Office of the Mayor

Proclamation

Lawrence, Kansas

WHEREAS:   Aaron Douglas was a native Kansan, born on May 26, 1899 in Topeka, Kansas; and

WHEREAS:   Aaron Douglas was an outstanding native Kansan who dedicated his art to addressing the social problems and injustices faced by African Americans while simultaneously highlighting their contributions to U.S. society and offering hopes for a better future; and

WHEREAS:   The University of Kansas Spencer Museum of Art has mounted the first major national exhibition of Aaron Douglas’s art, which is on view in Lawrence this fall and will travel next year to the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville, the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington D.C., and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City; and

WHEREAS:   The art of Aaron Douglas has inspired a community mural project in downtown Lawrence, commissioned by the Spencer Museum of Art and conceived and created by lead artist David Loewenstein and a team of local artists; and

WHEREAS: Many Lawrencians of all ages have helped paint this mural, celebrating the community nature of this project;

NOW, THEREFORE, I,Sue Hack, Mayor of the City of Lawrence, Kansas, do hereby proclaim Wednesday, September 26, 2007 to be

“AARON DOUGLAS COMMUNITY MURAL DAY.”

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                                                     Sue Hack, Mayor

September 25, 2007