SJA Celebrates Laying of the Cornerstone
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St. Joseph’s Academy hosted a special ceremony on January 6 to bless and lay the cornerstone of the Academy Arts Center. The event marked the beginning of the brick masonry work for the exterior of the center, which will provide a state-of-the-art home to SJA’s growing visual and performing arts program. The building is on schedule for a July 2012 completion.
“Let us imagine them raising their voices and their bodies in song and dance, making music and creating art as the psalmists invited us to do in praise of our Creator.” Sister Nancy Conway, CSJ, president, Congregation of St. Joseph
Administrators, faculty and staff and representatives of the student body were joined by the Congregational Leadership Team, Sisters of St. Joseph, SJA Board members and members of Post Architects, Cangelosi Ward General Contractors and the Catholic High School administration.
SJA Principal Linda Fryoux Harvison served as emcee for the event.
SJA Chaplain Father Jack Nutter offered the opening prayer. Senior Emily Tassin read from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, and senior Anna Aguillard read the response. Members of the construction crew laid the cornerstone, which was blessed by Father Jack and Sister Nancy Conway, president of the Congregation of St. Joseph. All those in attendance were invited to sprinkle water on the stone.
Sr. Nancy spoke on behalf of the Congregational Leadership Team and all 695 Sisters of St. Joseph in the United States, Nicaragua and Japan, congratulating the SJA community for its vision, “a vision that recognizes that beauty, in the form of art, music and dance, has the power to evoke the very heart of our mission: to be agents of God’s active, inclusive love. For as the suffragettes of long ago reminded in their protest songs, ‘Hearts starve as well as bodies. Give us bread but give us roses.’”
Sr. Nancy thanked the SJA leadership, Mission Advancement Office, faculty, parents and donors for their untiring efforts and unwavering faith in the building of the center. She offered her utmost thanks to the students of SJA, who will create the beauty that will be experienced within the arts center.
“As we prepare to leave the laying of the cornerstone, let us do so carrying with us an image of our students, current and future,” she said. “Let us imagine them raising their voices and their bodies in song and dance, making music and creating art as the psalmists invited us to do in praise of our Creator. And let us leave carrying with us an imagine of all who will come to this place and who will leave here with hearts renewed for mission because of the beauty they will enjoy here, for ‘hearts starve as well as bodies.’ May you give them bread and give them roses.”
Sister Joan Laplace, CSJ, chair of the SJA Mission Advancement Department, offered a prayer of thanksgiving, and SJA President Sister Adele Lambert, CSJ, closed the ceremony with prayer.
Lending their talents to the ceremony were the SJA Singers, under the direction of SJA Choral Director Elizabeth Wallace, and Ballet III, IV, Dance Repertory and Advanced Dance II students, under the direction of SJA Dance Faculty Kris Cangelosi. Jon Mitchell served as accompanist.
Following the ceremony, invited guests gathered on the Commons of Mother Alice Hall for king cake and coffee.
Alumnae Director Emily Kline and Assistant Principal of Activities Stacia Andricain served as event chairs.
Mindy Brodhead Averitt
Communications Director
Photos by Kacie Fuselier
Marketing Manager