Red Poppies Art Installation Comes to Library

Hundreds of red ceramic poppies have been planted outside the Georgetown Public Library!

GPL with Poppies 052016The outdoor art installation is by artist Jen Rose. The poppies blanketed the west lawn of the Williamson County Courthouse in Georgetown’s downtown Square April 4 through May 5, and now they have been moved to the library. The piece, entitled “Blood of Heroes Never Dies,” commemorates Texas World War I veterans.

Individual poppies are available for purchase for $10 apiece at two locations: the Georgetown Public Library, 402 W. Eighth Street, and at the Visitor Center, 103 W. Seventh Street on the Square. Proceeds will benefit Puppies Behind Bars, a nonprofit organization that provides service dogs for combat veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan who have suffered a physical injury, including traumatic brain injury or post-traumatic stress disorder.

“Blood of Heroes Never Dies” was a collaboration between artist Jen Rose and Clive Siegle, a history faculty member; both teach at Richland College. The original installation included 5,171 ceramic red poppies installed on the campus of Richland College for Veterans Day 2015 as reminders of the 5,171 veterans from Texas who died in World War I.

Henry Purl Compton (nicknamed Okra) helped Georgetown to become the Red Poppy Capital of Texas when his service as a Corporal in the Army during World War I ended and in 1919 poppy seeds he collected in northern France were planted in the yard of his mother’s home on Seventh Street in Georgetown.

The poppies installation at the library is on loan from the artist.

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