Co-Sponsored by the Scala Foundation and the McGrath Institute for Church Life (Notre Dame University)

I will be interviewed this coming Thursday, September 30th by Margarita Mooney Suarez, Executive Director of the Scala Foundation. You can register in advance to attend live, here. It takes place at 12 noon EST and lasts for an hour.

The Scala Foundation was founded by Margarita Mooney Suarez to promote the renewal of culture in America through the integration of beauty and wisdom in the liberal arts.

It is difficult to know precisely where the conversation will go in the course of the webinar, but the aim is to help viewers see why art is so crucial to classical liberal arts education that aims to foster creativity and scientific innovation. We will also reflect on practical ways to incorporate beauty into educational curricula and faith communities. By pairing classical understandings of art like Vitruvius, Boethius, Bonaventure, and Palladio—all of whom saw a connection between mathematics and art—with modern voices like Pope Benedict the XVI and (much to my delight) my old mentor, the late Stratford Caldecott, we will explore what makes the study of visual art crucial to human happiness, cultural renewal, and social order and therefore a necessary, though often neglected, aspect of a Catholic formation.
I am looking forward to this greatly. Margarita, who is on the faculty at Princeton University, is a skilled and penetrating interview with a deep understanding of this field and so it promises to be a lively and interesting conversation.
The webinar is co-sponsored by the McGrath Institute for Church Life, which is at the University of Notre Dame. The mission of the Institute is to partner with Catholic dioceses, parishes, and schools to address pastoral challenges with theological depth and rigor. By connecting the Catholic intellectual life to the life of the Church, they aim to form faithful Catholic leaders for service to the Church and the world.