As part of the Sesquicentennial Celebration of the University of Notre Dame Art Museum, join us for an inspiring conversation exploring the intersections of the arts, faith, history, and education, and the role of the museum in contemporary life.
The discussion honors the legacy of connection between the Vatican Museums and campus art museums that began when Notre Dame Founder Rev. Edward F. Sorin, C.S.C., invited Vatican artist Luigi Gregori to campus, forever shaping Notre Dame’s visual identity and giving rise to one of the nation's oldest and most esteemed university art museums. By examining the Vatican Museums’ global mission and its implications for our own artistic endeavors, this discussion will provide insights on art as a source of hope and human connection.
Co-sponsored by the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art.
Featuring:
Barbara Jatta
Director, Vatican Museums
In conversation with:
Heather Hyde Minor
R.L. Canala Professor of Art History, University of Notre Dame
Opening remarks:
Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C.
President, University of Notre Dame
About Barbara Jatta
Barbara Jatta was born in Rome in October 1962, has been married to Fabio Midulla since July 1988, and has three children: Marco, Fabiola and Giorgio. She obtained a degree in Letters, with a thesis on the History of drawing, engraving and graphics, in 1986 from the “La Sapienza” University of Rome, and concluded a three-year specialist course in History of Art at the same institution in 1991. She undertook several specialist internships in England, Portugal and the United States.
From 1981 to 1996 she collaborated with the National Institute for Graphic Design, working first as a restorer of graphic materials and then on the cataloguing of the Institute’s portfolios of drawings, engravings, woodcuts and lithographs. Since the 1990s, she has taught at various institutions and on specialist courses.
From 1994 to 2016, she ran the course on the history of techniques and graphic arts at the Faculty of Letters at the “Suor Orsola Benincasa” University of Naples, where she also serves as a member of the managing board of the Pagliara Foundation.
From 1996 to 2016, she was the director of the Cabinet of Prints at the Vatican Apostolic Library, where she was also a member of the Exhibitions, Accessions, Acquisitions, Publishing and Cataloguing commissions. In 2010, the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI appointed her as Curator of Prints at the Vatican Apostolic Library.
From 2010 to 2016, she was a full member of the International Advisory Committee of Keepers of Public Collections of Graphic Art, the international association of Directors of Cabinets of drawings and prints, and since 2010, she has served as a member of the Scientific Committee of the journal Grafica d’Arte. She has collaborated on and personally organized several exhibitions and has participated in numerous publishing initiatives in the field of the history of graphics and art.
In January 2017, she was appointed by Pope Francis to guide the papal collections in the role of Director of the Vatican Museums. She is a member of many influential councils and leadership groups throughout the global artistic community, including the Scientific Council of the Louvre Museum; the “Bizot Group,” the committee of the directors of some of the most prominent global museums; the International Advisory Board of the Hermitage Museum; and the Scientific Committee of the Bulletin of the Central Institute for Restoration.
For her leadership, she has received many honorary appointments, including being named to the Order of “Stella d’Italia,” the Royal Order of the Polar Star, and being named an Officer of the Order of the Arts and the Letters and as Chevalier in the Order of the Legion of Honor.
In 2023, Pope Francis appointed her as a consultant of the Holy See’s Dicastery for Culture and Education.
Originally published at forum2025.nd.edu.