Re: [Discuss] Save the Pegasus

[Troy Noonan]

Guys...please please remove me from your e-mail list.  I live out of state and will check the website for updates.  I cannot continue to have my e-mail box filled to the brim with these messages.  Please help me out.  Thanks!

Debbie Templin (noonan)

noonan0505@msn.com

----- Original Message -----

From: Michaela Parks

To: Ean Schuessler ; discuss

Sent: Tuesday, March 10, 2009 11:45 PM

Subject: Re: [Discuss] Save the Pegasus

This seems like a good learning opportunity for current visual art students interested in making public or large scale art.  The logistical, political and financial issues needed to negotiate the process in this case probably apply to situations artists commonly face.  How about creating a project for current interested students where they are involved in bringing the sculpture back to the school.

Michaela

 

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From: Ean Schuessler <ean@brainfood.com>
To: discuss <discuss@artsalumni.org>
Sent: Tuesday, March 10, 2009 11:03:10 AM
Subject: [Discuss] Save the Pegasus

Fellow Alums, it has come to our attention that the Pegasus sculpture has been orphaned at the Nolan Estes school facility. Nolan Estes was the temporary home of Arts in South Dallas while the school was being overhauled. The sculpture was moved there with assurances that it would be returned when the project was completed. We have learned that there is now a "budget shortfall" and that whatever resources had been allocated for its return no longer exist. Suspiciously, the place on the school property where the Pegasus once stood is now occupied by a series of concrete landscaping steps, indicating that its absence is a premeditated removal rather than a simple mistake in budget planning.

There have been many changes at Arts Magnet and there has been a great deal of concern for preserving the heritage of Booker T. Washington as the first black high school in Dallas. We all support that concern but it is also critical to preserve the heritage of the program that motivated Booker T's reconstruction. The murals, the greenroom and many other artifacts we knew as students are gone, replaced with a West Coast architect's vision of who we are. We must make it clear that we have our own identity. We are the ones who created the music, the art, the theater and the dance that brought international recognition. We are the reason that Dallas had faith in spending $50M to rebuild our school.

In the shadow of the Pegasus we chewed on strange plastic pizza and made friendships that would last the rest of our lives. It was our companion while we learned the skills that carried some of us to fame and all of us carry in our hearts. It is our mascot and our emblem and we should not let it go.

The district says that they will return the sculpture to the school for $10,000. At this year's holiday party we netted $3,500 in one night. This is something we can do. We need to hold charity events, we need to reach out to our networks of contacts and friends and find the money and resources to fix the Pegasus sculpture and return it to its home.

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Ean Schuessler, CTO Brainfood.com
ean@brainfood.com - http://www.brainfood.com - 214-720-0700 x 315

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