Notre Dame delays plan to cover Columbus murals until 2022

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Updated 7:14 pm CDT, Thursday, October 31, 2019

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — The University of Notre Dame is delaying its plan to cover up 19th century murals depicting Christopher Columbus in America that have long been criticized for their stereotypical images of Native Americans and blacks submissively posing before white European explorers.

The Catholic university based in South Bend, Indiana, announced in January that it would conceal the offending artwork. The decision came after students, employees and alumni signed a campus letter in 2017 that called for the removal of the murals, which have been displayed in the campus' Main Building since 1884.

The school's president, the Rev. John I. Jenkins, said last month that a new exhibit will explore Notre Dame's early history, featuring high-quality reproductions of the Columbus murals and information about their historical importance.

The murals, created by artist Luigi Gregori, will be accessible to faculty members who use them for teaching and research, Jenkins noted, adding they will otherwise be covered in fabric. But Dennis Brown, the school's spokesman, told the South Bend Tribune this week that Notre Dame won't cover the 1880s paintings until the museum is completed in 2022.


Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/education/article/Notre-Dame-delays-plan-to-cover-Columbus-murals-14655169.php

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[Massacure]

1. I have mixed feelings about this

Native American history is definitely whitewashed, but removing a 130 year old piece of artwork makes me a little sad inside. Couldn't a pedestal be put up in front of it with a message about how people thought in the late 19th century and why they were wrong?

[LittleGirl]

4. I worked in that building for 4 yrs

and I can say that the halls are lined with this "art work" and they are racist and ugly depictions of black people and Natives. They are also life size and I think they should be painted over. Take a photo of them and hang that in the museum on campus.

[Judi Lynn]

3. It will be good to move toward responsibility for an actual lengthy genocide which has been denied

all the shocking brutality, abuse and disrespect toward millions of souls stretching across the continent, almost all destroyed for greed, racism, and refusal to treat the people occupying this space like human beings. It was more comfortable to order the soldiers and the settlers to simply murder them, instead of acting like civilized men and women themselves.

There's no pretty way to paint evil, and calling it something else is an insult to people living now. It disrespects people in the present to continue that grotesque myth of humble, very nice, mannerly gawd-fearin' Christians having to protect themselves from wild savages by slaughtering every person in sight who didn't glow in the dark with whiteness.

It would be worth learning to read to occupy yourself with studying what has really happened in your country so you can break out of the thick muck of ignorance we were all drenched in since childhood. You don't lose anything in awakening from a lie.

[TomVilmer]

5. Might be the inspiration for these satires...

https://www.nbc.com/parks-and-recreation/photos/the-murals-of-pioneer-hall/147496

[melm00se]

6. Hiding is better

than destroying.

[BlueWI]

7. Why?

People of color pay cash money constantly to institutions that tremble and obfuscate over the simple step of removing artwork that disparages people and communities in ways that are long out of date.

Paint over the darn mural or donate it, and put a new one up that isn't racist. Anyone who is that attached to an outdated characterization needs to examine their own internalized white supremacy.

[melm00se]

8. Destroying a work of art

is just wrong, just like burning books.

I am sorry you don't see it that way.

[BlueWI]

9. So your premise is

every work of art, and every book, must be preserved, regardless of its content or where it is located. It's worthy of preservation merely because it's art or writing?

That isn't possible. With the ebb and flow of human culture, some artifacts will endure, others will be lost, and some can be de-commisioned.

I love public art. But cultural values and tastes change. We can't preserve everything, and how humans prefer to represent themselves is constantly evolving.

I'm probably in the minority with this view, but sometimes, moving forward require new designs, motifs, and murals. This seems like just that kind of case.

[Polybius]

10. Compromise by giving it away

Destruction on antiques is always wrong.

[BlueWI]

11. Fair enough. eom