Cooper: A mural for Woodmore students?

A temporary memorial of teddy bears, mementos and balloons marked the site of a fatal school bus crash that killed six students on Talley Road last November.
A temporary memorial of teddy bears, mementos and balloons marked the site of a fatal school bus crash that killed six students on Talley Road last November.

For those who remember Chattanooga from the not-so-distant past when its only public art was Civil War cannons, monuments and blue and red battle markers, the city has come a long way.

We hope it won't ever become a place that, to use the term of one local journalist, has "too much lipstick," but it is refreshing to be able to walk or drive past a colorful display and make a mental note to go back by and take a closer look.

Public art won't ever be everyone's cup of tea - the grousing about its cost being better used elsewhere being a frequent complaint - but there is little doubt of its pleasing effect on the sight and the psyche.

We can't imagine, for instance, Chattanooga without its brick couch on Broad Street near Ben & Jerry's, The Passage marking the beginning of the Trail of Tears on the riverfront, the dance steps feet on Frazier Avenue, the outsized works at the Sculpture Fields at Montague Park or the mural on the AT&T building, just to name a few.

The city for the last week has been in the throes of talk and action about new and planned public displays, and we have one suggestion to add to it.

  • Over the weekend, the Big 9 Art Bash! celebrated the installation of five sculptures on the lawn of the Bessie Smith Cultural Center that help tell the story of the Martin Luther King Boulevard district's vibrant past and the economic promise of its future.

The exhibition will be on display for two years.

Four of the five sculptures were created by Southern artists, including one, "Sister," by Chattanooga artist Charlie Newton. Two of the sculptures, "La Diva 1" by Chicago artist Ruth Aizuss Migdal and "Ain't Life Grand" by R.L. Hughley and Deborah McNeil of Franklin, Ga., remind us of the cultural center's namesake.

We can imagine blues singer Bessie Smith wearing the sensuous and flowing red dress that is "La Diva 1," and we can picture her wailing beside "Ain't Life Grand," the metal skeleton of a grand piano, in the heyday of the street that was known at the time as the "Big 9."

  • Late last week, a mural was being painted on the exterior of Rivermont Elementary School. The mural is to incorporate all of the aspects of the school's new STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) program. The school, with the help of local and out-of-town volunteers, is being spruced up ahead of its official rebirth for the 2017-2018 academic year.
  • The deadline is Thursday for artists and design teams to submit proposals for a monument at the south end of the Walnut Street Bridge commemorating Ed Johnson, a black man who was hanged on the bridge in 1906 after being falsely accused of rape and unjustly convicted.

The case eventually wound its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where its first and only criminal trial was held and a stay of execution was granted. The Supreme Court also wound up holding Chattanooga Sheriff Joseph E. Shipp in contempt of court for not keeping Johnson safe after learning of the plot involving some of those who ultimately lynched him.

  • Our suggestion is a memorial that would commemorate the young lives of the six Woodmore Elementary School students who were killed in the tragic Talley Road school bus crash last November. We have opined before that Woodmore was at onetime a beautiful blond brick elementary school, but subsequent expansions and renovations have replaced the light brick with a dark red brick and made the building look more like a prison.

Six individual murals on six brick panels of the building along Woodmore Lane would go a long way toward brightening the imposing edifice. The impact, we believe, would be similar to that of the mural on the Tennessee Wholesale Florist building on McCallie Avenue, where artist Kevin Bate used the wall along the street to memorialize the five service members who were killed by a terrorist at the U.S. Naval Reserve center off Amnicola Highway on July 16, 2015.

If a mural is not desired by families or approved by school officials, perhaps an appropriate piece of commissioned public art could be placed in front of Woodmore in memory of the students. Families of the victims and even the students who were injured could be among those who decide on the design. In time, an installation ceremony involving students, families and rescue personnel might be held.

We can't imagine a better way to fulfill the mission of Public Art Chattanooga, which, according to its Chattanooga.gov website, is to enhance "the civic environment and [enrich] the lives of visitors and residents."

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