The Museum of Western Art opened a memorial garden Friday honoring the 119 victims of last July’s flood, the volunteers who responded and the community still working to rebuild.
The Kerrville Area Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon cutting for the Tribute Garden at the museum, 1550 Bandera Highway.
The garden centers on a wall of wooden cookies, or rounds cut from trees salvaged from flood-damaged property along the Guadalupe River, engraved with the names of those the Texas Department of Public Safety and Texas Rangers determined were victims from or who perished in Kerr County on July 4.
Museum Executive Director Darrell Beauchamp said the project took shape quickly after that morning.
“On the morning of July 4th, we all woke up to a lot of tragedy, and immediately our board of directors started thinking about ways to honor the victims and, as importantly, the first responders and the thousands and thousands of people who we saw who came to help Kerrville during a time of need,” he said.
The space had previously sat unused.
Museum board member Pablo Brinkman supported and helped develop the design concept and sourced the wooden beams from lumber recovered in the wreckage. JDS Leather assisted with the victim name tributes. A “Hill Country Strong” plaque anchors the garden with one-of-a-kind bronzework by museum artist-in-residence Jason Scull. Texas Master Naturalist Sheryl Pender assisted with landscaping. Sponsor bricks on the left side of the garden represent donors who helped fund the project and remain available for purchase.
Beauchamp said the garden had already moved visitors before the ribbon was cut. He recalled being outside working on the project one day, tools still out, when he noticed a woman standing alone in front of the wall of names.
“I asked her if she knew anybody on the wall and she said, ‘Yes, that’s my sister and that’s my niece’,” he said. “It was at that moment this became real for me. These are people’s families. These are individual lives and we lost so many of them.”
The Rev. Bill Blackburn offered a blessing at the ceremony.
“Prayers about the flood can still be hard because there’s a lot of hurt,” Blackburn said. “Our hearts remain heavy. The loss of life, the devastation, the scarred natural beauty.”
Blackburn continued: “This garden is a heartfelt tribute to those who perished, those whose lives were upended, and the thousands of volunteers from around the world who came to rescue, repair, and help us rebuild our beloved community.”
The tribute garden is open to the public during normal museum hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The ribbon cutting ceremony coincided with the museum’s official opening of its “Stars, Stripes, and States: A Journey Through 250 Years” flag display along its main driveway, part of the Kerr250 initiative marking America’s 250th birthday. The exhibit features all 50 state flags on one side and 27 historical versions of the American flag on the other. The display runs through Sept. 12. Further details are available at Kerr250.com.
For more information on exhibits at the Museum of Western Art, visit museumofwesternart.com.
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