Michael R. Shoulders
Acceptance Speech
Mayor's Arts Award
September 6, 2007

Thank you, Mayor Weinzapfel, for this great honor. And thanks to the Selection Committee. I wanted to also congratulate all of tonight's recipients. There is a lot of talent represented here and I am proud to be in your company.

Some quick thank you's:

I am grateful to Marilee Fowler for nominating me for this award. Marilee and I serve together on the Boards of Keep Evansville Beautiful and the Arts Council. She is truly a great salesman for Evansville. I watch her work and just have to say "WOW."

Thank you Mary Jane Schenk, Jean Ambrose and Shannon Hurt for this lovely evening and for arranging all of the details.

Rose Young, I want to thank you for being the administrator of the Mayor's Arts Award Selection Committee, a non-voting member.

When the history of the Arts Council is written, my friend Tom Wilhelmus will go down as the President who took the Council to a new level. Tom is an intelligent, sensitive leader who I'm proud to have served under.

And my mentor, Jack Schriber. I could work for another hundred years and not equal the contributions to the Arts he has made.

For those of you who wrote letters in support of my award, Dr. Robert Yeager, John David Lutz, Ann Ennis, who is Director of Keep Evansville Beautiful, John Streetman and Amy Musia. Thanks for your support.

In the past couple of months, after I won this award, there have been three questions that people have continued to ask me. The first question is "Why did you decide to be an architect?" The best way to answer that is by a story. My father, Harold Shoulders, who is here with me tonight, recently retired after 50 years of being a structural steel designer and detailer. He learned to do his drafting standing up. He always drafted by hand, as I still do, (not being too fond of the computer) and he stood all day long. He never felt comfortable using a drafting stool. So when he retired in March of this year, and I was helping him move out of his office, I planted my two feet in the same location he had stood for over 50 years. And I couldn't help thinking, This is hallowed ground. He put three boys through college, gave us a work ethic and taught us how to raise a family. So Dad, I just wanted you to know. I became an architect because of you. Because I wanted to be like you.

The second question I've most often been asked is "Why didn't you become a lawyer like your two brothers Patrick and Jeffrey?" Now the question they are really asking is sort of a corollary question - "Where did they get their great personalities?" I must state first that they definitely did not get their personalities from my father. As best we can determine, he does not have a personality. They got their personalities from my mother, Jeanne, who is also with me tonight. She has that warm, friendly smile. She's never met a stranger. But don't get on the phone with her. You will be on it for anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half and you won't be the one who gets to do the talking. As many of you know, my brother Pat says he's never met a microphone he didn't like. As for me, while I've been looking forward to tonight, I've also had indigestion for the last three and a half weeks. And for some reason, it is particularly acute tonight.

For any work of architecture of any size, one man cannot take all of the credit. It's sort of like Maestro Salvia. The architect directs a staff and a whole raft of consultants such as structural engineers, acoustical consultants, kitchen planning consultants. I have had the benefit of a great staff and outstanding partners in my firm. If you have ever been in the new Central Library and looked at the appurtenances, the finishes, the displays, furniture and fixtures, you should know that those were designed by Sarah Schuler, a very talented young architect who I am proud to have as a partner. If you saw this morning's paper on the front page of the local section, you saw the new Art Gallery at USI. That is the creative work of Sarah Schuler. There is another partner who has been with me for over 25 years -- Scott Veazey. Scott is fiercely loyal, steady and steadfast. He keeps our company on the straight and narrow path. Unfortunately, he doesn't get the notoriety I do, since my assignment is to work inside Vanderburgh County and his is to work outside, across the State of Indiana and the Midwest. He is an extremely talented, award-winning architect. Scott, thank you for 25 great years together.

The third question people have been asking me is "Why did you settle in Evansville? Why not the big city?" First of all, my wife's family and my family are here and family is very important to us. But family aside, I remember when I was in City Planning School in North Carolina back in the mid 70's. At all of my seminars and discussion classes I kept thinking and talking about Evansville. It became the class joke that there was this guy who always thinks about everything in the context of his Podunk hometown in Indiana. I feel fortunate to have made a contribution to building this city. Not all buildings are architecture; not even all of our buildings are architecture. But some of them are. This award says to me that maybe in some small way, we have made a difference; that we have created some good architecture and that we have helped, in some small way, to build this great city.

It has been said that the secret to being a good architect is having good clients. We have the best. And I think that I speak for all of my colleagues, and the other local architects, when I say that we are grateful to the companies and organizations who have decided to work with the local architectural firms. With our clients, it is a matter of building a trusting relationship. For some of them, it is the largest single big ticket investment they will make, in building their new building. And so we are very grateful to each of them.

The Evansville-Vanderburgh School Corporation, who uses all local architectural firms. I did Reitz High School; my partner Scott Veazey did Central High School and I did the new Southern Indiana Career and Technical Center.

The Evansville-Vanderburgh Public Library. We completed the new Central Library and several branch library projects. As Mike Russ mentioned, we have worked closely with the library board to complete their vision.

Ivy Tech has always used strictly local architects and we are grateful to them. My partner George Link has worked with them on a complex multi-phased program that has been highly successful.

Old National Bank. Thank you for including us as your lead architect on this BanCorp Headquarters facility.

The City of Evansville Department of Public Works and the Parks and Recreation Department have been generous in utilizing our services.

The list is very long and I will miss many important clients, I know.

The Catholic Diocese of Evansville, for both church and school work.

The University of Evansville.

The University of Southern Indiana.

The County Commissioners. All of these agencies and organizations have regularly used our services and the services of other local firms and we thank each of them.

When I was a younger man, I thought that architecture was about these large columns. (Point at four large limestone columns in the ONB Atrium.) These columns sit on piles that go down sixty to eighty feet into the ground. When you build on sand, by the river, you must make sure you provide stout foundations. I thought architecture was about men in hardhats, digging in the dirt, their muscles flexed, testosterone pumping. I thought it was about the steel frame rising to the sky. And, of course, it is a very heady feeling when that steel rises up. But then I had the opportunity to step into the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. And everything changed for me. When I entered the Cathedral, I couldn't help looking up. And when I watched the other people in the space that day, I realized that they too could only look up. The master builders and architects of that grand structure had succeeded in making sure that we felt the reverence of that holy place. And ever since then I have come to believe that architecture is really about the dreams of small children, about light and air and the firmament. It's about human emotion. (All art is about human emotion.) It's about the struggle of the human spirit; the struggle of our higher, better selves to be born.

So, Mayor Weinzapfel... Ummm... I was just curious. Have you decided yet who is going to design the new Downtown Arena? (Pause)

Is he glaring at me?

(Cough)... That indigestion thing again!

Tonight is all about creative endeavors. But there are only two masterpieces that I have created or ever will create. I created them in partnership with my wife. Their names are Ben and Jon, my two sons, and they live in Bloomington. They couldn't be here tonight. And to my wife, there dressed in red... You have been a part of my life for so long now that you are no longer just a part of my life. You are my life.

So to wrap up, Mayor, this has been a very special evening for me and I want to thank you for it. But I also want to thank you for more than just this evening. I want to thank you for helping us believe in ourselves again. I want to thank you for your vision and leadership. I want to thank you for supporting local architecture and the environmental arts. I want to thank you for showing us that we can solve any problem, surmount any hurdle, or meet any challenge if we work together and collaborate.

Thank you, my good friend. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.