Artwork by ’62 alumnae getting new life in rural Wisconsin

January 11, 2021



Father Dale Grubba is leading an effort to restore the little-known Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine in Endeavor, Wisconsin. The project will transform the property with walking paths, gardens, Stations of the Cross, and the renovation of a former school and church.



The Spanish-type grotto features a mosaic built by Sr. Joeann Daley, OP, ’62, MFA ’81 and Kathleen Stagney ’62. They were teaching at Catholic schools in suburban Chicago and were recruited to spend the summer of 1964 making the mosaic. A school was established in the late 1950s for the children of migrant farmworkers who came to the Endeavor area each year. 



“The whole reason for doing it was to honor the migrant workers and to let them know they were valued,” Kathleen said of the shrine. “It has lasted and now it has its voice.”



“I’m just so impressed with the enthusiasm of Father Grubba. There’s a spiritual need at this time and it’s a whole new generation,” Sr. Joeann said. “This new endeavor at Endeavor is to reclaim our humanity."



Sr. Joeann and Kathleen both studied art at Rosary College, now Dominican University. Sr. Joeann's teaching career has included stints at the Sinsinawa Mound Center in southwestern Wisconsin, Montana, and Italy. She also had a studio at Whitefish Bay Dominican High School, where she served as an artist in residence until 2015 doing metal etchings.



Kathleen left the sisterhood nearly 50 years ago, went on to have a family and for many years had a 6,000-square-foot glass studio with seven kilns in the basement of a former Catholic church in Cleveland. She would create large fused-glass pieces installed in homes and businesses.



Read more: Beer and soda bottles, Noxzema glass and the Blessed Mother getting new life in rural Wisconsin