Westwood Elementary School Sculpture - West Jefferson, North Carolina
Posted by: 
macleod1
N 36° 21.894 W 081° 30.578
17S E 454280 N 4024542
Westwood Elementary School is located in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of Northwest North Carolina in Ashe County.
Waymark Code: WM3ZJY
Location: North Carolina, United States
Date Posted: 06/12/2008
Views: 43
Below is information from the Mountaintimes Newspaper:http://www.mountaintimes.com/mtweekly/2005/0609/sculpture.php3
Local artist, R.T. Morgan has donated a sculpture estimated to be valued at just over $20,000 to Westwood Elementary School and the artist said he did it “because it just felt right.”
Corporations and private individuals from all over the world collect Morgan’s work. He has collectors in Australia, England and Canada, and his work is also displayed in a Saudi Arabia palace. The piece donated to Westwood Elementary School is nine feet tall and is quite an attraction that people are already noticing.
“It is a very nice piece of art. The staff and students noticed it right away and they all seem to really like it. They have wanted to know about it and ask questions about it. We are very glad to have it here, especially since we are an A+ school and it definitely adds a little bit of flavor to that,” Principal Keith McClure explained.
“It is definitely an appropriate sculpture for our school because it features the three young people and we like it very much. We are so pleased that R.T. worked with us and donated this to the school. It was very nice of him to do that and we are just really pleased.”
Morgan said the idea of doing a sculpture for the school was first mentioned to him a couple of years ago by McClure. “We were talking about the possibility of doing a sculpture at the school. This design is an idea that originated when a children’s hospital wanted a design,” Morgan explained.
“That fell through and did not work out. Keith and I kept talking about doing a sculpture and we never did get it all worked out. I had made this sculpture and it was a nice design and I decided I wanted to give it to the school,” he continued. “Keith told me ‘yes,’. I’m glad they accepted and for me, it just seemed like the right thing to do. It felt good to give it to them and I hope they enjoy it. I’m very happy about it.”
The sculpture needed painting so the body shop class from Ashe County High School painted the sculpture and the masonry class from the high school set up the concrete pad the sculpture is located on. “I think the students did a great job painting it and I am glad that the high school students helped with it. I think it was probably a nice chance for that class to paint something different.”
Morgan is an artist who enjoys both painting and sculpting. He and his wife, Camille, opened the R.T. Morgan Art Gallery in downtown West Jefferson. The gallery is open Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. The gallery’s phone number is 246-3328.
“I’m glad they accepted and for me, it just seemed like the right thing to do. It felt good to give it to them and I hope they enjoy it.” Artist R.T. Morgan
Figure Type: Combination of two figure types
Artist Name or use 'Unknown' if not known: R.T. Morgan
Location: Westwood Elementary School
Name or use 'Unknown' if not known: Not listed
Date created or placed or use 'Unknown' if not known: Not listed
Materials used: Not listed
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