The Catholic Art Association (CAA) was founded in 1937 by Sister Esther Newport as an organization of artists, art educators and others interested in Catholic

Catholic

The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

 art and its philosophy. The CAA published the Catholic Art Quarterly

Catholic Art Quarterly

The Catholic Art Quarterly was the official bulletin of the Catholic Art Association...

, sponsored annual conventions, and hosted workshops until the organization dwindled and eventually dissolved in 1970.

History

In 1936, Sister Esther Newport saw a need for improved art education in Catholic schools and for a set of standards regarding ecclesiastical art. She drew up an initial proposal for a Catholic College Art Association that year but did not find much support at that time. After a Peter Boswell column in the March 1937 issue of Art Digest addressed similar issues in Catholic art, Newport revisited her idea and sent it to Boswell. He in turn gave the proposal publicity in his April 1937 column and helped to garner public support for the organization.

Newport then called for an organizational meeting at Providence High School

Providence-St. Mel

Providence St. Mel School is a private, coeducational K-12 school in East Garfield Park, Chicago, Illinois. The school currently has 594 students and 50 teachers.-History:...

 in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

. There she and other interested parties founded the Catholic College Art Association and planned for its first general meeting that October on the campus of the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods

Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods

The Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods are an apostolic congregation of Catholic women founded by Saint Theodora Guerin at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana, in 1840...

 in Indiana.

Philosophical foundation

Newport enlisted art critic and philosopher Graham Carey to provide an underlying foundation for the CAA. Carey was already known for his "Catholic Philosophy of Art" and agreed to be an advisor to the organization and to speak at its first general meeting.

Carey would go on to be a prominent voice in the CAA, advocating for the integration of social thinking with art and religion.