Page:Czecho-Slovak Student Life, Volume 18.djvu/86
Art at St. Procopius College.
For the “S. L.” by Joseph Sitek.
HE STUDY of arts is one which at all times, since the opening of S. P. C., has been zealously pursued by the faculty and student-body at Lisle. In fact, the very first signs of interest were manifested at a time when the cradle of our Alma Mater reposed somewhere on Allport St., Chicago, and the one to display this interest was none other than the popular painter, Brother Joseph Pondelicek, now nearing his fourth decade of monastic service at Lisle.
Brother Joseph was born in Bohemia, where from his early youth he devoted himself primarily to painting. With this trade he came to America and later to S. P. C. Though now already 75 years of age, he still pursues his painting from day to day and scarcely a week passes which does not witness some fresh, new product of the zealous Brother’s art.
During the last twenty years his popularity has reached such a point that he is in constant demand. Parishes in Chicago and elsewhere ask him to redecorate their churches, and St. Procopius College itself contains a number of his paintings and frescoes.
In the year 1911 Father Anselm Fleisig, present director and chaplain of St. Joseph’s Orphanage, registered for a course in charcoal drawing at De Paul University in Chicago. A year and a half later, having completed the course, he established a drawing class, bought accessories and began to teach charcoal drawing. The very first year seventy-six students enrolled for the course. Instruction was conducted in the College refectory, since no other room in the house at that time was large enough.
“Among my prominent artists”, said Father Anselm in an interview, “were Father Charles Koudelka, Father Koutnik, Father Lach, Mr. John Leska, now study-