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WHS MURAL PROJECT Executive Board W. Michael Atchison (‘56 ) Peggy Balliet (‘54 ) Bobby Bowden (‘48 ) Jim Carns (‘ 57) Miriam Rogers Fowler
(’57) Butch Fadely (’64) June Hallmark Fadely (‘64 ) Shirley Graham Mike Hale (‘85 ) Jeanne Jackson Fred Johnston (‘59 ) Jeff Meadows Tony Nathan (‘76 ) Mickey Newsome ('57) Mrs. Tom E. Rast Oliver Robinson (‘57 ) |
Dear fellow WHS graduate: At long last Woodlawn High is getting a major renovation. The halls, library, classrooms, and auditorium are receiving a long overdue facelift. As graduates of Woodlawn, we are proud of its history and its many graduates that are business, civic, and sports leaders. Unfortunately a piece of this history is in grave danger of being lost. Surely you remember the large mural in the auditorium over the stage . . . the one we stared at wondering what it meant, why it was there, and who painted it. Why is the gladiator getting ready to crush the maiden with the giant cog wheel? Who is the sinister “Darth Vader”-looking character? And, of course, why are there two topless women on either side of the mural? Recently curators from the Birmingham Museum of Art and students at Birmingham-Southern College discovered that the mural is an official Works Progress Administration (WPA) mural painted during the Depression by national artists. Begun in 1934 and completed in 1939, the Woodlawn High mural was the largest WPA mural in the South created as part of Roosevelt’s New Deal to employ skilled artists. Two nationally-trained Birmingham artists, Sidney Van Sheck and Richard Blauvelt Coe, were commissioned to design and paint the mural. No funds were appropriated by the city to restore the deteriorating 68-year-old mural. The writing above the mural has already been painted over, and if we, Woodlawn alumni, do not raise the funds necessary to restore the mural, it will soon completely deteriorate or be painted over and lost forever. The conservationist who restored the Linn-Henley library murals estimates that it will cost $190,000 to restore and preserve the Woodlawn mural properly. We desparately need to raise the necessary funds by December 2006. Progress of the mural restoration project will be available on this Woodlawn High Reunion website at www.woodlawnhigh.org. See also www.metropolitanarts.org/woodlawn On behalf of the Save the Woodlawn Mural committee, we are asking you to contribute generously to this worthy and historic cause. Please send your gift to:
All contributions are 100% tax deductible. Once Woodlawn High is renovated, we anticipate that community groups can again use the historic auditorium and admire the restored mural. Don’t let this historic mural be destroyed. Sincerely, Lawrence T.
(Terry) Oden (’55) ==========================================
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