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Art students figure Gypsy Ted would be proud
of them
By Bill Whitaker
McMurry University art students today are making artful use
of the past, opening up the "Gypsy Ted Gallery" in a
house recently set for bulldozing.
Although someone quipped the small, McMurry-owned residence
at 2123 Hunt should be dubbed the "Hole in the Wall Gallery"
-- there's a big hole leading from one exhibit room to the next
-- the new gallery takes its name from the home's former occupant,
the late Gypsy Ted Sullivan Wylie.
You might suspect anyone named Gypsy Ted would be a tad risque.
Fact is Mrs. Wylie was McMurry's first fine arts dean. On the
committee that chose "Texas, Our Texas" as the state
song, she came to McMurry in 1923 as a voice teacher and accepted
the dean's position a year later.
"Her house was set to be demolished in a week," said
Linda Strickland, McMurry University's energetic assistant professor
of art. "Well, we saw it and we told Carl Brown, vice president
of financial affairs, we wanted to save it. He asked us what we
could possibly do with it.
"We said, 'Just give us a chance to show you what we can
do with it!'<t>"
HANDS-ON PROJECT
So it came to pass -- after much stripping, painting and carpentry,
with Linda and clay major Ken Hart leading the dusty way. The
two even went "dumpster-diving" to retrieve carpet McMurry
tossed out while recarpeting part of Old Main.
At one point, longtime McMurry staffer Gretchen Tucker told
Linda about the house's former resident -- and the idea for naming
the gallery for Gypsy Ted was born.
The Gypsy Ted Gallery opens up today to showcase the many-splendored
arts of McMurry students and staffers, just in time for Christmas.
It's open from 5 to 7 p.m. today, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday, 10
a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Thereafter
it will be open till Christmas.
McMurry art students aren't the only ones involved in this
project. Although the gallery is designed so budding artists can
learn how to manage a business and promote themselves, it has
also been embraced by McMurry's marketing department, which will
help with ways to raise funds for the place.
"It's really kind of a hands-on project for them,"
Linda said.
It is also a reminder of McMurry's first fine arts dean --
a woman who, early in life, saw her aspirations as a singer and
actress dashed because of family obligations. Whatever her dreams,
she later devoted herself to the arts at McMurry University, founding
the McMurry Chanters.
Gypsy Ted also regularly mounted an opera on the McMurry grounds,
traditionally staged outdoors the night before spring graduation.
She was also involved in a myriad of events in the Southwest,
including music activities during the 1936 Texas Centennial.
"She was a very dynamic person," Jo Crutchfield said,
recalling her own youthful days. "First time I met her, she
brought a double octet to our church in Loraine and I thought
how wonderful it sounded and how wonderful it would be to sing
in it."
Partially on the strength of Gypsy Ted's personality and her
work with the students, Jo enrolled at McMurry in 1933: "I
came as a math major, but I really wanted to sing with the choir.
I always said I majored in math but lived in the music department."
She recalled cleaning Gypsy Ted's house -- the very same house
the art students now occupy -- just to raise money for voice lessons.
ONCE MORE WITH FEELING
Jo, 81, who later joined McMurry as a faculty assistant upon
graduating in 1937, remained close to Gypsy Ted and her husband
Bob, McMurry's first business manager, till their deaths. In some
ways, Jo was almost a surrogate daughter to the childless couple.
By the time of Gypsy Ted's death in 1978 at age 87, her name
was no longer on the lips of McMurry students. That's why Jo Crutchfield
says she's tickled McMurry's art faculty and students are so determined
to make the Gypsy Ted Gallery a success.
If the project is a hit, the name Gypsy Ted should gain frequency
again. A percentage of profits from all art sold at the gallery
will go to the art department, maintainence of the house and a
bona fide Gypsy Ted Sullivan Wylie Scholarship.
Certainly it recognizes a woman who gave her all to the campus.
When a room in the Ryan Fine Arts Building was renamed for Gypsy
Ted a quarter of a century ago and some of her original McMurry
Chanters showed up to sing for their lady maestro, the grand old
lady of fine arts expressed amazement.
"You know, I heard the phrase 'I haven't sung in half
a century' twice this morning," Gypsy Ted joked. "Have
I been around that long?"
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Copyright ©1996 or
1997, Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps. Publications
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