Art & Architecture
Inspiring.Faith.Community.
Although the primary purpose of Saint Cecilia Cathedral is the worship of God, we are known for our grand architecture, splendid art, and music of the highest quality.
Art at the Cathedral
Saint Cecilia Cathedral, in addition to its stained glass, sculptures, and paintings, is home to the Spanish Colonial Art collection.
Saint Cecilia Cathedral, in addition to its stained glass, sculptures, and paintings, is home to the Spanish Colonial Art collection. These two dozen paintings, figures and statues originated in Mexico, Central America, and northern South America, particularly Peru where the School of Cuzco arose. These items are found in the East Ambulatory, behind the sanctuary, and in the Nash Chapel.
Masterpiece sculpture works in wood, bronze and marble by the Moravian émigré Albin Polasek and his colleague William Hoppe are found throughout the Cathedral.
Above three doorways in the south ambulatory, two doorways in the north ambulatory and facing one another in the north entry are murals by the art deco master Hugo Ulhm depicting the beatified and canonized saints of North America in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
At the cornice level in the ambulatories are illuminated lunettes with symbolic presentations of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit – three on the south side and four on the north side. Also illuminated are the theological virtues given by the Holy Spirit who is at the northwest end. Opposite at the northeast end is Faith, Hope is at the southwest end as an anchor, and opposite at the southeast end is Charity, an inflamed heart.
There are 52 stained glass windows throughout the Cathedral. The first 27 windows are the work of the Charles Connick Studios in Boston, Massachusetts. Charles Connick was the dean of stained glass work in the first half of the twentieth century and a champion for the revival of stained glass production in the manner of the medieval artists. The remainder of the windows are the work of Rambusch Decorating Company of New York which completed the interior decoration of the Cathedral in 1958.
These works of craftsmanship and art preach lessons of faith from the heights of the rose window and the eight clerestory “singing windows” to the intimacy of the apsial ambulatory and the simplicity of the sacristy windows.
Architecture
Saint Cecilia Cathedral has the outside dimensions of two hundred fifty-five feet in length, one hundred fifty-eight feet in width, and, at the extreme height of towers, two hundred twenty-two feet. The walls are of solid masonry throughout, with the exterior in off-white Bedford limestone of Indiana. The roof of Spanish tiles is supported on steel. No less than a hundred tons of steel was used to support the roof and floor. In the foundation are over a million pounds of concrete. Over three million bricks were used in the structure itself. The construction is absolutely fireproof.
To read the full history of our Cathedral, click below.
The Architect
Thomas Rogers Kimball had 871 commissions spanning several states. He was perhaps Nebraska’s most distinguished and influential architect.
He was born in Linwood, a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio, on April 19, 1862. His father brought the family to Omaha in 1871 where he served as a vice-president of the Union Pacific Railroad. As a youngster, he lived in the pleasant Park Wilde neighborhood south of downtown and attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. From 1883-86 he studied painting at the Cowles School of Art in Boston and attended classes at America’s first school of architecture, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, graduating in 1886.
In 1890 Kimball became a student at the prestigious Ecole des Beaux-Arts (School of Fine Arts) in Paris. The Ecole was intensely competitive, and had a rigid, demanding curriculum. The students had to master the principles of design used by the ancient Greeks and Romans and became masters of all elements of architecture used by other European builders. The goals were rationality, harmony, dignity and good taste; Kimball had numerous opportunities through lectures and travels on the continent to become a master of these. In Paris he became a superb water-colorist studying under Harpignies and Vignal, two of France’s most acclaimed artists.
Returning to America, he worked as an architect in Boston with C. Howard Walker, before coming with Walker to Omaha. During 1891-92, when local entrepreneur Byron Reed made a large donation to the city for a major library building to be erected at Nineteenth and Harney Streets, Kimball was named the architect. No longer a library, the building stands today, and its formal grandeur shows the historical knowledge and exact instinct for pleasing proportion that Kimball would bring to the design of Saint Cecilia Cathedral.
Omaha was determined to make the city a fit place for the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition of 1898, and Kimball was given the responsibility for the overall design–a smaller but equally magnificent version of the Chicago World’s Fair of a few years earlier–he also created the Late Greek Revival design for the Burlington Railroad Station on Tenth Street, where so many fair-goers would arrive.
Quickly Kimball started getting commissions for every kind of building–Gold Coast mansions for the Gallaghers, Kirkendalls, Wattles, and other prominent families; massive warehouses in the district known as Jobbers’ Canyon (the Nash Building became the local headquarters for McKesson and Robbins and later the Greenhouse Apartments); more churches in historic styles, like St. Francis Cabrini Catholic Church and the old All Saints Episcopal; an addition to Duchesne Academy, the impressive Fontenelle Hotel, the Medical Arts Building, and banks, more libraries, more mansions, and schools. Of course, Saint Cecilia Cathedral is his masterpiece.
The Cathedral’s Renaissance Revival style seems to have been an entirely fitting choice for an architect with a reputation as something of a “Renaissance man.” A 1934 address delivered by William Steele, Thomas Rogers Kimball’s architect-partner, reads “that he had so many interests that he always gave the impression of being in a hurry.” This sentiment is echoed in a resolution adopted by the Omaha Chapter of the American Inter-Professional Institute which said posthumously of Kimball that “He drank deeply and courageously of life. His tastes were catholic [sic], his interests comprehensive, his sympathies broad and genuine.” Kimball’s architectural legacy is reflective of such a man, one who was conversant with and adept at designing in a wide range of historical styles fashionable with the Beax-Arts Classicists of his era. It seems that it was precisely because of his worldliness, particularly his travels and studies abroad, that he successfully absorbed and assimilated ideas that later provided important sources for artistic inspiration.
Kimballs’ achievements, though always traditional, with historically correct references to the past rather than radical inventions in modernist form, won him national recognition. President Theodore Roosevelt appointed him to the first National Fine Arts Commission in 1909, and he was chosen by his peers to be President of the American Institute of Architects from 1918 to 1920.
Thomas Rogers Kimball died September 7, 1934 and is buried at Omaha’s Forest Lawn Cemetery.
~The Beauty of Thy House, 2005
Spanish Influence
Spanish Renaissance Choice for Saint Cecilia Cathedral
In 1907 when the cornerstone of Saint Cecilia Cathedral was laid, architecture in the Spanish style was not among the American vogue of then popular European-inspired revivalist traditions. In fact it was not until the 1915 Panama-California Exposition in San Diego that the stage was set for this revival, know as “Spanish Colonial,” to take off in popularity in parts of the southwestern United States. Kimball’s proposal to design and build in the Spanish style was therefore nearly a decade ahead of his time.
The prevailing taste in ecclesiastical architecture across America for all Christian denominations was for the Gothic Revival. This was true at the local level as well as among the Protestant church constructed at the turn of the century in Omaha that were either Gothic or English Georgian in style. Roman Catholic churches of this era were typically modeled after those in the French Gothic tradition or following Italian Baroque conventions. Spanish architecture had not figured among the accepted repertoire of eclectic sources for Beaux-Arts trained architects. Kimball nevertheless was successful in appropriating his classical training and taking the bold step to design Saint Cecilia in what was a radical departure from the norm. His proposal for a Spanish Renaissance-style cathedral was entirely unique making Kimball the architectural trendsetter of the Great Plains, if not the entire United States. It was thus also a prim opportunity for the Catholic Diocese of Omaha to be at the forefront in making a symbolic statement about its primacy amongst Christian denominations.
The Spanish Colonial architectural style had, of course, existed for some three centuries, first originating with the Spanish Conquest of the New World in 1521. Conquered territory that eventually was to include Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, much of the southwestern United States, and as far north as Nebraska became known as New Spain. Churches in the Spanish Colonial period were built across much of this frontier territory to meet the needs of the missionary communities there, and each reflects some regional variation as well as a blending with native artistic traditions. Initially the Franciscans built missions throughout the Spanish American borderlands, with New Mexico’s settlement being the earliest, aside from a Jesuit missionary field in southern Arizona. The production of art and architecture in service of the Catholic Church flourished until the early nineteenth century when the Spanish Colonial period finally came to an end.
It is no great leap of the imagination to see why the Spanish style seemed so appropriate symbolically for Omaha’s cathedral given it was once part of the Spanish viceroyalty. Unfortunately for Kimball, he did not receive unanimous praise for his innovative design when the proposal was first made. On the contrary, in fact, the proposed idea was met with resistance. Kimball stood his ground, however; eventually winning over Bishop Scannell by arguing that his idea was the best for the diocese for several compelling reasons. On a practical note, the relative austerity of the Spanish Renaissance style enabled a tight budget to be kept without having to sacrifice dramatic impact or scale, a favorable argument for even the most verdant critic. The proposal was also appropriate for aesthetic and historical reasons given Nebraska’s earliest history under Spanish and hence Catholic domain. The first non-indigenous people to enter Nebraska were in fact the Spanish. In 1541 the Spanish explorer Coronado, along with his companion Padre Juan de Padilla, traveled as far north as the southern plains looking for the mythical “lost kingdom” of Quivera that was said to have gold. In 1821 the Sante Fe Trail was established at Westport, only 200 miles south of Omaha. Less than fifty years later Omaha was also forever united to the Pacific Coast via the national railroad line once the “Golden Spike” was driven in. Circa 1900, many of Omaha’s burgeoning immigrant European population were Hispanic. This the Cathedral would prove an unmistakable symbol of the gateway to the American West that Nebraska represent. Only following months of debate, however, was the plan finally approved in May of 1904.
In his work toward Saint Cecilia Cathedral, there is good reason to believe that Kimball was musing not so much over precursors in the Spanish New World alone, but that he looked back historically to Spain where the tradition began. Indeed, Kimball was apparently quite aware of his American innovation calling the Cathedral,
“…a Spanish interpretation of the Renaissance is the best way to describe it. The Cathedral is one of the first, if not the first, to be built in the United States strictly following Old Country conventions.”
~Beauty of Thy House, 2005
Italian Influence
Italian Renaissance Characteristics
Firstly, the architectural orders that define the overall framework for the facade, and indeed the entire body of the Cathedral, are in strict accordance with the classical canon invented in antiquity and that are a hallmark of the Italian Renaissance. Aside from the added touch of pairing the columns and pilasters as Kimball did to the Cathedral’s entrance portals, narthex arcade, and Communion rail inside the church, (perhaps in Homage to the Renaissance invention of Michelangelo at Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rom) the classical vocabulary is drawn direct from the text of The Five Orders of Architecture (Rome, 1562) by the Italian Renaissance architect Giacomo da Vignola.
Secondly, another distinctly Italian Renaissance feature is the rusticated treatment of the Ionic Columns framing the windows on the second story of the Cathedral’s facade and those surrounding the arched niche at the top. The shaft of these columns is banded with blocks to create “rustication” or a quarry-faced effect. Rustication is a common aspect of the later phase of the Italian Renaissance style known as Mannerism in which the elements of classical architecture were manipulated in a playful fashion. The Italian Mannerist style is subtle enough that only those well versed in the canon of classical design would even detect where rules have been broken. It seems that Kimball, perhaps in his own shot at Mannerist whimsy, attempted to do the same as Romano and other Italians centuries before him had done. The suggestion of a Mannerist flare seems to be at work by Kimball not just in the rustication of the window frames, but also through the telescope-like repetition of edges that seem to project outward from the surface in the end bays of the entrance facade and in the bell towers above it. Similarly the belt courses, architraves and entablatures that define the juncture points in the columnar bays and towers are out of sink with classical norms. They either break downward to reveal dentils, as at the center of the facade’s end bays, or push upward breaking the line of the scrolled pediments, as occurs above the windows at the base of each tower. There is also the Mannerist sense in which the fenestration on the Cathedral’s main facade seems to hover or float on the surface.
Thirdly, Romano’s contemporary and key arbiter of the Italian Renaissance tradition was the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio, who is acclaimed as the most influential and widely-imitated architect in history. One of the most recognizable and copied features associated with Palladio’s architecture, or the so-called Palladian style, is the ubiquitous tripartite “Serliana,” an arched opening symmetrically framed on either side by rectangular windows. The Serliana motif, largely popularized by Palladio but a decorative device that is properly coined after his Italian colleague Sebastiano Serlio, is repeated in several places within the Cathedral. On the exterior, the partial form of a Serliana is conceived in stone as balustraded windows halfway up the bell towers; while on the Cathedral’s interior, the Palladian Serliana is carved from wood to define the overall silhouette of the confessionals; employed as an accent in the choir loft railing; and forms a continuous pattern surrounding the upper portion of the presbytery’s framework.
Serlio wrote a very influential treatise, The Five Books of Architecture. A print from Serlio’s text illustrates the formula for the three-bay facade with a pair of bell towers not at all unlike the elevation of Saint Cecilia. Serlio’s text and other architectural pattern books like it also featured antique Roman motifs of the Italian Renaissance classical revival including cherubs, masks, grape vines, acanthus leaves, lions, eagles, griffins, shields, urns, candelabra, grotesques, and the like. Many of these decorative elements are integral to the relief work of the Cathedral’s interior including the carved wood sanctuary wall and the coffered plaster ceiling.
Beyond individual features and in a much broader sense, however, a specifically Palladian influence seems to have played a part in Kimballs’ overall conception of the Cathedral’s interior space. Harmonious proportional relationships were a key principle of Palladian, and indeed Renaissance architecture in the classical tradition. Palladio, in accordance with Renaissance theorists, believed it was possible to define Beauty itself, as “that reasoned harmony of all the parts within a body…the very same numbers that cause sounds…pleasing to the ears, can also fill the eyes and mind with wondrous delight.” Beauty was thus equated with balanced dimensions that were mathematically related to one another, both at the level of the classical orders (column diameter to height, for example, as illustrated in the Vignolan canon), and on the all-encompassing scale of a building’s overall dimensions of height, width, and breadth. Kimball seems to have applied these design principles, learned at the “Ecole, in creating what a scale ruler can measure on one of his renderings of the Cathedral, yet what only the sense can perceive as harmonious beauty if one stands inside the church.
Kimball seems also to have paid homage to Palladio’s ecclesiastic building in terms of the layout of the Cathedral’s nave as can be seen by comparing a photographic view down the nave and a cross-sectional elevation with that of the Venetian church, Il Rendentore. In imitation of Roman-bath architecture, the clerestory along the upper nave has lunette-shaped thermal windows beneath which are round-arched side chapels linked together by entablatures that span both the Cathedral’s and Il Redentores” circumference. The same interior configuration exists both at St. Peter’s in the Vatican and at the Escorial, as this was common amongst sixteenth century basilical churches. Moreover, like the Italian-inspired design of El Escorial, the Cathedral has a like distinction between the plainness of the exterior in contrast to the opulence of the interior, that was effected through surface ornamentation and the rich application of color, gilding, and variety of materials.
~The Beauty of Thy House, 2005
Other Contributors
Sculptor / Original Artist: Albin Polasek
Stations of the Cross, Bronze crucifix on high altar, Apostles statues (John, Andrew, Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew), Doctors of the Church statues on the pulpit
General contractors: William P. Deverell Company and Albert Schall and Albert Foll Company of Omaha
Our Lady of Nebraska statue: Arthur E. Lorenzani of New York City from model by Albin Polasek
Apostles statues (James the Lesser, James the Greater, Philip, Matthias, Jude and Simon):
William Hoppe from designs of Albin Polasek
Heating, ventilation and plumbing: J.J. Hanighen Company of Omaha
Outside lighting fixtures: Sterling Electric Company of Omaha
Acoustical treatment of ceiling and oriental rugs: Midwest Carpet and Linoleum Company of Omaha
Interior marble work: Sunderland Brothers of Omaha
Completion of towers in 1958: John P. Mainelli Company of Omaha
Three cast bronze bells: I.T. Verdin Company of Cincinnati, OH
Bronze doors and grilles: Thomas McGann Company of Boston, Massachusetts
Church pews: Dubuque Altar Maufacturing Company of Dubuque, IA
Carved oak sanctuary screen, confessionals, and organ screen: Joseph Dux Company of Chicago, IL
Inside oak doors and additions to sanctuary screen: Alfred Bloom Company of Omaha
Bronze lighting fixtures: Rambusch Decorating Company, New York City, NY
Bishop’s throne: Charles Drew Company of Boston, MA
Oak pulpit: E. Hackner Company of LaCross, WI
High altar: designed by architect Thomas Kimball and executed in Pietrasanta, Italy
Marble and bronze communion railing: Armando Batelli of Pietrasanta, Italy
Pipe organ (original): Casavant Brothers of St. Hyacinth, Canada
Stained glass windows in baptistry: Rambusch Decorating Company of New York City, NY
Baptismal font: Daprato Statuary Company of Chicago, IL
Baptismal railing: Heath Company, Waukegan, IL
Bronze grilles in baptistry and Nash memorial chapel: Sterling Electric Company of Omaha
Stained glass windows in Nash chapel: Omaha Mirror and Art Glass Company of Omaha
Mosaics in Nash chapel: A. Cimarosti of New Ork City, NY
Stained glass windows in nave: Charles J. Connick Associates of Boston, MA
Stained glass windows in west narthex: Charles J. Connick Associates of Boston, MA
Stained glass windows in apsidal ambulatory: Rambush Decorating Company of New York City, NY
Stained glass windows in sacristy: Rambusch Decorating Company of New York City, NY
Christ the King shrine: William Hoppe, Rambusch Decorating Company, Ney York City, NY
Saint Joseph shrine: Edward Donahoe, Rambusch, Decorating Company, New York City, NY
Saint Ann shrine: Rambusch, Decorating Company, New York City, NY
Old Testament murals: Kai Gotsche, Rambusch Decorating Company of New York City, NY
“Sanctity” paintings: Hugo Ohlms, Rambusch Decorating Company of New York City, NY
Architectural Features
“Saint Cecilia Cathedral is firmly situated in a historical context that is far beyond that of Omaha and the region. In its form, the Cathedral is linked to the Greeks and Romans, the Renaissance, Philip II of Spain, and Colonial New Spain. It serves as a visual reference to the earliest explorations of these lands by the Spanish. As a metaphor, it calls to mind the Faith that served to inspire the deeds of countless generations.”
~ Brother William Woeger, F.S.C.
Front Towers
The Moorish-influenced design from Spain and Spanish America (Mudejar) is apparent on the panels with scallop-shaped stone fretwork below the bell towers on the exterior. Reaching some two hundred twenty-two feet in the air, the tower completions were done by the Mainelli Construction Company at a cost of $135,000.
Bronze Cross
The towers are each crowned with a six-foot six hundred pound bronze cross and together, with the cross on the ridge of the center nave, form a completed “Trinity” – The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit.
Bronze Doors
The huge bronze doors of the triple portal are framed in a Tuscan order with paired columns. The vertical elements of this classic base are carried upward to the three arched windows in contrasting rusticated pilasters, which recalls in design, the delicate craftsmanship of fine silversmiths. The great bronze doors were cast from original designs of the architect. Thomas Kimball. The casting of the doors was done in Boston, Massachusetts. They are marked by an absence of low relief work often found in bronze doors, and by the grill work above, really a part of the design of the doors.
North Entrance
The north facade of Saint Cecilia Cathedral shares striking similarities with the Plateresque or Churrigueresque tradition, exemplified by the side portal of the Sagrario Metropolitano in Mexico City (1749–68). Both feature decorative archivolts framing the tympanum, a round-headed niche with a statue of the Virgin Mary supported by a bracket, and scrolled gables at roof height. While the space above the tympanum at the Cathedral is plain compared to the highly sculpted Sagrario, the resemblance in design elements is notable. The Cathedral’s facade reflects an eclectic blend of influences, including Renaissance, Gothic, and Moorish elements, showcasing a richly decorative character akin to Spanish ecclesiastical architecture.
Interior of Cathedral
One notices immediately upon entering the Cathedral, that this is not a simple barrel vault–the clerestory walls are not supported by rows of columns and arches as in many basilicate churches. The plan of the Cathedral nave is a series of five great bays, each bay composed of four enclosing arches, which support the pendentives of a ceiling dome. The bays are linked one to another by transverse barred vaults which follow the semi-circle of the huge arches spanning the nave. These arches carry the thrust from the ceiling domes and the intermediate barrel vaults, and are, in turn, supported by the massive masonry of the buttresses. The original plans for the Cathedral called for a “simple nave (main section) without transepts; with ambulatories (side aisles) running entirely around the structure, circular apse (sanctuary) and attached chapels, baptistry, sacristy, and crypts, but that each would be entirely independent of the great vaulted nave and sanctuary.”
Tower Niches
Also on the west facade, in two lower niches are four foot statues representing Saints Isidore and Juan Diego. St. Isidore, a twelfth-century Spanish farmer, is the patron of the agricultural workers. Hard working, poor, yet generous, he is shown with his spade. It is said that angels helped him with his plowing so that he would have time for his devotions. Juan Diego, also a laborer, was a Chichimeca Indian who was walking to Mass when the Virgin Mary appeared before him in December 1531. Despite the cold, his coarse cloak, or tilma, was filled with fragrant roses and imprinted with the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe as proof of the miracle for his bishop. A basilica was built in her honor at the site of the vision, in present-day Mexico City. Our Lady of Guadalupe is patron of the Americas. The figures were chosen to represent the people of God in Nebraska and to recognize the contributions of Hispanic immigrants to the archdiocese.
Rose Window
The eye moves easily upward to the rose window, hanging like a jeweled pendant on the breast of the cathedral and upwards again to the baroque scrolls of the nave gable. The Cathedral’s rose window is in many ways a microcosm of some of the influences that made their way into the Spanish Baroque tradition. Its overall quartrefoil-shape is a convention that ultimately stems from the Gothic tradition. The mistilinear scrollwork at the apex of the rose window is of classical Renaissance vocabulary. While the highly organic treatment of the pair of columns that bisect the stained glass, marked by very unorthodox center-points resembling stylized flower petals, could be a variation of the regional interpretation of the Mexican.
St. Cecilia Statue on Facade
On Saint Cecilia’s feast day, November 22, 2000, a statue of Saint Cecilia and three other saints were blessed by Archbishop Elden Curtiss and placed in niches on the church’s facade. The alcoves had been waiting eighty-eight years. All are originals and were carved in Italy of renowned Carrara marble. Saint Cecilia, at eight feet and the tallest, occupies a niche eighty-five feet above ground in the center of the west facade, the main entrance to the Cathedral. Her hair is unbound, maidenly, and her robe is loose and modest. The upturned face is given a luminescence by the white marble. In her arms, the patron saint of music holds a portative organetto, which could be played for its own sweet sound or to accompany singing. One is reminded of Psalm 150: “Praise the Lord with everything that has breath!” The statue of Saint Cecilia was an anonymous gift in memory of the Archbishop’s mother, Mary Curtiss.
Cathedral Music
We prepare the Sacred Treasury of music and sing for not only Holy Week and Triduum Liturgies, but for Masses each Sunday. The path of the choir’s preparation is structured as formation for lifelong praise of God – including weekly musical, liturgical, and spiritual preparations.
Dedicated to the patron of music and musicians, Saint Cecilia Cathedral and the Archdiocese of Omaha host a robust and vigorous music ministry which serve both parish and episcopal liturgies of the Archdiocese. The music ministry consists of a unique partnership between Cathedral and Archdiocese. Under the auspices of the Saint Cecilia Institute for Sacred Liturgy, Music and the Arts, musicians gather to grow in skill, to rehearse and to pray the liturgy of the hours, culminating in service of the liturgical life of the Mother Church.
At the heart of this ministry is singing in support of and in dialogue with the Assembly of the baptized, the earthly choir, as it lifts up its voice to join with the heavenly choirs in the eternal song of the praise to God the Father. The Cathedral Music Ministry exists within the framework mission of Formation for Lifelong Praise of God, the intentional growth in faith, skill, and musicianship of all of its participants.
Pasi Pipe Organ
Dr. Marie Rubis Bauer
As harpsichordist and organist, Rubis Bauer has performed as soloist and in ensembles throughout the United States and Europe. In 2020, she launched a series of spiritual concerts on Saint Cecilia Cathedral’s Pasi organ, Beauty and Hope, combining topical programs of organ music with poetry and scripture for meditation.
Since 2003, she has shared her passion for the Church’s choral and liturgical music in the Archdiocese of Omaha as Director of Music and Cathedral Organist at Saint Cecilia Cathedral in Omaha, NE. This ministry engages musicians of all ages into the discovery and use of a 10-century living tradition of Sacred Music. She is also passionate about welcoming all into the embrace of Saint Cecilia Cathedral, Omaha’s Mother Church, with its sacred art, inspiring acoustics and landmark Martin Pasi Opus 14 dual temperament organ.
She teaches organ, harpsichord, and continuo playing at the University of Nebraska Omaha. She has served as chair and judge of the American Guild of Organist’s National Competition in Organ Improvisation. Rubis Bauer has performed for and collaborated to host national conferences including AGO (organists), NPM (Roman Catholic), ALCM (Lutheran), Musforum (international women organists), FDLC (Liturgy), Society for Liturgy, Midwest Historical Keyboard Society, and collaborations with UNL, UNO, Westfield Center, and overseen the annual concert series in conjunction with the Cathedral Arts Project.
St. Cecilia Institute
Flower Festival
Cathedral Arts Project, or CAP, brings residents of the Midwest some of the best in the visual and musical arts all under the roof of one of the most unique and spiritual structures in the Midwest. The annual Cathedral Flower Festival is sponsored by Cathedral Arts Project and takes place on the last weekend in January in the beauty of our Cathedral.
This year’s festival will be in honor of CAP Board Members: Msgr. James Gilg, K.C. Halpine, and Ron Rubin and in memory of our founder, Brother William Woeger.
Saturday, January 25, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm.
Flower Festival in Cathedral (Music performed on the hour from 9 AM to 4 PM).
In Cultural Center: Gift Shop, Gallery Exhibit, Lithuanian Bakery in Parish Center, (9 AM- 5:00 PM)
Sunday, January 26, Noon to 5:00 pm.
Flower Festival in Cathedral (Music performed on the hour from Noon to 4 PM).
Mass attendees after 8:30 AM and 10:30 AM Masses are invited to view walking counter clockwise.
In Cultural Center: Gift Shop, Gallery Festival Show, Food, doors open at 9:30 AM for Knights of Columbus Breakfast.
Cathedral doors open to public at Noon. 4:00 PM concert goers can view flower festival from 5-6 PM. All people out by 6:00 PM.
2024 Flower Festival
Let There Be Light
2023 Flower Festival
Celebration
2022 Flower Festival
Hope Springs Eternal
2020 Flower Festival
For Everything There is a Season
2019 Flower Festival
Gardens
2018 Flower Festival
Kimball at the Cathedral
2017 Flower Festival
Nebraska Statehood 150 Years
2016 Flower Festival
A Night at the Movies
2015 Flower Festival
Around the World
2014 Flower Festival
South Pacific
2013 Flower Festival
A Floral Fantasy