From the good folks at St. John Cantius parish comes yet another Catholic cultural event worth promoting:
The Catholic Art Guild and St. John Cantius parish of Chicago will present a conference titled “Beauty and the Restoration of the Sacred” on Saturday, Oct 29th. The keynote speaker will be philosopher Sir Roger Scruton, and also included conferences by architect Duncan Stroik, Dr. Denis McNamara, and artist and sculptor Anthony Visco. The conference will begin with a glorious choral High Mass at St. John Cantius Church, and proceed by trolley to the lovely environs of the Drake Hotel Ballroom for talks, dinner, the keynote speaker, and a chance for social and networking time in the evening.
Tickets must be purchased by October 23rd, so make your reservations quickly!
Conference schedule:
12:30 pm Choral Latin High Mass (Feast of Christ the King) St. John Cantius Church
2:00 pm Trolley departs to Drake Hotel
2:15 pm Drake Hotel, Grand Ballroom: Registration
2:30-3:00 Speaker: Anthony Visco, Catholic Artist
3:00-3:30 Speaker: Dr. Denis McNamara, Architectural Historian
3:45-4:30 Speaker: Duncan Stroik, Classical Architect
4:30-5:30 Keynote Address: Sir Roger Scruton, Philosopher & Writer
6:00-8:00 Dinner in the Gold Coast Room
8:00-8:30 Q & A and Panel Discussion
8:30-9:30 Social Time
For more information, or to purchase tickets, please go to the conference website.
$175 for non-members … Well I hope the speakers are video recorded so others can later benefit from it.
Considering you get a talk, a trolley ride to downtown Chicago and dinner at The Drake, it seems quite reasonable, being that it is probably also a fundraiser. You probably go to the movies and spend $20 on popcorn and soda pop alone plus movie ticket$ to watch something that sends your money to Hollywood..
Well it’s a good thing I rarely purchase popcorn and pop when at the movies!
“Besides the price, for a Catholic event this seems quite exclusive – Drake Hotel and whatnot.”
I live in the Chicago area, and this impression of exclusivity has kept me from visiting St John Cantius.
I don’t understand. I’m in Chicago but I never got the impression that SJC was exclusive to any degree. The Catholic Art Guild is the main player in this and SJC is just a sponsor, if my understanding is correct.
exclusivity? there are families that travel an hour to go to this parish; the only request is that you dress appropriately to enter the church and attend mass.
I think it’s important to note that this event is one of the few that required a fee out of the many monthly events The Catholic Art Guild has held this year, nearly all were free and open to everyone, members and non-members. Additionally, there are several levels of tickets available, $125 for members and $50 for full time students. It’s also notable that the event includes transportation (bus rental) to the Drake after mass, lunch upon arrival at the Drake, a Filet Mignon dinner with wine service & dessert (so yes two full meals!) and an incredible panel of speakers! Speakers have fees and need to be compensated for travel and accommodation. Considering this conference is focused on the need for beauty, particularly in the liturgy, the setting at St. John Cantius and the Drake is well suited to the topic. For all this event includes, the cost is not exorbitant. We will also be paying a videographer to tape the talks, as we have for all our many free speaking events this year, they can be viewed on our Youtube channel. We want to make this information available to those that cannot attend, but we’re also delighted by those that want to support our work and have benefited from our many free events this year. We are all volunteers running this organization too. All things considered, we have to charge for this special event, we will not be profiting from it and most people understand that they’re getting real value for money. Lastly, community is important to our mission and it isn’t fostered watching videos online, this conference and banquet is the culmination of our first year, it’s a galvanizing, educational, enjoyable, social and networking event and our members are very excited about it. We were hoping others that realized what is being offered would be happy to hear about it too. We’re delighted OnePeterFive thought so too and decided to write about it.
Thanks for the explanation. I see where the prices are going to.