10/26/2009 2:48:00 PM Art from Wayzata's history finds temporary home
A gift of the class of 1928, ‘America the Beautiful,’ has been on display at the Wayzata Library this month. PHOTO: Brett Stursa
By David Schueller
A work of art originally given to the old Wayzata High School by the class of 1928 is on display in the Wayzata Library, 600 Rice St.
The 4-by-10 foot piece called "America the Beautiful" includes three reproductions of paintings by three noted American artists.
It represents a part of Wayzata that no longer exits except in memory - the Widsten Elementary School, which was formerly the Wayzata High School, that was torn down in 1996 and replaced with condominiums atop the hill.
The subjects of two of the paintings are American Indians.
The art twice avoided being destroyed and is now the property of the Wayzata Historical Society, which is still looking for a place to permanently display the art near the former site of the school where it was originally displayed from 1928-89.
Much of the credit for saving the artwork can go to Deanne Straka. She first went to Widsten Elementary as a student, then worked there, and knew every nook and cranny of the building.
When the old school sat waiting to be demolished, many things disappeared from it, she said.
"People were coming at night or on the weekends," Straka said.
Not her. Straka simply asked to take the art so she could give it to the historical society.
"I took it," Straka said. "First of all I had it at our house. And it was kind of large to have it at our house."
That was the first save.
Straka later asked then-Norwest Bank staff if they had any ideas for displaying the art and they agreed. But that didn't last more than a couple years. One day Straka was in the bank and noticed it was gone off the wall.
The search was on.
"Finally one of the custodians said, 'I think I've seen it on the floor in the garage,'" Straka said.
"So it was back at our house," she said.
That was the second save.
After some talks, it was displayed at Gleason Lake Elementary School, two stories up in the library loft, she said, until it came back to the historical society archives last year.
Straka had the piece appraised by The Beard Art Galleries in the late '80s, and found out in a letter that the work would have been worth $80,000 - if the paintings were originals. Nonetheless, the letter calls it "a very attractive mural and well worth preserving."
"It was kind of a popular thing to do back then to give something to their school as a graduating class," said Sue Sorrentino, president of the Wayzata Historical Society.
Sorrentino said other gifts included the piece "An October Day" originally painted by Arnold Marc Gorter and given by the class of 1924. It now hangs in the historical society archives. A trophy case given by the class of 1925 is now in the Wayzata Depot.
But "America the Beautiful," which includes the work of artists George de Forest Brush, Daniel Garber and Eanger Irving Couse, is rather unwieldy and the historical society is still searching for a place for it, she said.
"I think it's big enough that nobody knows what to do with it," Sorrentino said.
After seeing it in the archives, located below the library, Wayzata Senior Librarian Trudy Hanus said she was impressed.
"My wheels were spinning and I thought it'd be so cool if we could display it," Hanus said.
At the library, "America the Beautiful," has been getting plenty of comments from visitors, and nobody's quite sure how long it will stay in the library or where it will go.
"They're loving it. It's a shame that there isn't a spot to have it," Hanus said.
