Roncalli High School breaks new ground
for fine arts center
By Brandon A. Evans
On April 12, Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein joined Roncalli High School officials in Indianapolis to break ground for a bold new endeavor: the construction of a 38,000-square-foot fine arts center.
Besides housing an auditorium, band room, choral room and two visual arts classrooms, space is also allotted in the building for a new special education resource center, a new guidance center and a room suited for architectural design.
Joseph Hollowell, president of the South Deanery high school in Indianapolis, told the students and guests who packed the gymnasium on the day of the groundbreaking that he was “feeling very blessed and humbled.”
After an assembly of song and prayer, some people processed outside for the groundbreaking.
Msgr. Joseph F. Schaedel, vicar general, was also in attendance at the event. He graduated from the school in 1966.
He led a prayer asking “that God will bring this construction to successful completion and that his protection will keep those who work on it safe from injury.
“We are involved in a very unique project,” he said. It is a project that has roots as far back as 1999 when Hollowell and others were involved in the planning phases.
A “master plan” for the school was produced and, after consultation with a variety of people in 2002, the school set a course for the fine arts center as its big project for the immediate future.
What followed, Hollowell said, was a capital campaign that lasted until the summer of 2004. It still continues, but only in trying to gather support from foundations, not donors.
The goal for the campaign was set, after a feasibility study, at $3 million—but the school was able to raise, at this point, about $4.7 million.
That answers the questions that Hollowell said he and others had at first: “Can it really be done? Will Catholics support this type of effort?”
Now that the support has been given, construction of the building is under way and should be completed by June 2006.
“It’s just so exciting to see it finally come to fruition,” Hollowell said in a later interview. “Nobody’s done anything like this in the archdiocese for close to 50 years now.”
He considers the fine arts center a resource not just for the school, but also for the archdiocese.
Archbishop Buechlein gave his prayers to the project and spoke to the hundreds of people gathered about the benefits of the new center.
“You know,” he said, “we live in a society that now more than ever is dependent upon visual images for learning and for faith.
“Your school will have a chance to produce quality, faith-based performances [and] artwork that is important to the evangelization of our Christian faith.
“I commend your efforts to counteract the culture, that when it comes to visual arts too often places an emphasis on violence than on morality.”
Of the 1,030 students at the school, about half are involved in fine arts, Hollowell said.
“About 550 of those students are involved either in a fine arts class or in our programs,” he said. “So there’s no doubt that it will impact the quality of experience that we’re able to offer them. No doubt whatsoever.” †
