Sing Out
The Story Behind the Art
The citizens of Indianola and Simpson College had a lot to sing about when
William Buxton (in whose honor Buxton Street is named) gave $10,000 to help support the Methodist affiliated college. Townspeople gathered at the Methodist Church, passed the collection plate, raised the remaining money needed for the College to continue, and sang out in celebration. It was reported that this “… was one of the never-to-be-forgotten events in a lifetime, and those who were present received a hundredfold more in that one moment of excessive joy than all the sacrifice and effort cost.”
According to the Indianola Times, on Feb. 2, 1893, “Sometimes, there runs through a congregation, when a crisis is past, a moment when all the people rise up as one and sing out their pent-up feelings in a doxology of praise.”
Music has remained at the heart of Simpson and Indianola. In 1963, Dr. Robert Larsen returned to his alma mater, Simpson College, to teach and begin producing opera. From there, he founded the Des Moines Metro Opera, now headquartered in Indianola’s former Carnegie Library, an internationally known festival drawing visitors from across the state, the nation and around the world every summer.
On weekends and religious holidays, people who live around campus can hear the chimes of Smith Chapel pealing with classical music appropriate to the day. And throughout COVID, churches throughout the community rang their bells at noon each day — a reminder that hope, and better times, were coming.
And so we Sing Out.
From the Artist
Joe Tuggle Lacina
Sing Out, Steel and Concrete, 60” x 60” x 72”, 2024
The inspiration for this piece was sound, music, voice, the opera, and the body. With this piece, I wanted to capture the essence of universal character or consciousness that is acting out an existence of its own making. The piece communicates a body composed of the interactions and environments in which they are surrounded and highlights a member of a community without a notion of individualism. Additionally, while drawing, designing, and constructing this piece I found myself ruminating on Gene Kelly’s song and dance performance in “Singing in the Rain”, and the bittersweetness of it. In addition, the piece connects back to the previous Grin Cupola exhibition “Hatchet of Hope,” which embodies the notion that hope serves as a powerful instrument to transcend established patterns and facilitate transformative endeavors amidst a world characterized by constant change. Hope, in this context, extends beyond mere optimism or positivity, encompassing a profound acknowledgment of reality and a proactive commitment to address it. I see this figure as being radically optimistic, defiant, and resisting its constraints and categorizations, while still existing rooted, bolted, and embedded in place. This piece is in dialogue and references its location adjacent to The Des Moines Opera, Singing Out in a continuously ever reemerging present within an eternity.
