snite had seen an estimated 11,000 school kids from three states who toured each year. It has now become the Snite Research Center in the Visual Arts, devoted to research and support of Notre Dame’s collection. It’s open only by appointment.

Becherer emphasizes the Raclin Murphy Museum’s admission price — free — as “such a significant gift” to the community when many large museums may charge $20 to $30 per adult. Most university museums are indeed free, he said, while municipal museums charge.

“We are very committed to the community,” Costa said. “We put a lot of space and thought to the community.”

Raclin Murphy Museum of Art

∎ Where: On Eddy Street, just north of Angela Boulevard at the University of Notre Dame.

∎ Parking: Free in a public visitors lot. From Eddy, turn right on the drive just north of the museum.

∎ Hours once open: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays; 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Thursdays; and noon to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.

∎ Gift shop and Ivan’s Café: In the atrium.

∎ Artist interviews: Link to recordings on select artists via QR codes by their art.

∎ For more information: Call 574-631-5466 or visit raclinmurphymuseum.nd.edu.

Grand opening

All of these events are free to the public. For links to more detailed schedules, visit raclinmurphymuseum.nd.edu/visit/opening-weekend/.

∎ 6 to 10 p.m. Dec. 1: Opening night features music from a DJ, “sweet bites” by Notre Dame chefs and a cash bar. No registration is required, but click a link in this text online if you're interested.

∎ 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Dec. 2: Local musicians and dancers perform throughout the day in the galleries, including Abby Marchesseault, Benito Salazar, indigenous performers, Merrimans’ Playhouse Players, Notre Dame Children’s Liturgical Choir and Uzima! Visual artists will demonstrate their works, including Tess Cassady, Meli Bandera, Diana Palomo, Freddy Rodriguez and Christine Marie Rapp Morseau. There will also be sketchbook activities, drumming and strolling Shakespearean monologues, plus a sensory cool down room hosted by Lighthouse Autism Center.

∎ Noon to 5 p.m. Dec. 3: Find guided tours; performances by The Bennett Duo and indigenous dancers, drummers and singers; art demonstrations by Angelo Ray Martínez and Holy Cross College; sketching activities; Apothica Teas and a sensory cool down room.

South Bend Tribune reporter Joseph Dits can be reached at 574-235-6158 or jdits@sbtinfo.com.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Notre Dame Raclin Murphy Museum of Art opens with global local history