“Firmly Planted, Forward Moving”

Public art project on Moon Lake campus captures spirit of the community

It was a big day for Mentone as upwards of a hundred citizens, community leaders, visitors, and elected officials gathered at the historic Moon Lake campus June 18 to celebrate the public art project “Firmly Planted, Forward Moving.”

Carrying the motto of the historic campus, the 10-foot-tall white oak leaf aluminum totem reflects the narrative of the 240-year-old white oak tree that stands in front of the school. It was created by Mentone resident and nationally recognized artist Deedee Morrison, who as a child played under the tree and attended classes at the school 50 years ago.

Dating back to 1928, the schoolhouse today is a center for shops, artists, and art galleries. Morrison says the public art piece is intended to create a unified narrative of the community that includes the former school being transformed into a celebration of the arts.

“Public art can bring everyone together in a community and can create an environment where we cross pollinate,” Morrison said of the sculpture that features bees, butterflies, and other pollinators indigenous to the area. “When you do a public art project like this, creative things happen. Hope happens. Growth happens. Economic development happens. There’s tremendous benefit from it across multiple platforms.”

Morrison said that in every region she has worked across America, “the local community has benefited from the process of exploring how art can heal within a community.”

Healing is certainly part of the narrative of the Moon Lake campus. The schoolhouse was central to life in Mentone as an elementary school until the county school system closed it in 2021 after enrollment no longer supported operating costs.

“We’ve seen our fair share of trauma in Mentone,” Morrison said. “And I think public art gives us the ability to transcend language in a way. When you attach a narrative and an understanding of where the art came from, it deeply impacts the response of the community towards the art, because they’re invested and they’ve understood the narrative and development of it.”

The project was coordinated by the Little River Arts Council and funded in part by the Lyndhurst Foundation. “The essence of our arts and culture program at Lyndhurst is to assist our neighboring communities in identifying and celebrating those assets that are unique and authentic, and speak to the character and quality of their people and place,” said Benic M. “Bruz” Clark III, president of the foundation. “The interconnectedness of the historic elementary school, the iconic oak tree, the arts center, and Morrison’s sculpture with its symbolism of stability, change, and symbiosis exemplifies how public art can provide meaning, wholeness, and joy to the human experience.”

Juli Jordan, president of LRAC, thanked the Lyndhurst Foundation for its generous grant, as well as Pat Martin, who created the overall plan and guided the landscape company and subcontractors to achieve LRAC’s vision.

“Our Mayor Rob Hammond personifies the motto of this campus,” Jordan said in thanking the Town of Mentone. “He is firmly planted in the history of Mentone, while being a forward-moving leader who works hard to bring stability and progress to our town. We are likewise grateful to Public Works Director Paul Nail, who can do just about anything and do it with a smile on his face.”

Hammond introduced Alabama Speaker of the House Nathaniel Ledbetter, who was on hand to support the Arts Council on the project. Ledbetter acknowledged the impact public art has on tourism, economic development, and a community’s quality of life.

To cap the celebration, Mentone Mayor Rob Hammond introduced Dr. David Campell, President of Northeast Alabama Community College, who announced that the college would begin offering classes at the campus this fall.

The crowd enjoyed refreshments provided by LRAC and a tour of the shops and galleries located on campus. This included the new Little River Art Gallery, a space recently renovated by LRAC to highlight and sell works by local artists along with Arts Council merchandise.

“What a fantastic day,” Morrison said. “When you study our oak tree, it’s a community of species. That tree shelters and protects all of these various species that benefit from it. And so it’s an ecosystem, which is exactly what Mentone is trying to create on the Moon Lake campus — an ecosystem that benefits all species in the surrounding environment.

“Pollinators require plants and flowering species to exist,” she added. “One can’t exist without the other. So it’s an incredible, balanced relationship creating a closed-loop system where everyone in the system benefits. That’s an imperative part, I think, of what public art can bring to a community, a collaborative environment that brings everyone together.”