The at the University of Notre Dame announced a major gift from the Marten Charitable Foundation through the stewardship of Gini Marten Hupfer, foundation leader and member of the museum’s Advisory Council. The tandem naming and endowment gift was inspired by the legacy of Virginia Marten (1925–2022), a long-standing former member of the Advisory Council and devoted museum supporter.

The gift will confer the name “Marten Family Gallery” on the current east gallery of European Art through 1700. Works by Vincenzo Spisanelli, Claude Lorrain, Giuseppe Ribera and Bartolomeo Veneto, among others, are featured. With the renaming, a permanent feature, centered in the gallery, will be installed. Called the “Marian Court,” it will be a 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 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," Gini Marten Hupfer said.

“The support of the Marten Family, beginning with Virginia and steadfastly followed by her children, is truly remarkable and inspiring,” said Joseph Antenucci Becherer, director and curator. “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

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

A lifelong 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 19th-century aesthetics. Raclin, a devoted supporter of Notre Dame and its first female Trustee, 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,” said 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 15th through the early 20th centuries, but is especially strong in 18th-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 Élisabeth 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 terra cotta portrait bust of his infant daughter is the first of its kind in the collection.

The University’s 19th-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. The lone American work in the gift, John White Alexander’s “Reflection,” is notable for its synthesis of various avant-garde trends that make it difficult to categorize his work.

“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��, University president. “We are grateful for her generous support that enabled the creation of the Raclin Murphy Museum, 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 the cornerstone of 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,” said Joseph Antenucci Becherer, 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.”

The museum collections are available to the region, the nation and beyond. At Notre Dame, the collections are annually used by more than 40 departments, representing nearly every college and school on campus. Recent research shows that 91 percent of graduating seniors had visited the museum. 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.

The new museum will include a suite of galleries dedicated to Indigenous Art of the Americas. The galleries open with the North American Art gallery and transition into Mesoamerican Art, followed by the Central and South American Art galleries. The grant will help fund numerous aspects of the gallery including the conservation of some of the artworks, video interviews with the featured artists and a large symposium.

In addition to iconic, historical work, the North American Art gallery celebrates contemporary Indigenous artists working in various media. Titled “Modern and Intersectional,” the gallery places contemporary artists into conversation with historic examples from the collection to demonstrate how Indigenous artists are drawing on and honoring customary practices and techniques in new and innovative ways.

“At this dynamic moment of transition from the former Snite Museum of Art to the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, this generous gift from the Terra Foundation for American Art is welcomed with great enthusiasm and gratitude,” said Joseph Antenucci Becherer, director of the museum. “The opportunity to embrace contemporary visions and voices is both inspiring and transformative.”��

The Terra Foundation for American Art, established in 1978 with offices in Chicago and Paris, supports organizations and individuals locally and globally with the aim of fostering intercultural dialogue and encouraging transformative practices that expand narratives of American art, through the foundation’s grant program, collection and initiatives.

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 that represent many cultures and periods of world art history. For more information on the new building, visit raclinmurphymuseum.nd.edu.��

, director and curator of sculpture for the at the University of Notre Dame, has co-authored a new book, “Christ among Us: Sculptures of Jesus across the History of Art.” The book, co-authored with Henry Martin Luttikhuizen, professor emeritus at Calvin University, surveys sculptural representations of Jesus from the Early Christian period to the present day.

The illustrated volume features an in-depth introduction to the topic followed by 52 individual essays on both iconic and surprising works from the third century to the 21st century.��

No figure has been featured more frequently in Western art than Jesus Christ, Becherer said.

“Sculptures, particularly — though they have received less notice than paintings — provide some of the most moving representations in their capacity to show Christ alongside us in three-dimensional space,” he said.��
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The co-authors — one from the Roman Catholic tradition and one from the Protestant tradition — selected works by celebrated masters ranging from Donatello to Michelangelo to Canova, Henry Moore to Mark Wallinger to Jaume Plensa, as well as works by numerous unrecorded masters. Sculptures from leading institutions such as the Vatican Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art and the Louvre are balanced with images of sculptures that remain in situ or are held by smaller institutions across the United States and Europe.
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“Joseph Becherer and Henry Luttikhuizen have assembled a brilliant selection of sculpted images of Jesus that will inform and enrich art lovers, students, travelers and anyone interested in the life of Christ,” writes renowned art historian Judith W. Mann of the Saint Louis Art Museum. “Accompanied by sensitive readings of the sculptures they have chosen, the selections span 11 countries and encompass 19 different materials. There are many icons of the history of art, along with surprising and eye-opening examples that offer rich understandings of both the sculptor’s accomplishment and meaning of the subject.”

A scholar of modern and contemporary sculpture, Becherer has authored numerous books, catalogs and articles and curated many major exhibitions. Prior to publishing “Christ among Us,” his latest book was “Gravitas: Skulpturen in St. Gereon und der Minoritenkirche St. Mariae Empfängnis zu Köln.”��

Considered one of the leading university art museums in America, the Snite Museum boasts a permanent collection that contains 30,000 works representing many cultures and periods of world art history. Exceptional holdings include the Jack and Alfrieda Feddersen Collection of Rembrandt Etchings, the Noah L. and Muriel S. Butkin Collection of 19th-Century French Art, the John D. Reilly Collection of Old Master and 19th-Century Drawings, the Janos Scholz Collection of 19th-Century European Photographs, the Mr. and Mrs. Russell G. Ashbaugh Jr. Collection of Meštrović Sculpture and Drawings, the George Rickey Sculpture Archive and the Virginia A. Marten Collection of 18th-Century Decorative Arts. Other collection strengths include Olmec and Mesoamerican art, 20th-century art and Native American art.

“Since its founding, Notre Dame has valued the vital role the visual arts play as an expression of human creativity, religious experience and insight into the human condition,” University President Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., said. “By bringing the collections currently in the Snite Museum of Art to new life in the Raclin Murphy Museum, we will be able to share these treasures in all their richness with our University community, our neighbors in the region and the wider world.”

With a site in the northwest corner of the Charles B. Hayes Family Sculpture Park on the south side of the campus, the Raclin Murphy Museum will be an outward-facing structure, serving both as a gateway to the University and as a welcoming community partner. Carefully situated to work in harmony with the landscape and the outdoor collections of the park, the new museum will be surrounded by green spaces that will allow for the growth of the outdoor sculpture collection. The location was selected to contribute to the University’s arts district, which now includes the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center, Walsh Family Hall of Architecture and O’Neill Hall of Music.

“This new museum building and its collection will bring together the healing power of the arts, of creativity and our strengthened humanity and solidarity — so needed as we move beyond the pandemic,” Marie Lynn Miranda, the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost of the University, said. “The diversity and inclusion represented in all forms of visual arts are gifts we must share and experience with one another.”

Designed as a 132,000-square-foot complex to be constructed in two phases, the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art will greatly enhance exhibition and education spaces for the permanent collection. Phase one will encompass 70,000 square feet devoted to gallery and teaching spaces, a café and retail space. The scale of the project resulted from meticulously studying the Snite Museum’s collection and exhibition requirements to best showcase its holdings. The plans were also researched in comparison to museums at leading peer institutions in the U.S. and Europe.

“Speaking in chorus with the entire museum staff, we are honored to begin this journey toward the new Raclin Murphy Museum of Art,” Snite director Joseph Antenucci Becherer said. “In addition to creating majestic new galleries and creative learning spaces, we are committed to honoring the dedication to the arts and hospitality that is the very spirit of the Raclin and Murphy families and sharing that with the world.”

Thanks to the leading benefaction of Ernestine Raclin and her daughter and son-in-law, Carmi and Christopher Murphy, the new museum is intended as a national attraction owing to the quality of its collections, the exhibitions to be mounted and its increased accessibility.

“Notre Dame, as a Catholic university, has always been guided by a sacramental vision, one that finds in the arts an expression of the divine and of the human spirit,” Father Jenkins said. “We are blessed by this extraordinary gift from Ernie, Carmi and Chris, who have yet again made a pivotal contribution to our campus and region.”

Raclin is a Trustee Emerita of Notre Dame, a community leader and a generous supporter of the University. The Carmichael Foundation and her family made a lead gift to Notre Dame in 2011 to fund the renovation of the Morris Inn, the full-service on-campus hotel initially constructed in 1952 with a gift from her parents, the late Ernest M. and Ella L. Morris. She also contributed to Raclin-Carmichael Hall, the home to Notre Dame’s W.M. Keck Center for Transgene Research and the Indiana University 91��Ƶ of Medicine-South Bend.

Chris Murphy is chair, president and chief executive officer of 1st Source Corp. A 1968 Notre Dame graduate, he has served as CEO of 1st Source since 1977 and as a board member for 45 years. In addition to the Morris Inn, he and Carmi have supported Raclin-Carmichael Hall, the 1st Source Bank Commercialization Award and multiple other projects at Notre Dame. Chris serves on Notre Dame’s College of Arts and Letters Advisory Council, and he and Carmi are members of the President’s Circle and Gift Planning Advancement Committee. In addition to serving on the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, he is chair of the Medical Education Foundation and the Indiana Academy Board of Regents and is a member of the Board of the Independent Colleges of Indiana.

Carmi Murphy has served on the Snite Museum Advisory Council since 2007 and is a life board member of WNIT. She served for 15 years on the Saint Mary’s College board of trustees and now sits on the President’s Circle. She serves on the boards of the Michiana YMCA, Memorial Health Foundation and the Family and Children’s Center. Four of the Murphys’ children have Notre Dame degrees.

After a rigorous search culminating in January 2019, the University selected the New York-based design firm of Robert A. M. Stern Architects (RAMSA) to design the new museum. RAMSA previously designed the Stayer Center for Executive Education at Notre Dame and numerous other academic facilities around the country.

The goal for the new Raclin Murphy Museum is taken from the leadership of the Snite Museum to provide “experience with significant works of art 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.”

For more information, visit

Contact: Gina Costa, marketing and public relations program manager, Snite Museum of Art, 574-631-4720, gcosta@nd.edu

The photograph was an acquisition proposed by the museum’s PhotoFutures: Collecting Art for Notre Dame, a student seminar led by the curator of education, academic programs and the curator of photographs. Designed for students of any major, this co-curricular program addresses issues related to museum collecting, contemporary photography��and socially engaged artistic practice. Students critique individual photographs and evaluate artists' portfolios while engaging in critical discussions with the artists, museum curators��and select faculty. This fall, students had the unique challenge of acquiring a photograph that addresses our current historical moment.

They state: "This photograph includes many of the hallmark elements of daily life under the conditions of the pandemic. The priest stands alone in a mask, even distanced from the coffins which contain the COVID-19 victims. The haunting loneliness of the piece and the solitary figure relate to the context of lockdowns and quarantine periods, which altered normal everyday activities and transformed bustling public places and city streets into ghost towns overnight. The artist’s choice of black and white adds to the melancholy tone while also eliminating any sense of the time of day, which recalls the disorientation of life under lockdown. ...

"[Majoli’s photograph] brings to mind our shared humanity in contrast with the mechanized and dehumanized process of handling the high volume of COVID-19 victims. The presence of religion also evokes a theme of grief and the ways in which human beings find comfort when confronted with loss. Although the conditions of the pandemic precluded funerals and religious services from taking place, the priest preserves some measure of human dignity, even in death, through his act of blessing these coffins."

Majoli is a photographer whose dramatic��black-and-white photographs focus on the human condition and the narratives of our daily lives. Known for documenting conflicts worldwide, he has covered the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and the invasion of Iraq. He has contributed to Newsweek,��The New York Times Magazine, Granta��and National Geographic, among other publications. Majoli is the recipient of many awards, including the Guggenheim Fellowship (2015), the Eugene Smith Grant (2017), the Getty Images Grant for Editorial Photography (2009)��and the Infinity Award for Photojournalism (2003). A member of Magnum Photos since 2001, he splits his time between��New York and Sicily.��

Originally published by Gina Costa at on Jan. 25.

With the recent gift of modern paintings by artists such as Jack B. Yeats, Roderic O’Conor and Mary Swanzy, among others, from the Donald and Marilyn Keough family, the University has laid a solid foundation on which to build a rich collection of Irish art. This is the premier examination of many works from the Keough gift as well as several other significant collections of Irish art. Taken together, the collections combine to create a landmark exhibition at the Snite Museum of Art.

The exhibition will also include selected gifts to the museum of photographs by Alen MacWeeney. Born in Dublin in 1939, the photographer established a worldwide reputation when he chronicled the native itinerants of Ireland known as the Travellers. The artist’s genre studies in the chapels and pubs of Dublin, and his country landscapes, possess a mood of poetic evocation. Also included in the exhibition are MacWeeney’s photographs of O’Neill House in Southwestern County Kerry. Approximately 55 photographs, ranging in date from 1965 to 2015, will be shown.

Additionally, important collections from the museum, including a celebrated group of James Barry prints and substantial holdings in the Hesburgh Library’s Special Collections, will be featured.

The Snite Museum also announced the loan of several modern and contemporary masterpieces from the renowned collections of Pat and John O’Brien of Chicago.

The at Notre Dame is a partner with the Snite Museum in this exhibition, the title of which comes from Oscar Wilde’s words in “Lady Windemere’s Fan”: “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”

“In celebrating the visual arts in Irish culture, the museum is proud to honor our donors, lenders and partners in a meaningful and meaning-filled way,” said Joseph A. Becherer, director of the Snite Museum of Art.

“The gift of paintings that is at the centerpiece of this important exhibition is all the more meaningful because it comes from the Keough family, one of the most generous benefactors to the University and to our Institute for Irish 91��Ƶ,” said , the Madden-Hennebry Professor of and director of the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish 91��Ƶ. “The paintings are more than an aesthetic contribution to Notre Dame. They are part of an exhibit that helps to build a bridge between Ireland and America — an endeavor that is at the very heart of our institute.”

Admission to the exhibit is free. For more information, visit .

Contact: Gina Costa, marketing and public relations manager, Snite Museum of Art, 574-631-4720, gcosta@nd.edu