<\/p>\n
Wyland’s\u00a0Whaling Wall 82\u00a0— or what was left of it as of Monday morning<\/p>\n
Robert Wilonsky\/Staff writer<\/p>\n
The vanishing of Wyland\u2019s downtown mural Whaling Wall 82, now buried beneath pool-blue paint<\/a>, has become a far bigger story than anyone involved in its disappearance ever imagined. Bigger, even, than the building-sized mural itself, which faced Field Street for 27 years\u00a0\u2014\u00a0eight of them behind ads for cruise ships, airlines and light beer \u2014 and whose time of death late last week coincides with the arrival of FIFA World Cup.\u00a0<\/p>\n One of the parties responsible told me Friday they were expecting a little blowback\u00a0\u2014 \u201cmaybe\u201d\u00a0\u2014\u00a0when it was erased for a new mural to be painted by a local artist. That was before news of the whales\u2019 demise made it all the way to the New York Post<\/a>, CNN and Kacey Musgraves, who lamented the mural’s demise on Instagram by proclaiming that \u201cwe suck the soul out of everything.\u201d Before The New York Times and the British tabloid the Daily Mail started calling. Before the legal threats. Before members of the North Texas\u00a0FIFA World Cup Organizing Committee started receiving physical threats on social media.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not how I want to celebrate the World Cup,\u201d the organizing committee\u2019s president, Monica Paul, said Monday morning as tears rolled down her cheeks. \u201cThis is not how I wanted it remembered from the city\u2019s standpoint. We still have a tremendous amount of work to do over the next three, four weeks. This was supposed to be a celebration of a young Dallas artist and helping share that with the rest of the city.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Instead, the executive director of the Dallas Sports Commission spent much of the last few days in meetings, wondering how all this went sideways, wishing she could do it all over again.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere were gaps in the process, gaps in communication,\u201d Paul said. \u201cMaybe assumptions that it had been vetted by all partners and all the parties involved. You work on something for so long \u2026\u201d A long pause. \u201cYou try to do good for your city, your region, to leave a lasting legacy for so many people \u2026\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Make Dallas News a preferred source so your search results prioritize writing by actual people, not AI.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n So, then, how did this happen? After numerous interviews since my first column about this Friday<\/a>, the answer appears surprisingly simple.\u00a0<\/p>\n Because someone said: Here\u2019s a wall you can probably paint over. And because no one else said: No.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMultiple points of failure\u201d\u00a0\u2014\u00a0that\u2019s how it was described to me Monday. Which doesn\u2019t make it any easier. But it\u2019ll be a good book title when FIFA collects its balls and goes home.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The official dedication of Wyland’s giant mural of humpback whales in downtown Dallas in April 1999.<\/p>\n File photo\/Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n Those failures were set into motion 18 months ago, when the local organizing committee enlisted the nonprofit Downtown Dallas Inc. to find suitable spaces for artwork commemorating the World Cup\u2019s arrival in the region. According to Jennifer Scripps, DDI\u2019s president and CEO, the organization spent that time commissioning a dozen local artists to work on 20 projects around downtown.\u00a0<\/p>\n Said Scripps, the local organizing committee and DDI \u201cshared a vision of imbuing this global event with Dallas artists\u2019 work.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n In March, DDI reached out to Toronto-based Slate Asset Management about their parking garage at 505 N. Akard Street, suggesting its Field-facing side would be an ideal spot for a World Cup-themed mural. A Slate spokesperson said DDI and the North Texas organizing committee asked them to donate the wall for a public art piece, which Slate agreed to, wanting to appear as a good local partner.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n That\u2019s right. Slate says it\u2019s not making a penny off this. It\u2019s receiving all this bad PR for free.\u00a0<\/p>\n Paul confirmed Monday what I\u2019d been told numerous times in recent days: Some people on the organizing committee had some obvious questions about the suggested spot. Like, aren\u2019t those whales public art? And isn\u2019t anyone concerned about the possible uproar over erasing life-sized humpbacks painted by the artist who goes by Wyland?\u00a0<\/p>\n So on April 1, Shalissa Perry at DDI sent an email to Lynn Rushton, the public art program manager in Dallas\u2019 Office of Arts and Culture, about that wall on Akard.\u00a0<\/p>\n In an email exchange provided by Scripps, Perry said they were working with the local organizers to \u201cidentify a building for a new mural which will be a legacy project to benefit the residents of Dallas.\u201d Perry told Rushton that the Akard wall was \u201cthe perfect spot, as the current mural there is over 30 years old and is past its useful life.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Perry asked if there were any \u201crestrictions or rules around this being painted over,\u201d because time was of the essence \u201cto have the new mural done well before FIFA.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n On April 7, 1999, Wyland began his giant mural of whales on the west side of the Texas Utilities Building at 505 N. Akard St. in downtown Dallas.<\/p>\n File photo\/Dallas Morning NEws<\/p>\n Rushton forwarded that email to Guy Bruggeman, the city\u2019s Public Art Collection and Conservation Manager, who wrote that the existing mural was painted by Wyland\u00a0\u2014 \u201cwho is quite famous.\u201d But, he told Perry, Whaling Wall is not among the some 300 statues, sculptures and installations in The Dallas Public Art Collection<\/a>. Nor, for that matter, is the Whaling Wall included on the city\u2019s Public Art Walk<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf you google Wyland mural dallas history,\u201d Bruggeman told Perry, \u201cit will give you a good briefing.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n He ended his missive by providing a link to Wyland\u2019s website<\/a>. If that was his way of warning DDI or anyone else not to paint over the whales, it didn\u2019t work. Neither Rushton, Bruggeman nor a city spokesperson returned emails sent and messages left on Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n Wyland and Steve Creech, the Wyland Foundation\u2019s CEO and president, were never contacted by anyone in Dallas. Not until last week. Not until they started getting photos of humpbacks drowning in blue paint.\u00a0<\/p>\n A Slate spokesperson, however, said they were assured Wyland had been informed his mural would be replaced.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Dallas Central Appraisal District doesn\u2019t actually list Slate as the building\u2019s owner. A more familiar name shows up: a company tied to longtime downtown developer Shawn Todd and his sons Philip and Patrick. They acquired the parking garage around 2022, but haven\u2019t owned it for several months: When the Todds began severing their longstanding ties to downtown<\/a>, they forfeited the Akard garage to Slate, which had been one of the lenders on the nearby Energy Plaza makeover rebranded The Sinclair<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n I called Shawn Todd on Friday to get some clarity. And he launched right into talking about Whaling Wall 82.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe artwork was epic,\u201d Todd said. \u201cIt was a part of the downtown fabric. It projected a feeling and emotion that you would hope for in a piece of art that represented a metropolitan city. It was unbelievable.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n