This post was written by Bywaters Special Collections curator Ellen Buie Niewyk.
I just finished processing the Octavio Medellin papers in Bywaters Special Collections. I was thrilled when WFAA [Channel 8] featured a story about Medellin in its evening news on March 31. Medellin designed four stained glass windows for the Trinity Lutheran Church in Dallas in 1960. The church was recently demolished in order to make way for a new YMCA building; prior to being destroyed, the YMCA of Metropolitan Dallas donated the art glass windows to the Office of Cultural Affairs/City of Dallas.
The Campanile Window, currently being installed in Dallas Love Field Airport as part of the Love Field Art Program, was originally displayed in the bell tower at the church. The three remaining windows, The Father, The Son, and The Holy Ghost, were part of the church’s sanctuary. The widows will be re-installed in the lobby of the City Performance Hall in the Arts District in July, 2015. Fortunately, Bywaters Special Collections has Medellin’s preliminary sketch for these three windows, thanks to a generous gift from Henry and Maxine Zaleta of Oklahoma City.
For additional information on Octavio Medellin please visit the Octavio Medellin: Works of Art and Artistic Processes website: http://digitalcollections.smu.edu/all/cul/med/