NEXTpittsburgh (February 24, 2025) – Location: St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church in Millvale.

Featured guests: Anna Doering, executive director, Society to Preserve the Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka, and Naomi Ruiz, conservator

3 things that surprised me:

1. Anna explained that Maxo Vanka immigrated to New York from Croatia in 1934 with his American wife. A trip to the industrial centers of America brought him to Pittsburgh for two weeks in 1935 when he walked the streets and sketched the city. Some of those sketches ended up in a gallery show in Oakland. The priest and members of St. Nicholas saw the work of this Croatian artist and felt that he should create the murals in their church.
2. Vanka painted all the murals with his own hand. He painted the first set in 1931 and the second set in 1941. Altogether, he painted for 24 weeks. He’d work six days a week from 9 a.m. until around 2 or 3 a.m. He sent letters back to his family in which he’d doodle sketches of himself rigged up on a series of boards and ropes in order to paint the hard-to-reach corners of the walls and ceiling.
3. An all-woman Avengers-like team is in the midst of a major conservation of the murals in Millvale. They recently received a Save America’s Treasures Grant which has allowed them to buy scaffolding and pay the team as they work on nine of the remaining murals. In a few months, they’ll be 90% finished with their conservation efforts.

One thing that didn’t make the final cut: After the first set of murals were completed, TIME Magazine sent a photographer to capture them and wrote about the artwork as “a class by itself.” Tourists came from across the nation to see the church.

Additional info: You can sign up for a tour of the murals here. You can participate in the free Vanka Block Party on April 27 here.

Read the full story here.