Ryan White was unable to attain his dream of attending Indiana University. He died of AIDS-related complications in April 1990, one month before his high school graduation. But 36 years later, White will be a presence on campus. A bronze sculpture of White will be installed in IU’s Indiana Memorial Union in the spring.
White was a hemophiliac since birth, and after a blood transfusion he was diagnosed with AIDS when he was 13 years old. He was given six months to live but lived five years longer than expected. He faced intense discrimination in his hometown of Kokomo, which led to him and his family moving to Cicero.
He also gained national attention, celebrities befriended him and he received thousands of letters from people. White fought to be able to attend school and to be treated like any other kid, he fought for education on HIV/AIDS. Four months after he died, Congress passed the Ryan White Comprehensive AID Resources Emergency Act.
William Yarber, School of Public Health provost professor and senior director of the Rural Center for AIDS/STD Prevention at IU, proposed the idea of the Ryan White sculpture.
He saw the work done by Melanie Pennington, senior lecturer in the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture and Design at IU, for the Alfred Kinsey sculpture and knew it had to be done for White as well, Yarber said.
“I thought, gosh, through the decades, people will see the Alfred Kinsey sculpture. We ought to have one for Ryan, because he wanted to go to school here,” he said. “And, so, I found the right team to do that.”
Pennington has been working on the clay version of the sculpture, the positive, since this fall. She’s averaged 40 hours a week on top of teaching and other responsibilities. She has spent about 200 hours researching White by looking at photos of him, watching his interviews, listening to him talk and communicating with his mom to ensure he is not only physically captured accurately, but his spirit is as well, she said.
White was a kind kid with a quiet, calm confidence, Pennington said. He had this present, wide-open demeanor that you could see in his eyes.
“I wanted to at least have a moment when, when you're looking at this piece, you can also feel like he's looking back at you, like his presence might be looking at you,” she said.
Pennington has titled the sculpture “Keep Going,” which embodies the energy White had. She said the sculpture will show White when he was 16 years old. The statue will be of White wearing a jean jacket, with his hair spiky and carrying an IU backpack.
The sculpture will also be interactive, inspired by the “Power of Children: Making a Difference” exhibit at the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis which includes White’s story, Pennington said. As museum visitors are able to leave post-it notes of what they learned from the exhibit, people will be able to leave or pick up notes of encouragement from the sculpture.
“The other part of his message, and the part that's so beautiful about him, that he was encouraging people to educate themselves, to fight fear,” Pennington said.
The sculpture memorializing White and his story will be in the study room where the fireplace is located in the IMU. Pennington hopes this will be another way to ensure White is not forgotten and to keep his story alive.
“I think having representation, representations of hope in the face of these cruelties, is very emotional and essential, you know, like it gives us a reminder of why it matters to be kind, to love, to get all the story or as much of the story, to not judge,” she said.