From Deseret News archives:
Utah school hoping to hang onto its Rockwell
Make that "Ichabod Crane," painted by the famed Saturday Evening Post illustrator Norman Rockwell.
The original artwork hangs, enclosed in glass, at a kindergartner's eye-level in the school's media center.
But will the Rockwell stay when Jordan School District divides along east-west lines in 2009?
The principal believes it will. Draper schoolchildren bought it back in 1951 with $800 and a tug at the artist's heartstrings. Children, in fact, purchased many of the 63 original works that have decked the school's halls and offices since the 1920s.
"Children love this collection, and they know it's theirs," Principal Tamra Baker said. "I think the understanding of the community is the collection belongs to the future of the school and the children of this school."
Surely, both sides will strive to ensure everyone gets a fair shake. But it's hard to say where everything will shake out.
"Could they stay there? Certainly they could stay there," Jordan District spokeswoman Melinda Colton said of the art. "The real answer to this is we don't know. This is one of the many things ... (transition teams are) going to have to determine."
The Rockwell depiction of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" schoolmaster is part of the Reid and Willda Beck Art Collection. Reid Beck, principal of Draper Park Elementary and Junior High School in 1924, encouraged the community to build its own art collection, according to the Draper Visual Arts Foundation's Web site. Children each year would sell raffle tickets and hand over change earned for chores.
In 1951, Draper Park's ninth-grade class took the $800 they had raised to the Springville art show. They fell in love with "Ichabod Crane," but $800 was short of the asking price, Baker said.
The students wrote Rockwell a letter telling about their school, town and art project and asked if he would accept $800 for the painting.
"He wrote back and said that he would do it," Baker said.
The painting is actually Rockwell's second "Ichabod Crane." The 1937 depiction of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" schoolmaster is housed at the Normal Rockwell Museum in Massachusetts.
Recent comments
I can't beleive the selfishness in west-side commentators in this...
Selfishness Rampant | Dec. 4, 2007 at 9:22 a.m.
As I understand this it was not like a divorce where things might be...
L | Dec. 4, 2007 at 12:10 a.m.
Let the district sell the painting on ebay and donate the money to a...
Sentimental Value | Dec. 3, 2007 at 8:40 p.m.
- Millions will have to repay tax credit 9:56 a.m.
- Atlantis set for launch 9:54 a.m.
- L.A. pushes to get repaid 9:50 a.m.
- Vitamin D deficiency puts U.S. at risk 9:48 a.m.
- Suntech plans Phoenix-area plant 9:43 a.m.
- Stocks jump as retail sales rebound 9:40 a.m.
- CBS launching turn-of-decade project 9:37 a.m.
- Iran's Russian reactor startup delayed 9:34 a.m.
- 13 bodies found west of Baghdad 9:30 a.m.
- Court rejects book banning case 9:27 a.m.
- Apostle's wife felt comfort in attack
- MWC expand? Get rid of deadweight
- TCU stays 4th in AP; Y. 19th, U. 23rd
- Bennett at center of GOP storm
- Win in New Mexico good for Y?
- BYU happy to escape with victory
- TCU creams U.
- Relieved Cougs prep for Falcons
- RSL heads to MLS title game
- Jazz rookies had to grow up quickly
- BYU happy to escape with victory
231 - TCU creams U.
229 - Editorial: Mormons and gay rights
207 - Will state consider gay rights law?
150 - Can BYU root for (ick) Utah Utes?
131 - RSL heads to MLS title game
130 - Utes remain silent about BCS
120 - Celtics crush Jazz
104 - TCU stays 4th in AP; Y. 19th, U. 23rd
103 - 3A: Hurricane advances to title game
89
Sears is holding a special VIP night Sunday, Nov. 15, in stores and online.
How do you handle kids and contests? Our oldest daughter, 7, is of the...
We are inflicting this same terrible suffering on others in the middle east a...
I am a Bronco fan and I'm not sure if some of these posts are really made by...
Since 2/3 of all sexual abuse happens in the home with a relative or family...
Thank you SO MUCH for calling BYU overrated and vulnerable! I hope the team...
If they back "him" they back the wrong person. I think itis "her" they are...
I think the Danes are the smartest people on earth. I wish we could import...
has been intervening in the Mideast since the formation of Israel in the late...
Because we have big time college football being played in this state, un-like...
Dear Looking at Jokers, Please check the national rankings for...
is that they are loyal to their players. They pay players for what they have...

