A Lasting Legacy
A Dominican Sister reflects on the meaning and the message of arts education at the College. By Priscilla Wood, O.P.
When the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa opened St. Clara Academy in Benton, Wisconsin, in the 1850s, one of the first items Father Mazzuchelli, our founder, purchased for us was a piano. Our heritage exhibit, Telling Our Story, includes an American primitive painting of St. Joseph with the child Jesus by young Sister Regina Mulqueeny, from the early 1860s. On the back are the words “Father Samuel taught Mother Regina how to paint.” Perhaps these two glimpses of art on the frontier, of the value of the arts instilled into the fledgling community by Father Samuel, offer the foundation for the rich heritage of artists and art educators in the life of the Sinsinawa Dominican congregation. The presence of these gifted women in the arts on the campus of Edgewood College is no exception, but the rule. Twelve Dominican Sisters have ministered in the Art Department of Edgewood College since its inception. The College has never been without a place or a heart for the arts to be home. Painters, potters, photographers and printmakers, these skilled women shared their passion for all art forms from 1929 to the present day. They served a total of 120 years as faculty, and four of them ministered a total of 48 years as resident artists in the Veritas Studio, located in Weber Hall.
Who were these artists and art educators? To profile only a few reveals a glimpse, a taste, of the treasures each one brought to the campus and to her students and peers. The first, the pioneer art teacher, was Sister Dolora Salter. Professed in 1914, she taught art at St. Clara Academy at the Mound (Sinsinawa, Wisconsin) for 38 years. At Edgewood she taught in both the Academy and the College from 1923 to 1938. She was a living link to the early “greats” —Sister Catherine Wall and Sister Angelico Dolan, with whom she studied. Those two were the first Sisters sent to Europe at the turn of the century to study painting in Rome, Florence, and Munich. Their magnificent copies of masterworks hang throughout Sinsinawa Mound and other congregation sites. Sister Dolora was multi-talented and used her skills to eventually establish a printing press at the Motherhouse where she created and printed original cards, posters, and designs. Like Sister Dolora, Sister Philomena Buck also taught in both Edgewood High School and the College from 1938 to 1954. An accomplished art teacher before she entered, Sister Philomena taught art for 50 of her 53 years as a member of the congregation. Perhaps one of the best known of the Edgewood College art faculty is Sister Teresita Kelley, whose 27 years at the College, from 1953–63 and 1968–80, are only matched by the 25 years of Sister Stephanie Stauder. In addition
NAME TEACHING YEARS STUDIO YEARS STUDENT YEARS STATUS S. Dolora Salter 1923–1938 S. Philomena Buck 1938–1954 S. Teresita Kelly 1953–1963; 1968–1980 1942–1944 S. Giotto Moots 1959–1961 1951–1952 S. Matthias Michels 1961–1971 1963–1978 1985–2001 S. Lorraine Heinz (Joan of Arc) 1958–1960 S. Ruella Bouchonville (Mary Des Neiges) 1975–1977; 1979–84
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