Along a busy road with metal recycling facilities and St. Paul Baptist Church, four unique metal sculptures are making Botham Jean Boulevard “pop,” said the Rev. Lelious A. Johnson, church pastor.
The impressive sculptures, some of which towered over traffic below, while others were shorter, are a symbol of a promise to bring art to South Dallas, Johnson said at a dedication Friday afternoon.
“It’s a promise they made many years ago that they kept,” said Johnson, the pastor’s church for 32 years. “Many promises that they made. It just never comes to fruition. But to see this makes my heart extremely glad.”
The public art project began before the COVID-19 pandemic and before Lamar Street was renamed. It brought together the Office of Arts and Culture and the Department of Transportation and Public Works.
The teamwork was “unprecedented” in Dallas but driven by a common goal of serving residents who will now experience art walking or driving up and down the boulevard, said Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Adam Bazaldua, who represents District 7.
“Working with the Office of Arts and Culture to help beautify and contribute to the community in this way is a delight to see and making arts more accessible is always something for us to celebrate,” Bazaldua said.
Teresa Jackson, who grew up in District 7, said at the dedication that art “directly impacts the vitality of our communities.”
“It brings me great joy to see more public arts inside Dallas, especially outside of the boundaries of Fair Park itself,” said Jackson, a member of the Arts and Culture advisory commission for District 7.
The effort began in 2015, said Ahmed Alqaisi, assistant city engineer for the city’s Department of Transportation and Public Works. Alqaisi said his department was a part of the process to bring the sculptures, which sit on concrete bases along a broad sidewalk of busy Botham Jean Boulevard.
The four metal sculptures feature the work of Pascale Pryor, Scott Shubin, Laura Walters and Bernard Williams. Pryor looked for “simplicity and play” in the creation of a large and orange metal gear with a center that looks like stained glass, said Lynn Rushton-Reed, public art program manager for the office of Arts and Culture. Williams’ sculpture uses words on a tall, black structure, which were based on conversations he had with the community, Rushton-Reed said.
Walters and Shubin attended the dedication, speaking with attendees about the art.
District 7, foreground center, converses with guests, including Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Adam Bazaldua, during a public art dedication to honor featured artists Pascale Pryor, Scott Shubin, Laura Walters and Bernard Williams. The ceremony, which recognized four newly installed pieces of art along Botham Jean Boulevard, was held at the St. Paul Baptist Church in Dallas on Jan. 24, 2025. (Steve Hamm / Special Contributor)
Shubin’s piece, a kinetic sculpture made with the help of an enamel artist, Kat Cole, included images of 1940s Dallas, a jazz musician and a vintage family photo from the ’30s.
“It’s almost like the past, the present and neighborhood,” Shubin said. “It’s memories from the neighborhood, dedicated to this area.”
The images, spread across several rectangular flaps, waved with the wind.
“This has been a long project in the making, so I’m really happy to finally have it installed,” Walters said. Her sculpture, which sits outside St. Paul Baptist Church, featured large, steel, pink and yellow flowers.
The inspiration for the sculpture was giving hope to the neighborhood, which she said has grown so much since she started the project years ago. She pointed across the street and said her career started with shopping at scrap metal yards.
At the dedication, Walters read a long poem, speaking of the floral design as a metaphor for what the community has gone through, including segregation, blight and hopes of revitalization.
“Blooms arose from the past, someone’s old home-sweet-home, gone to blight, drugs, progress or gentrification. The rose stands strong in hope of revitalization,” she read.
This reporting is part of the Future of North Texas, a community-funded journalism initiative supported by the Commit Partnership, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, the Dallas Mavericks, the Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, the McCune-Losinger Family Fund, The Meadows Foundation, the Perot Foundation, the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and the University of Texas at Dallas. The News retains full editorial control of this coverage.