Dolle Lecture on Church Art and Architecture

Tuesday September 15
St. Bede Theater

The annual Dolle Lecture on Church Art and Architecture will be held at Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology, St. Meinrad, IN, on Thursday, October 15, 2026, at 7 p.m. Central Time in St. Bede Theater. Dr. Lindsay Cook will present “The ‘Living’ Oaks of Notre-Dame.”

The lecture will address the fundamental role that wood played in the design, construction, and meaning of the Gothic cathedral Notre-Dame of Paris. It will analyze the values medieval clerics ascribed to the oaks harvested to build Notre-Dame’s roof and spire and consider the ways this material has continued to bear meaning in the restoration campaign brought about by the 2019 cathedral fire.

Dr. Cook is assistant teaching professor of architectural history in the Department of Art History at Penn State University. A specialist in medieval European architecture, she has written or consulted on pieces about Notre-Dame of Paris published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and National Geographic. Notre Dame Cathedral: Nine Centuries of History, her English translation of the French-language monograph co-authored by Dany Sandron and Andrew Tallon, was published in 2020, and her own academic research on medieval, early modern, modern, and contemporary histories of Notre-Dame has subsequently appeared in numerous venues, including a recent APT Bulletin article and an essay in the new edited volume Gothic Space.

The lecture is free and open to the public. Parking is available behind St. Bede Hall as well as in the Guest House and student parking lots. For more information, contact Krista Hall during business hours at (812) 357-6501.

The Peter and Viola Dolle Lecture on Church Art and Architecture was established by Saint Meinrad alumnus Adam Dolle to commemorate the lives of his parents. They spent 48 years together until Peter’s death in 1982. Peter was a master builder, while Viola embodied a spontaneous spirit that is the life of art.