Esther Newport
| Sister Esther Newport, S.P. | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
Catherine Newport May 17, 1901 Clinton, Indiana |
| Died | July 9, 1986 (aged 85) Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana |
| Nationality |
 United States
|
| Education | Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Syracuse University |
| Known for | painting, sculpting, art education |
Sister Esther Newport, S.P., (1901–1986) was an American painter, sculptor and art educator who founded the Catholic Art Association and served as the founding editor of the Christian Social Art Quarterly.
She was born Catherine Newport in Clinton, Indiana, to parents Edward and Cora Sams Newport. Newport entered the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods in 1918 at the age of 17, taking the religious name Sister Esther. A main ministry for many years was teaching middle school and art; in 1930 she began a 34-year stint in the art department of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College. After two years at Marywood School in Evanston, Illinois, she returned to Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College in 1966 and served as head of the art department there until 1970.
After general studies at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College in the 1920s, Newport earned a bachelor's degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1932. Beginning in 1936 she attended Syracuse University with a major in painting and minor in ceramic sculpture, earning her MFA in 1939.
As an academic, Newport focused on the Christian theory of art and Christian art education, subjects about which she wrote numerous articles for Christian publications including Orate Fratres, the Sower and Catholic School Interests. She also contributed an article "Art Education" to the New Catholic Encyclopedia.
Newport was chairman of the United States Committee of the Holy Year Exhibit in Rome, 1949–1951. She lectured and directed summer workshops at the Catholic University of America in the 1950s. For her work in the field of religious art, Newport received an honorary doctorate from Saint Mary's College, Notre Dame, in 1956.
Newport conceived an association for Catholic art educators in 1936 which she called the Catholic College Art Association. After acquiring artist Graham Carey as a philosophical founder for the group, she founded the Catholic Art Association (CAA) in 1937 and served as its first director. The Association strove to encourage commissions of religious art by churches and organizations and well as to educate and elevate Catholic taste. The CAA sponsored exhibitions, conventions, and various publications as well. When the Association began to split severely between art educators (including many teaching sisters and Newport herself) and those more interested in the philosophy of Catholic art (including Graham Carey), Newport left the organization in 1958 and founded the Salve Regina Conference.
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