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Behind-the-scenes look at Pennington’s Ryan White sculpture for IU
Melanie Pennington ensures her sculptures are true to life as she shows how she compares images of Ryan White with her sculpture during her process.
- Indiana University will install a sculpture of Ryan White, a teenager who became a national advocate for AIDS awareness in the 1980s.
- The sculpture, created by IU professor Melanie Pennington, will be placed in the Indiana Memorial Union in the spring.
- Titled “Keep Going,” the sculpture depicts White in motion with an IU backpack, which will hold inspirational notes from students.
For Indiana University sculpture professor Melanie Pennington, getting commissioned to create a sculpture of Ryan White – the Kokomo native son whose teenage battle with AIDS made him into a national poster child for the oft-maligned disease in the 1980s and 90s – for the Indiana Memorial Union was the honor of a lifetime.
It was also incredibly daunting.
“This is someone who is recently deceased,” Pennington said of White, who died of AIDS-related pneumonia in 1990, at 18 years old. “There are many people still living, like his best friend, his mom, his sister, that really knew and loved him.”Pennington typically works in abstract sculptures; she’d rarely done commemorative figure sculptures, let alone one of a child. White had a distinctive look and a towering legacy; Yarber was worried she couldn’t do him justice.
But Pennington found inspiration in White’s life – his relentless optimism in the face of a life-altering disease, his patience in the face of public discrimination and stigma. That spirit pushed her to carry on.
Pennington’s sculpture of White, who always dreamed of going to Indiana University, will be installed at the Indiana Memorial Union this coming spring. He’ll be depicted in motion, moving forward, as if on way to class. An IU trident backpack is slung across his shoulder; his infectious smile and favorite jean jacket giving him an effortless cool.
The sculpture is titled “Keep Going,” a nod to a quote from White himself that Pennington kept returning to when creating the sculpture.
“AIDS can destroy a family if you let it, but luckily for my sister and me, Mom taught us to keep going,” White had said in a testimony before the President’s Commission on AIDS in 1988. “Don’t give up, be proud of who you are, and never feel sorry for yourself.”
Solidifying White’s legacy at IU
IU already has a strong history of recognizing White and his connections to IU; the university’s Dance Marathon sports White’s initials on all their apparel, and the Rural Center for AIDS/STD Prevention (RCAP) made White the namesake of its award honoring those who’ve championed HIV/AIDS prevention, research and awareness.
A key contributor to that legacy is Dr. Bill Yarber, a provost professor at IU Bloomington who serves as the RCAP’s director and as a senior scientist for the Kinsey Institute.
Yarber, a born and raised Hoosier who received all four of his degrees from IU, quite literally wrote the book on AIDS and STD prevention.
In 1985, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asked him to write the first prevention-focused curriculum on AIDS for middle and high school students, titled “AIDS: What Young People Should Know.”
“The education before that was all biomedical, so I created a curriculum that was all about behavior,” Yarber said. “They say it changed the direction of education about this.”
Yarber’s work with AIDS prevention and education eventually led to him crossing paths with White; the two met during an event hosted by the state surgeon general in Indianapolis.
Though their interaction was brief, it left an impact.
“And then, some 15 years ago, I decided that we needed different ways to remember what Ryan did,” Yarber said. “I wanted to start connecting Ryan to Bloomington, since he wanted to go here.”
Getting Ryan right
It was Yarber who first had the idea for erecting a sculpture of White – and who reached out to Pennington to ask if she’d be willing to do it.
Pennington had previously been commissioned by Yarber to create a sculpture of Alfred Kinsey for the Kinsey Institute. The two became close friends through the project and kept in touch after the sculpture was completed in 2022.
Still, Pennington was hesitant when Yarber approached her about the White sculpture.
Pennington had never done a life-sized commemorative sculpture of a teenager, requiring her to work with a smaller scale and body type than she was used to. On top of that, White’s body looked vastly different at times throughout his years in the public eye.
“He had various levels of health in every image that’s presented,” Pennington said.
Getting White right took work. Pennington said she’d started multiple iterations that “didn’t feel right” before having a breakthrough; using the digital sketching app Procreate, she layered multiple images of White to create a sort of composite sketch.
Equally important, Pennington said she did research and watched interviews of White to understand his personality and essence. Those who knew him said he had a casual cool, a sweet, subtle smile, and “puppy dog” eyes.
White’s mother gives her stamp of approval
Yarber, family members, and students of Pennington praised the work, assured her she was on the right track. Ultimately, the most meaningful affirmation came from White’s mother, Jeanne White Ginder.
“She came in and she just lost her mind with joy and tears,” Pennington said. “I’m gonna hold that in my heart forever.”
It was Ginder who recommended that Pennington add the IU backpack, a feature that Pennington says has become an indispensable centerpiece of the sculpture.
When the sculpture is installed at the IMU in the spring, students will find a large, open pouch at the back of White’s backpack, designed for students to drop and grab inspirational notes – something short, sweet and uplifting, maybe in the vein of “keep going.”
Reach Brian Rosenzweig at brian@heraldt.com. Follow him on X/Twitter at @brianwritesnews.
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