LETTER: Palace murals aren’t fair to arts in Mitchell

Talk about it

To the Editor:

Cherie Ramsdell does a great job in creating art work for the Corn Palace murals and her 2012 designs are exceptional. However, the theme should be “Saluting Youth Sports” rather than “Saluting Youth Activities,” because all but one of the murals depicts a sporting event.

The token arts-related mural is very nice, but there is more to youth activities in Mitchell than this one mural, which features only music performance and dance. Omitted is a visual arts theme with students drawing or painting. Another art theme could be students at a potter’s wheel or creating graphic arts at a computer. Students in Mitchell are print makers, paper makers, sculptors, fiber artists, wood crafters, actors, photographers and more; yet none of these activities are represented.

Cherie, as the head of the DWU art department, a former art teacher at Mitchell High School and a professional artist herself, has terribly neglected the majority of art-related activities in her mural themes and I find this to be severely misrepresenting all that is happening in youth activities in this wonderfully talented city of young people.

I believe there is time to change the mural theme to sports only for 2012 and then create a salute to the youth arts for 2013. Another possibility would be to balance the 2012 theme with half related to sports and the other half relating to the arts.

Come on, let’s be fair to the arts in Mitchell and show the many tourists who come to see the world famous Corn Palace that Mitchell is a balanced arts and sports community.

Tags: corn palace, life, opinion, arts, murals, letters