www.thanksgiving.org

Last week, I had the honor of presenting a program on "the other people in Norman Rockwell's America" in Dallas, thanks to the sponsorship of the Thanks-Giving Square Foundation.


Thanks-Giving Square is a beautiful three-acre park, chapel and museum in the heart of downtown Dallas with a setting to inspire gratitude. The park is an oasis for the city’s growing residential life, as well as a daily spot to hear rushing water and a respite for professionals who work in the nearby high-rise office buildings.


The chapel has a unique spiral exterior designed by world-famous architect Philip Johnson and an interior spiral of 73 stained-glass panels created by French artist Gabriel Loire (the largest horizontal stained glass window in the world). The museum is a rare compilation of historical documentation around Thanksgiving, as it takes place all over the world, but especially in the United States, dating back to the Continental Congress.


And on "The Wall of Praise", one of the walls leading to the entrance to the park? A colored glass mural of Norman Rockwell's Do Unto Others : The Golden Rule. Thanks to the hospitality of the board members and staff of the foundation, I found that Dallas is much more than conference hotels.
Take your own short tour of Thanks-Giving Square with this YouTube video made by two college students for a project. (And note, thanks to the foundation board's focused efforts over the past several years, no part of the square is any longer "neglected and deteriorating". )

Cordially,
Jane