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It
All Started Here for Jim Ryan ’00: Additional
Links:
It’s not often that a city hires a PR agency to design and publish a brochure about a high school student project. Nor is it often that a high school project generates enough buzz to become a permanent city attraction, attracting young and old alike to the downtown area. Yet that is exactly what has happened to the public art installation known as Mice on Main by Jim Ryan ’00, completed in 2000 to meet the requirements of his CCES Senior Project. Today the nine little bronze mice scattered in plazas, gardens, and outside business establishments downtown are a cultural fixture on Main Street, and so many families have enjoyed engaging in a scavenger hunt to find them that the City of Greenville has published a charming brochure to aid visitors in their search.
The brochure begins with a spotlight on Jimmy Ryan, now a third-year medical student in Charleston. Quoting from the brochure:
On Friday, November 2, Greenville Mayor Knox White (also a CCES alumnus) held a press conference to launch the new Mice on Main brochure, developed by VantagePoint, a Greenville marketing firm. Mayor White commented on “the astounding cultural success this little mice family has brought to our city” and recalled the day seven years ago when Ryan approached him for a city grant to help fund the project. Ryan’s inspiration for the project came from a city planning and development course he had taken at the South Carolina Governor’s School in Charleston during the summer of 1999. At that time the many handsome sculptures we now enjoy downtown had yet to be installed, and Ryan decided that for his required Senior Project he wanted to “place artwork in strategic places to enhance the ambiance of downtown.” The fact that he did not consider himself to be very artistic made the project all the more alluring in his mind.
CCES Senior Project Coordinator Barbara Carter, who participated in the press conference on Nov. 2, described the Senior Project as a “capstone experience for our students before we send them out into the real world. Many of the projects have been for the benefit of others in some way, from feeding the homeless to working with underprivileged children, building a Habitat house, collecting books for a particular agency, and enhancing the cultural aspect of our community.” She commented that one key benefit of the project is that “it teaches the students to be flexible, to go in another direction when a particular door closes, and to always be open to change….Jimmy was a perfect example of this.” After securing an initial donation of $1,500 from an anonymous donor and contacting noted sculptor Zan Wells (who has since done several bronze sculptures downtown and also created the memorial statue of Blair Babb Smoak on the CCES campus), Ryan described how he discarded many of his initial ideas for the project. “I thought a statue of Joel Poinsett would be outstanding,” he said, “but I quickly realized that the cost would far surpass my funds. I then decided to do a sculpture of a poinsettia, the plant that Poinsett brought back to America; but again the price would be too high.” Other ideas he quickly abandoned for reasons of cost were statues of Vardry McBee and Shoeless Joe Jackson—prescient because today statues of both these figures from Greenville’s past adorn city streets—cotton, textile mills, an amusing cat hanging from a bridge, and such random items as an umbrella, cell phone, hat, etc. But when he suddenly recalled the nine mice hidden on the pages of the favorite children’s book Goodnight Moon, he knew he had found his theme, and although told that even this idea would exceed his budget, he did not let it deter him—he simply made a commitment to secure the remaining funding needed. Of course, Ryan never dreamed that his project would have such an enduring impact on the city. “Looking back on my time at CCES, I never really thought this would amount to much more than just a senior project. However, it has been great to see that I have been able to leave a legacy in Greenville through my senior project,” he commented. “For me, the most exciting part has been the whole experience of planning and executing a city project, and the people I’ve met along the way. From idea conception to fundraising, to logistics, to installation, the project was much more involved than I had originally thought.” Reflecting on the origins of this downtown phenomenon, Ryan noted that “it really did all start at CCES. The senior project program gave me the motivation and incentive to complete a project of this nature. It’s a great program that is outside the normal realm of an academic curriculum and serves as an outlet for students to really immerse themselves in something they’re passionate about or something they’ve always wanted to try…It also serves as a great opportunity for students to give back to the community. I am continually grateful to Mrs. Carter and the rest of the CCES faculty for giving me the tools and skills I needed to succeed. I feel that I got a great education at CCES and a great foundation on which to build.” Seven years later, Ryan and his family were recognized at a press conference, treated to drinks at a downtown restaurant with Mayor White and his wife and sculptor Wells, given a room with a great view for two nights by the Hyatt, and feted at an “outstanding meal” at Larkin on the River to celebrate his project. The story does not end there. Currently in the works is a children’s book about Mice on Main written by local writer Linda Kelley and illustrated by Zan Wells. Stay tuned. And
it all started right here. At CCES.
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