Concordia breaks ground on new facility for Center of Liturgical Art on May 2017

Concordia University, Nebraska, broke ground on a new facility for the Center of Liturgical Art on Monday, May 1, 2017 with members of the Marxhausen family in attendance.

“Today, as a new chapter begins for the Center for Liturgical Art, we have the opportunity to again recall a dynamic couple who meant so much to Concordia and the Seward community,” said Brian Friedrich, president of Concordia University. “Reinhold and Dorris Marxhausen were each tremendously gifted, active, and faithful people. They cared deeply about art, about Seward, about Concordia and about their family.”

The new facility is being built at 540 North Columbia Avenue in Seward, Nebraska, where the former Marxhausen family home stood. It is also the site of Reinhold Marxhausen's studio, where the art professor completed his two mosaic murals for the Nebraska State Capitol.

“One thing that’s obvious as I’ve browsed through the thousands of Marxhausen photographs my family has archived in recent years – every place that Reinhold and Dorris ever lived quickly came to bear the indelible stamp of their personalities and creativity,” said Paul Marxhausen, son of the late artist. “No place was that truer than here at 540 where, over a half-century, they made an old frame house and two bare lots into a place bursting with ideas and life.”

The Center for Liturgical Art is the realization of Marxhausen’s wish to promote the use of exceptional visual art in worship and ministry. Since its establishment in 2002, the Center has become a recognized leader in liturgical art, providing meaningful, reflective and powerful pieces for ministries around the world.

Construction is to begin immediately with a proposed dedication of the new facility to take place in late September.