Lincoln High School grads aim to restore giant mural that hung at school (slideshow)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A massive mural that graced Cleveland's long-gone Lincoln High School hasn't seen the light of day in 35 years.

Two alumni plan to change that.

The quest to resurrect Clevelander William A. Krusoe's "The Spirit of Education" began in 2004, as graduates Janice Lukas and Robert Pearl reminisced about the iconic 1939 oil-on-canvas mural commissioned as part of President Roosevelt's Works Project Administration.

The full-color mural contains interwoven scenes of athletes, artists, scientists, educators and others across a vertical canvas about half the size of a tennis court.

The Class of 1966 lockermates wondered what happened to the mural that filled the school's foyer for four decades until Lincoln was razed in 1977. Pearl and Lukas made a pact to find out.

"Both of us agreed that it would be an atrocity if no one ever got to see something as magnificent as that mural again," Pearl said.

They'd heard a story that before the 3001 Scranton Road building was demolished, Cleveland school officials removed the mural, rolled it up and put it in a storage annex.

Lukas and Pearl assumed that tracking down such a massive piece would be easy. But their sleuthing was stonewalled by the school district.

"They didn't want to talk to us," Pearl said.

Pearl and Lukas canvassed for clues at area schools, universities and libraries. They even sent inquiries to Mayor Frank Jackson, Congressman Dennis Kucinich and former senator George Voinovich.

Read the original here:
Lincoln High School grads aim to restore giant mural that hung at school (slideshow)

Related Posts