2025: Year in Review
With year eight in the books – a Jubilee year – here is our annual reflection on what the Lord provided and what was accomplished with our team’s efforts to contribute to the renewal of the Church and evangelize through sacred beauty in 2025.
While 2024 saw several completed renovations and new sacred art commissions, 2025 was a year largely marked by quiet progress, with a few exciting completions mixed in. Several new construction projects continued their progress in planning, including St. Martin de Porres in Dripping Springs TX, and Our Lady of Guadalupe in Nacogdoches TX, both hoping to break ground in the second half of 2026. Many other projects launched exciting capital campaigns to raise money for ambitious new construction and renovations projects on new churches and chapels.
The first completion is a project that had been in the works for several years, Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Medford, WI. In early spring, the parish completed the church beautifications as the crown jewel of a multi-stage process of improvements to the church and school campus. The church beautification was planned as a reflection on the theme of To Jesus Through Mary, and sets the stage for future murals of the twenty Misters of the Rosary. The new marble sanctuary includes a custom Marian-themed reredos and crucifix, mosaic altar and ambo appliqués, and a mosaic floor inlay. Twelve gilded crosses adorn the existing stone wall, hinting at the role of the Blessed Virgin Mary as Queen of the Apostles, with all of these elements adding an eschatological dimension to the church building as a sacramental sign of the heavenly liturgy.
St. John Vianney College Seminary in St. Paul MN completed a smaller fourth floor residential chapel finish-out in the 2023 facility, for staff clergy, vocations directors, and visiting bishops. Built with remnants of the primary seminary chapel’s extensive interior woodwork, the reredos and shrines were completed and assembled by seminarians. The tabernacle was retained from the previous chapel that was demolished for the recent building addition, and replicas of the statues in miniature adorn the sanctuary along with new altar mosaic inlays echoing the larger chapel’s design. The iconic loaves and fishes mosaic from the wall of that previous chapel that is now replicated in the floor of the new chapel is also represented in miniature in the floor of the St. Joseph Chapel .
The renovated sanctuary of Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Medford WI
The residential chapel of St. Joseph at St. John Vianney Seminary, St. Paul MN
A fully renovated church interior at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Hastings MN
While St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Hastings, MN celebrated Christmas in a newly renovated church at the close of 2024, the arrival of new marble furnishings with elaborate marble inlays and the completion of several remaining detailed items was celebrated with a formal dedication in September, bringing the ambitious renovation to a close. The final phase saw the completion of the new votive side chapels of Our Lady and St. Joseph than flank the sanctuary including complete shrines and window grille inserts, offering an intimate place for devotional prayer.
A newly renovated sanctuary at St. Jude the Apostle in Pharr TX
Our Lady’s Healing Center welcomed new murals of the four evangelists and additional decorative paint, also in September. The final outstanding phase, twenty-four niches for patron saints of various physical and spiritual ailments and healing, are currently being painted for the rear walls. A new confessional was also added outside the chapel.
St. Jude the Apostle Catholic Church in Pharr, TX ended the year with a beautiful Christmas celebration in a completely rebuilt sanctuary, including a heavily modified structural masonry triumphal arch and new flooring. An antique pulpit ambo and a re-worked antique reredos are completed by a brand new altar rail, side shrines, and sacristy doors.
Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Kansas City KS installed intricate new wooden flooring medallions based on the theme of Guadalupe and the Flower World Prophecy.
The Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia at Providence Academy in Plymouth MN opened a new convent chapel designed by our team.
A new Dominican Convent Chapel at Providence Academy in Plymouth MN
Several major renovation projects are nearing completion, expecting dedications in the late spring of 2026: Sacred Heart Catholic Church (Holy Family Catholic Parish) in Fond du Lac WI, Cathedral of St. Bernard of Clairvaux in Madison WI, St. Ann Catholic Church in Coppell TX, Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas, and Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Nacogdoches TX.
Two additional chapels saw major progress, also opening in the spring of 2026: St. Helen Catholic Church in Georgetown TX will enjoy a new eucharistic adoration chapel, and Sacred Heart in Edinburgh TX will soon have a new Our Lady of Guadalupe votive chapel.
Please stay tuned for these projects on our website and visit our In Progress page for updates.
FORMATION RECAP
In the spring, Michael Raia reprised his role as an adjunct professor teaching a course in Art, Architecture and Aesthetics for the graduate Liturgy Degrees at the University of Saint Mary of the Lake. Ryan Pigg served as an adjunct professor teaching Architecture History for the School of Architecture at Benedictine College in Atchison KS. In the fall, Kate Kelly, Elsa Kosegarten, Mike Tamara, and Michael Raia met in Washington D.C. for the annual Society for Catholic Liturgy.
PERSONAL UPDATES
The team roster grew once more, welcoming Karisa Burnett and Debby Bird, who both bring additional skills and passion to Studio io and our projects. Read more about our team here.
In the fall, Michael Raia, Mike Tamara, Elsa Kosegarten, and Kate Kelly met in Washington D.C. in September to attend the Society for Catholic Liturgy Conference and spend some time praying together and catching up.
Our team remains deeply grateful for all of the blessings that Lord brings through our team, our clients, and our collaboration. We continue to pray for hearts and minds to be open to what the Lord is doing to renew his Church through the beauty of the Sacred Liturgy, Beauty Himself, Jesus Christ.
Mary, Mother of the Church; St. Joseph Protector of the Lord – pray for us!