Baraboo Middle School holds ribbon cutting revealing school improvements and Hoocąk mural
Last month, District and school administrators gathered at the Jack Young Middle School, along with community members for an official ribbon cutting signifying the near completion of a $41.7 million renovation and addition project.
Construction began on the project in the Spring of 2020 after a funding referendum was approved in 2019.
In addition to updated learning facilities, the school has a new front entrance and entrance to the pool facility. Also new, and almost complete, is an amphitheater.
The new front entrance, features an 8-foot by 20-foot clay tile mural that pays homage to the original inhabitants to the area, the Hoocąk (Ho-Chunk). The mural serves as a way for the district to recognize the diversity of the school body which includes Hoocąk students.
The mural, commissioned by the school district, came about when past Baraboo District Administrator Lori Mueller, sought a Hoocąk artist to create a public art installation for the school’s renovation. “We were referred by two relatives that live in the Baraboo area”, said Hoocąk tribal member and Little Eagle Arts Foundation (LEAF) Founder and Director Melanie Tallmadge-Sainz.
The mural called Tee Wakącąk (in Hoocąk) or Spirit Lake and known as Devils Lake, graces the wall just inside the new entrance. The mural depicts the creation of Spirit Lake. “After the area was developed by the state of Wisconsin, they changed the name to Devils Lake. But as far as Hoocąk people, we still to this day refer to it as Tee Wakącąk. Tee (day) means lake or pond, Wakącąk means sacred or holy, in this case, interpreted as spirit,” said Tallmadge-Sainz.
“I learned the story from one of my Cokas (grandfather) Ray Lowe, and he told the story years ago to me about how Tee Wakącąk was created. There was a battle between Thunderbird and the underwater spirits. Thunderbird was casting down lightning bolts, and that's what created those rocks that show up in the cliffs over at the lake. The underwater spirit of course was down below. As far as the story goes, the Thunderbird won. After winning, the Thunderbird flew off to the north.”
The mural was constructed with LEAF's collaboration with their artist friends from FLOW in Milwaukee (a growing network of cultural and agricultural producers across Wisconsin’s rural-urban continuum).
Tallmadge designed the overall way the mural flows, and then shared her design with her FLOW design partner, artist Muneer Bahauddeen. “He took his skills and his magic and kind of broke it all up more, kind of as the engineer of working in clay tiles which is the media used for this mural. It's a really good partnership. My husband Felix Sainz is also a carpenter, so he did all the foundation work behind it and the installation.”
Bahauddeen said Tallmadge-Sainz had, “a grand vision, a really good vision of bringing this craft of ceramics to the Baraboo area for this commission”. Bahaudden stressed that working on this project, as well as others in the past, has been inspiring and a great representation of cultural integration.
This being FLOW artist Martina Patterson’s second collaboration with LEAF, said she was thankful to be working with LEAF again. “This year, with this project, I’m grateful to assist where needed”.
Working in just about every stage of the mural’s construction, Bahauddeen and Patterson helped make clay tiles, including setting and grouting them into their final positions, the glazing and firing process, and eventually the installation. Patterson noted that in any artwork she creates, she receives life, focus, and energy. Important to both, are the feelings of sharing they receive when working on a public art installation.
Tallmadge-Sainz said she went with the story of the Thunderbird, because the symbol for the Baraboo School District is a Thunderbird. “From what I understand, in terms of talking to my elders, particularly my brother Andy Thundercloud, who's a member of the thunder clan, we don't really have a bird that's represented or a bird image that represents our clan. Instead, the way Andy described the thunder clan is we were giants, they were the giant beings. That's why I blended the two. The images of the school district and the clan affiliation with the Hoocąk people, and made that Thunderbird, as a giant within the overall design. Of course, we have the Thunderbolts representing that original story, the Hoocąk story, of how the lake was created. We also wanted to have some components of clan affiliation and the natural world the animals inhabit in this area. We’re so proud of the International Crane Foundation that's a part of the community, so we included two cranes in the mural. We have a family of deer, whitetail deer, and then of course we have the eagle overlooking everything”.
Liz Crammond, Director of Communications for the Baraboo School District said they worked closely with the Little Eagle Foundation, and the project construction company C.G. Schmidt through the design process and installation. Crammond stressed the importance to the district in honoring the Hoocąk, and being able to keep the art in the form that it's in over the course of time.
“It's amazing to be able to see how gorgeous of an art piece we're able to have here in the Jack Young Middle School. We're completely honored that Little Eagle Foundation was able to create such a beautiful and custom piece for the school and share the story of the Thunderbird, and we're incredibly honored to have the Thunderbird as our mascot for this school district.”
Crammond shared that the district hopes students will take away a multitude of things from the mural, from the majesty of the story of the Thunderbird and Spirit Lake, to the colors, textures, and the multimedia components as a part of the art. “We as a district, by all means, want to make sure that our Native American students are seeing a reflection in all of our facilities within the district. We're incredibly excited to have this be one of those ways that we are incorporating the history of this land in our community and have that artwork represented here for our students to understand and learn where the land has come from.”
At the ribbon cutting, Jack Young Middle School Principal Amy Tranel said, “The School District of Baraboo acknowledges and honors the inherent sovereignty of the Hoocąk Nation, and American Indian Nations of Wisconsin.,” adding, “The Baraboo School District will continue to cultivate, strengthen, and maintain our ongoing collaboration and partnership with the Hoocąk Nation.”
“We're really excited, and hope LEAF is receiving good recognition for the public art that we're doing. In the future, what we want to do is really develop our studio space at Maa Wákąčąk (Holy land- aka the old Badger Ammunition plant) to include a full ceramic studio. Then we can bring in tribal members as well as non-tribal members from the broader community and hold workshops, so they can learn more about the art that we create,” said Tallmadge-Sainz.
It should be noted that the mural was inspired by a photograph of Devil’s Lake by Baraboo community member Derrick Mayoleth.
Special thanks to the Little Priest Singers for rendering the appropriate Hoocąk songs at the ribbon cutting ceremony.
