Bishop's Dinner to honor memory of artist Anna Campbell Bliss

Friday, Sep. 02, 2016

SALT LAKE CITY — Anna Campbell Bliss, who died last year at the age of 90, will be honored in memoriam during the Sept. 15 Bishop’s Dinner, the annual event fundraiser for the Cathedral of the Madeleine.

Bliss, who was a cathedral parishioner, received undergraduate degrees in art history and mathematics from Wellesley College and a master’s degree in architecture from Harvard. After moving with her husband to Utah, she founded the Contemporary Arts Group in Salt Lake City. Her work is displayed in several prominent Salt Lake venues such as the Utah State Capitol and Salt Lake City International Airport; her pieces also are in local museum collections as well as the Metropolitan Art Museum in New York and the Art Institute of Chicago. 

One work easily seen by local Catholics is the stained-glass wall behind the altar at Saint Thomas More Catholic Church in Sandy.

“A wonderful thing it does is – if there’s snow out on the ground and it’s a sunny Sunday morning, the color from the stained glass moves out on the snow, so all that is an additional work in the snow,” said Robert Bliss, her widower. 

Anna Campbell Bliss was a member of the advisory committee for the cathedral renovation project that took place from 1991 to 1993.  Robert Bliss recalls that one of his late wife’s duties during that time was to help select Sam Wilson to execute a new Stations of the Cross.

“Anna’s main contribution there was selecting the range of colors that were appropriate for the style of the building,” said Robert Bliss, adding that his wife was very devout.

“All of our lives she went to church every Sunday,” he said. “I’m not Catholic, but I now go every Sunday for her.”

Bliss’ artistic and architectural background led her to be asked to join the architectural committee for the renovation of the Cathedral of the Madeleine, said Monsignor Joseph Mayo, who was the cathedral rector from 2000 to 2013. 

“They went over all of the different elements or changes that were going to be made as a result of not only the restoration but the renovation of liturgical elements of the cathedral – that is, the altar and the screen and the baptistry and all of these things that were going to be new to the cathedral. They weren’t there in the old cathedral,” Msgr. Mayo explained.

Most of the changes to the liturgical elements, such as moving the altar so that the celebrant could face the congregation, were brought about because of Vatican II. 

Bliss “made many significant contributions in terms of her dialog with the committee,” Msgr. Mayo said. “It was a five-year process just to get to construction, because they had to know what they were building and what they were changing, and then they had to tear the  cathedral apart. The place was closed for two years” as the renovation took place. 

The keynote speaker for the Bishop’s Dinner will be Gregory Glenn, director of liturgy and music for the Cathedral of the Madeleine and the pastoral administrator of The Madeleine Choir School.

Glenn, who began working for the Diocese of Salt Lake City shortly before the renovation project began, said he was excited that the renovation would focus not only on the physical building but also on the cathedral as a place of worship and prayer, as a place of education and formation, a place of charitable outreach, a place that was welcoming to the entire community and a place where the arts and culture were supported.

Glenn also was a driving force behind the creation of The Madeleine Choir School, which opened in 1996 and now has about 400 children in grades pre-K through 8th.

“Our life of prayer at the cathedral and the practice of the liturgy is greatly enhanced by the fact that we have a choir school, because we have choristers who regularly assist with not only the Sunday and weekend Masses and the holy day Masses, but also daily Mass on a regular basis, so we’re able to regularly present the Church’s great treasury of sacred music as it serves the life of prayer in the church,” Glenn said.

During the dinner, a video will be shown that contains interviews with some cathedral parishioners speaking about how they incorporate the faith in their everyday lives. One of those featured on the video is Chris Hemmersmeier, whose three children celebrated their First Communion and the Sacrament of Confirmation there. 

“I think the cathedral gives a sense of balance to our lives and a reminder of where we are within the community. As we all know, the cathedral does great work with our homeless community, with the people that are hungry – it’s a good reminder for me every week of where we fit and how lucky we are,” Hemmersmeier said. “It’s a good reminder of how we should try and share that with others.” 

WHAT: Bishop’s Dinner

WHEN: Thursday, Sept. 15, reception at 6 p.m.; dinner at 7 p.m.

WHERE: Grand America, 555 S. Main St., SLC

COST: $150 per seat; $1,500 per table

For tickets, contact Patricia Wesson, 801-328-8941 ext. 108 or pwesson@utcotm.org.