The MU Police Department is investigating an incident of vandalism near the Fine Arts Building after a class art project was destroyed Saturday, Nov. 19.
MU’s 3D design class made the piece, called “Wastegiving,” to be displayed on the north side of the Fine Arts Building at the corner of Hitt Street and University Avenue. The piece was installed Thursday, Nov. 17 and was in place two days before being vandalized some time after the Texas Tech. football game, according to a news release.
The piece, which was made by nine students and one instructor during the span of the week, was a 4-by-8 feet table with realistically sized dishes of traditional Thanksgiving food, class instructor Hannah Reeves said. The legs of the table were bolted and bracketed securely, as well as glued, she said.
“It actually was something we had talked about when we did brainstorming,” senior Cortney Park said. “We knew there was a possibility of destruction and vandalism because my teacher had a couple pieces that someone had tried to steal over the summer. We kind of just hoped that it wouldn’t happen over Thanksgiving break, because typically the vandalism happens by drunken college students stumbling back to East Campus from the bars at night.”
This was not the case when the incident was reported to the police Saturday evening. Reeves, and others of the fine arts program, presume that the incident occurred due to drunken football game attendees.
“Hannah sent out an email to our class and the subject just said ‘very bad news.’” sophomore Jessie Lueck said. “At that moment, I thought someone may have just walked off with the whole table. I was really disappointed because I know that the art school has had issues with vandalism to sculptures that have been out on the lawn before.”
MUPD is pursuing the investigation, but has no leads.
“We just made crime prevention suggestions,” said MUPD spokesman Capt. Scott Richardson. “Maybe keeping things on the inside during game day activities if they are worried about it, or having somebody watch it.”
The fine arts department said it remains frustrated about this issue.
“It feels like we are supposed to work around public drunkenness, vandalism, and destruction on big football weekends on what is supposed to be a dry campus,” Reeves said. “Our piece was securely put together, the legs of the table were bolted on, bracketed on, and they were just ripped off. It’s just indicative of a larger problem, that people are just walking around a dry campus, being drunk and destructive, just uninhibited by the police.”
Students of the class were unable to see their artwork progress.
“To know that it was just destroyed, that people didn’t respect it or see it as art is just frustrating because of all the hard work we put into it,” Lueck said.