Capturing Legacy

The Bush Art Center at St. Norbert College is currently running a special exhibition in its permanent art gallery through May 9.

The exhibition features photographs from Super Bowl I taken by Vernon Biever.

The center will also show a short documentary featuring John Gordon, a former SNC alumni and the designer of the original Green Bay Packers Logo.

The photographs on display in the exhibit were taken by Vernon Biever, the original Packers team photographer and SNC alumni, from Superbowl I when the Packers played against the Chiefs.

“We were looking at opportunities to highlight St. Norbert’s relationship to the Green Bay Packers because we knew there would be a bunch of people coming for the draft… Then I remembered quite a few years back we got a donation of photographs from Vernon Biever and I thought it would be a great idea to have a show, highlighting his work in our permanent art gallery”, said Michael Wartgow, exhibition and collection manager at St. Norbert College.

“I think it (the exhibit), further solidifies St. Norbert’s connection to the Green Bay Packers. There is this strong lineage in terms of the mission at St. Norbert and the values that we follow, and they sort of correlate with the Packers, being the only NFL team owned by the community, so there’s this kind of really tight-knit relationship between the two, and of course the Packers spent so much time at St. Norbert, throughout the years doing practices and stuff like that so we have a lot of relationship between the two,” said Wartgow.

Wartgow can also be credited with the idea for the exhibition and putting it together from the arrangement of the photos to the perfection of the lighting.

“The dean of the school asked me about some ideas for the Draft and what we could do to highlight it so I came up with the idea and put it together, it was kind of a natural fit given the nature of the collection,” said Wartgow.

Behind the photography is also some interesting history and tidbits about Vernon’s work.

“This exhibition of photographs from Superbowl I, it was actually commissioned by Nikon and Northwest Airlines right after the Superbowl, so these photographs have been around for a long time and they actually toured around the country and did a bunch of things and then Vernon actually had them in his private collection.

They were donated to us after he passed away… What’s interesting is we have some unique pieces in there in that sense that Vernon actually collaborated with one of his sons John, who was fifteen at the time, so Vernon had brought him with and they were kind of working together on the sidelines, so there’s a specific photograph in the collection that was taken by his son John, and it’s John taking a picture of Vernon taking a picture of Vince Lombardi… It’s a really interesting photo in that context … In the exhibition we (also) have pictures of just Chiefs players that were taken by Vernon. That’s kinda interesting as well because he was known as just taking photographs of the Packers,” explained Wartgow.

This exhibit is free and open to the public 9 a.m.-3 p.m., Monday - Friday, until May 9.

To learn more about the exhibit or the Bush Art Center you can visit snc.edu/artgalleries.