Fr. Thomas Lucas S.J., Professor of Art+Architecture and
director of USF's Thacher Gallery, received his doctorate
in Theology and the Arts at the Graduate Theological Union,
Berkeley, CA, in 1992. He also holds degrees from the Pontificia
Università Gregoriana, Rome; Fordham University, New York; The
Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, and Santa Clara University,
California. Lucas is an internationally recognized expert in Jesuit
art history, as well as a well-known liturgical designer and artist
with an international portfolio.
As a graduate student, Lucas designed and directed the restoration
of the sixteenth century rooms of St. Ignatius in Rome, and curated
an exhibit on Jesuit architecture at the Vatican Library. In the
course of that work, he also edited, contributed to, and designed
the exhibit catalogue /Saint, Site, and Sacred Strategy/, (Vatican
City: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana Press, 1990). His book
/Landmarking: City, Church, and Jesuit Urban Strategy/ (Chicago:
Loyola Press, 1997) won an Association of Jesuit Colleges and
Universities (AJCU) National Book Award in 2000. He has also edited
a festschrift and is the author of a dozen articles.
Lucas joined the USF Faculty in 1995 after serving for three years
as the National Secretary for Communications at the US Jesuit
Conference, Washington DC. At USF he served as founding chair of
the Fine and Performing Arts Programs for 8 years until the
programs were divided into freestanding departments in 2003. After
directing a joint degree program with the California College of the
Arts for five years, he proposed, designed, and saw USF's
Department of Art+Architecture through to establishment. In fifteen
years in the classroom, he has taught courses in art history,
stained glass, theology and art, landscape design, sacred space,
and campus design seminars. He is the founding director of the
Thacher Gallery at USF (1998) and the Kalmanovitz Sculpture Terrace
(2008) and has curated more than fifty exhibits on campus. Lucas
has also lectured at more than 20 universities in the U.S., Europe,
Mexico, and China.
Lucas's work as a liturgical designer has been recognized
with an award from the American Institute of Architects, and his
projects range from glass and liturgical furnishing designs for
more than a dozen churches and chapels to service as design
consultant for the restoration of the St. Ignatius Cathedral,
Shanghai, PRC. He also serves as campus design consultant to the
president at USF, and has created several large installation pieces
on campus. He has served on the boards of trustees of two
universities, a private high school, a family non-profit
foundation, and the Fort Mason Foundation, San Francisco.
