Only the Beginning: Casady's Campus Development

On Friday October 19th, Nathan Sheldon unveiled Casady’s new Pennsylvania entrance and Alice Aycock statue.  Students, parents, faculty, and important leaders of the project gathered before the statue to celebrate the hard work and dedication invested in the entrance. According to Head of School Nathan Sheldon, in response to devastating “events around the country," Casady administration, parents, and donors reevaluated the entrance’s construction timeline. Our community devoted itself to developing a design that establishes security and reflects Casady’s mission to develop thoughtful, creative, and driven students. Mr. Sheldon reflected that Casady’s “intentional” mindset motivates our community to achieve great success, which he hopes visitors, students, and faculty will embrace when entering our campus. Aycock’s statue promotes Casady’s mission and energetic culture in an artistic way, "intertwined" with our campus, as Cloud reviewed.Alice Aycock’s pieces have always displayed her deeper interest in earth forms and natural movement. A piece from her most recent “Turbulent” series reminded an anonymous donor of the Casady community: Twister Grande, completed in 2017. When questioned on her creative process whilst constructing the sculpture, Aycock described her desire to “visualize the movement of wind energy as it flows up and down and around, creating a whirlpool, touching down here and there, and sometimes forming a dynamic, three-dimensional massing of forms.” She also added: “It is the energy and thought of ideas colliding and being transmitted outward.” As the donor and so many leaders in this project have witnessed, this statue symbolizes Casady’s thoughtful, creative, and determined culture that inspires all members of our community to learn and share with our neighbors. Mr. Sheldon affirmed that no other place could hold the “significant and appropriate” statue more adequately than our entrance, setting neither a tone of abundance nor understatement, but welcoming individuals into our friendly and secure campus.Mr. Sheldon also added that Casady’s development will not slow at the completion of our new Pennsylvania entrance.  Rather, our progress has only set in motion more ideas for the future. Mr. Sheldon went on to say we should hope to begin seeing the administration focus their attention on the Primary Division and performing arts centers in the relatively near future. A few of the innovative and dynamic minds who made the project a reality attended the ceremony. Mr. Sheldon recognized Millie Hightower and Linda Klos, two leaders who originally led the movement to “enhance” Casady’s entrance. Mr. Sheldon also thanked all of the individuals who contributed to the project, including architect Brian Hines, Eric Long, from the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce, and Colin FitzSimmons, a member of Oklahoma’s Board of Trustees and Casady’s Development Committee Chairman. Many of these men and women valued Casady parents' concerns for security, and took action abruptly. “We are a ‘measure twice, cut once’ school,” Mr. Sheldon affirmed.