DISCIPLE: Conrad Schmitt Brings Heavenly Vision to Worship Space

Gunar Gruenke can’t hide the pride he takes in his work conserving and beautifying sacred spaces.

“If you figure the number of people who have sat under the brushstrokes of Conrad Schmitt artists and prayed to God, it is incredible,” he says. “We’ve worked on 33 cathedrals alone: Even if you figured just 52 Masses a year—one Mass a week—it’s massive!”

Bernard Gunar Gruenke is the president of Conrad Schmitt Studios, Inc., a New Berlin, Wisconsin-based firm specializing in the conservation, restoration, and beautification of sacred and public spaces. 

Gunar’s grandfather, Bernard O. Gruenke, joined the firm as a sign painter in 1936 and took over ownership in 1953. Gunar’s father, Bernard E. Gruenke, joined the company a few years later and assumed leadership in 1981.
 
Since 2010, Gunar and his sister, Vice President Heidi Gruenke Emery have led the company. Three of their children also now work for Conrad Schmitt, which employs nine national project directors, seven graphic artists, and a total of 70 full-time employees. They also employ local painters and craftsman for larger projects like ours.

“We started restoring theaters in the ’70s, when restoration became a movement,” Gunar recalls. “We did your Minnesota State Capitol a few years ago. That was a massive project, so we were probably a little higher percentage of secular work than we normally are.”

Today, 90 percent of their projects are churches. Gunar, his daughter Maddie Gruenke, and designer Cara Zietz agree they have a special love for sacred spaces.

Renewing the Sacred

“It’s special to work alongside priests,” Maddie says. “They are always excited and gung-ho. With civic projects, typically we’re a subcontractor dealing with the general contractor who wants us to get in and get out. With a project like this, we get to sit down and talk about why you’re doing it, the long-term goals, and the effect it will have for generations. It’s really amazing.”

“Often Maddie and I put on our liturgical consultant hats for these churches built in the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s that don’t even look Catholic,” Gunar says. “Or we work with super-traditional churches, like Assumption in St. Paul or St. Charles Borromeo, which we did with Father Park.”

St. Michael Catholic Church is not old enough to need restoring or conserving, per se. It’s a modern worship space, with art and architectural features steeped in both Eastern and Western traditions.

“We restore many historic buildings where we go back to exactly what was there, using historic photos of the space and investigative studies as tools to replicate the original decorative design,” Maddie says. “For your project, we had to design a new paint scheme. We met with Father Park and took photos of your worship space; we then brought our notes and ideas to Cara to create a vision and design.”

“We try to steep ourselves in sacred art, so that even in a modern space like yours we create something that is traditional and timeless,” Cara says. “You have a nice blend of very traditional, historic artwork—I think it’s probably my favorite project so far!”

Technology and Teamwork

Cara chose the photo that offered the best view of the space, then Gunar and Maddie provided details on scope and scale for the project: budget guidelines, overall direction, and what can be decorated in the space. Finally, Cara went to work on colors and designs.
 
Borders, beams, and pillars; medallions and vine-work; decorative windows and angelic icons—in the past, these would have been rendered using watercolors; today a computer with design software enables designers to create designs and stencils in two dimensions, then overlay the designs on a photo of the space, with proper color and perspective. Design and color changes are quicker and easier to render, as well.

“Everything is designed not only to be beautiful, but meaningful. Every stencil, every design has meaning,” says Cara. “And then Father came back with all the beautiful scripture verses! I prayed quite a bit for this project, and I think the prayer worked.”

The project requires extensive, floor-to-ceiling scaffolding, which makes this the most economical time to make updates to the sound and lighting in the church. All of this work is slated to be finished by Holy Week. As a result, Conrad Schmitt has a team of eight working onsite, including experienced full-timers and talented freelancers.

It’s an aggressive timeline, but they agree the project is worth the added effort.

“That mix of veterans and new local labor boosts the economy, and using the local talent gives us a chance to see who wants to be a part of our growing team,” says Maddie.

“We’ve never had a project that had artwork from the East meeting artwork from the West. And we’ve worked on 100+- year-old churches and brand-new churches, but nothing where the work was partially done and our job was to finish it out,” Gunar says. “This is such a unique project for us.”

This article appears in the Spring 2023 issue of the DISCIPLE Newsletter. If you are not receiving DISCIPLE in your mailbox, contact the parish office at 763-497-2745 to register as a parishioner or to update your address.