KSSB Eagle Statue

KSSB Eagle

In fall of 2007, the Accessible Arts After School Arts Club took on the task of designing a new sculpture for the KSSB Sensory Garden. Some years previously there had been a sculpture erected on a raised cement platform in this garden by Accessible Arts. Over time this sculptured deteriorated and had to be torn down. It was decided that the new sculpture would be set in the place of the previous work of art.

Under the guidance of Kit Bardwell, AAI Program Director, the students worked with Tom Linder, a Kansas City Art Institute intern to design a sculpture of an Eagle, the KSSB mascot. This was done through a study of sculpture with the students exploring scale, armature and structure with a wide variety of materials that included clay, wire and foam. The students worked with Tom Linder to develop a design for the eagle. Once completed, Linder fabricated the final sculpture in his studio at the Kansas City Arts Institute. During this time, the students went to visit Tom in his studio.

The House of Rock generously donated the large stand stone on which the Eagle is mounted. Martin English and Cynthia Hyer provided all of the materials used to construct the sculpture through a very generous donation.

Jan English, Chief of the Wyandot of Kansas, assisted the After School Art Club in understanding the relationship of the eagle to the Kansas State School for the Blind. The Kansas State School for the Blind has a long-standing relationship with the Wyandot of Kansas who gifted the state with the land for the school and then had many children of the Wyandot Nation attending the school for the blind. One of the tales of the Wyandot of Kansas that is shared with several other Native American tribes is the tale of the Jumping Mouse and Gray Wolf.

There once was a mouse that came upon a large gray wolf that was weeping. When the mouse asked the wolf what was his sorrow, the wolf told him he had lost his sight and would no longer be able to hunt and was therefore doomed to die.

The mouse quickly offered the wolf his own eyes for he knew that with his own whiskers and tail and his excellent nose that he would be able to hunt without sight. The wolf accepted the mouse’s selfless gift and as soon as the wolf could see, he begged the mouse to allow him to lead him to the sacred place where all the spirits met.

The two traveled for many days and nights until they came to a great body of water. The wolf thanked the mouse again for his gift and then left him there to await the spirits.

Soon the spirits arrived blowing in on the backs of the winds, one from the north, one from the south, one from the east and one from the west. The spirits had heard of the little mouse’s selfless gift to the wolf. The mouse trembled in their presence and asked the spirits what he should do. The spirit’s said, “Jump little mouse!” So the mouse jumped and the spirits said, “Jump higher little mouse!” And he did. He jumped higher and higher until suddenly he turned into a great eagle and flew up high among the clouds.