This article was originally published in Little Village’s December 2023 issue as a part of Peak Iowa, a collection of fascinating state stories, sites and people.
From kindergarten through sixth grade, I spent countless hours staring at a wall in the Horn Elementary School library, daydreaming while an adult read a book to the class. Far more compelling than a fire alarm or a poster of LeVar Burton, I would fixate on a massive mural mounted on the wall of the library’s story well, painted just a decade earlier by one of the quintessential American pop artists.
In the ’80s, Horn art teacher Colleen Ernst and her students struck up a pen pal relationship with Keith Haring, who always addressed his letters “To my friends at Horn.” In March 1984, the University of Iowa Museum of Art brought Haring to Iowa City for a brief residency that included workshops, classroom visits and a public lecture.
The artist kept up his correspondence with Ernst’s students, even as his celebrity grew. In May 1989, he returned to paint a mural in, and for, the University Heights school — one of around 50 murals he gifted to schools, hospitals, daycares and charity organizations in the 1980s. Students could stop by the story well and watch as the 30-year-old New Yorker, clad in paint-splattered jeans and Nike Air Force sneakers, first painted a book, then an enormous speech bubble above it, then a series of blue, yellow, orange, green and red splotches of color. The splotches were incorporated into doodle-like cartoons of clowns, fish, old ladies, kangaroos, an elephant in a pool floaty, a tired piece of toast and other whimsical characters — all inspired by the stories in the library, according to Haring.
In the bottom right corner, he signed, dated and dedicated the mural: “A book full of fun for my friends at [Horn] school!!” it reads, with a proto-emoji of a trumpet replacing the school’s name.
While it wasn’t public knowledge yet, Haring had recently learned he was HIV positive. He died of AIDS-related complications in February 1990 at the age of 31. But several months earlier, he wrote a letter to his Horn friends.
“It’s really incredible to me that the school took the initiative to institute a discussion about AIDS — mostly because of the students’ contact with (and caring for) me,” said Haring, who left behind a wealth of works promoting AIDS awareness and prevention. “It makes me proud I had the courage to talk about it in the first place. Education is the key to stopping this thing!”
Keith Haring“It’s really incredible to me that the school took the initiative to institute a discussion about AIDS — mostly because of the students’ contact with (and caring for) me. It makes me proud I had the courage to talk about it in the first place. Education is the key to stopping this thing!”
Horn has grown considerably since I last attended in 2005, and a new round of renovations began this year. In an effort to protect the Haring mural until construction wraps up in 2025, experts with the University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art, as it’s been known since 2018, stepped in to pack up and remove it.
But it won’t be hidden for long. Starting May 4, the mural and other memorabilia from Haring’s Iowa City visits will be on display for the first time at the Stanley. After that, it’ll return to Horn’s library, where future generations of students can space off at a piece of art history.