The Red Grooms Carousel Stories Come to Life with Lois Riggins-Ezzell

Ms. Lois telling us stories about taking art lessons with Red Grooms
at the former Nashville Children's Museum

Lois Riggins-Ezzell is simply an amazingly, radiantly gorgeous woman filled with joy, enthusiasm and a gift for telling stories.  Not only is she fabulous in every imaginable way possible, she is also the Executive Director for the Tennessee State Museum and an expert on the "Tennessee Fox Trot Carousel."  Thanks to the help of Lockeland parent Sarah Bell Earley, Ms. Lois (as she asked to be called) paid a visit to Lockeland Design Center to help us launch our "Tennessee Fox Trot Carousel Shared Writing Campaign."

Acting upon the advice and the wisdom of Lockeland's innovative principal, Christie Lewis, students were presented with varied opinions in regards to restoring the carousel and returning it to public use. The students had some great ideas and questions for Ms. Lois who clearly energized her pursuit to advocate for the carousel's return to public use.

One of our favorite stories was of how Ms. Lois and Red Grooms were both students in an art class at the former Nashville Children's Museum which is now the Adventure Science Center.  Ms. Lois said that even at that young age you could tell there was something special and exciting about Red Grooms. I loved it when she showed the students the photo of her and her handsome husband and Red Grooms and his lovely wife on their trip to New York to present the idea for Red creating public art for Nashville.

It was interesting to hear the history and the reasons why the carousel closed down.  We learned that is was a blessing in disguise that the carousel wasn't in place during the flood of May 2010 or it would have been destroyed.  It really got the students thinking about the importance of having a long term plan.  You could also see their minds growing as they began to develop an understanding of the long and complex process of bringing the piece of public art back to life.

Here are just a few things that were discussed:
Raising Awareness 
Raising Funds
Creating a Long Term Plan
Restoring the Carousel
Creating Design Plans
Public Support
Finding a Location 

Most importantly, the visit engaged the students in the democratic process of:
Seeing something you want to change (or not) 
Creating awareness in your community through communication 
Working with the proper authorties
Providing multiple solutions 
Gaining support from others

On the next visit to art class students learned WHY this lesson is so important:

Becoming active in your local government is crucial to being a good citizen in a democracy 

Understanding the polices that regulate our public art and the process for how it comes to be

Using your voice to express your opinion for a REAL LIFE occurrence that will effect the future of our city 

Being involved in the larger art community as a way of understanding the world better 

A Red Grooms "Taxi" from the personal collection of Ms. Lois

Just for the record, the students were overwhelmingly in support of restoring the carousel to public use.  They were chomping at the bit to fundraise and had ideas for everything from yard sales, to art sales, to going door to door. They want to start petitions and tell everyone they know about the "Tennessee Fox Trot Carousel."

You can read a sampling of their letters in the post below this one and find writing forms to download and print using the tabs at the top of this site.

Ms. Lois and Lockeland parent Sarah Bell Earley show us the "Ruckus Rodeo" 3-D book and tell us about other Red Grooms installations in the U.S.  It got us wondering, why we don't have ours already back in operation? 

On a personal note - I've had this pinned to the bulletin board in the art room since Oct.  2008 with the hope that one day we can entice Red Grooms to pay a visit to Lockeland Design Center as a Resident Artist and work with one of my classes on a special Red-Grooms-inspired art project...  :)