The Caravan of Dreams performing arts center in Ft. Worth, TX existed from 1983 to 2001 when a restaurant replaced the club. I just happened to play there in a rehearsal band the week they were closing, so I thought I might take a picture of the mural that spread along a long wall on the south side of the club. I had always liked it, and I was thinking I would never see it again, nor would anyone else.
After I packed up my horn and mutes, I went over to take a few pictures. I must have taken the camera with me that night for that reason. This was before I had a digital camera, too. It never entered my mind not to do it since there were no signs saying “no photos”.
Everyone in the audience had already left, so Susan and I were just making ourselves at home posing for pictures, and trying to get the flash just right. The club was dark, and I couldn’t get a good shot of Susan with the mural in the background properly.
Before we could get more than three shots taken, a waitress came over to us and told us they had a policy of no photographs of the mural. My first thought was that she was going to remove the film from the camera, but she didn’t. We agreed not to take any more, but I got out with this one, which may be one of the few ever taken of the mural. It may be that because the club was going out of business and because she would be out of a job, she didn’t really care if I got out with a picture, or not. She couldn’t be fired any more than she already was!
There was one other reason I felt like I could take pictures that night, even if it was not right, and I sure didn’t bother to ask anyone first. I had just finished playing with some of the top jazz musicians in the area for three hours for free. I knew the club was not going out of business out of bankrupcy.
Ed Bass, the billionaire, owned the club, and it was all about making more money with a restaurant. I had just played for free for a billionaire, and it didn’t seem right to me that he wasn’t at least there to thank the musicians. I wanted the picture to remind me of the night I worked for a billionaire and helped his club bring in some money. If the billionaires in our society won’t respect and appreciate the artists in a community, then our arts future is bleak. We won’t have any depth of quality artists who can survive.
Since the closing of Caravan of Dreams, we have seen the Fort Worth Symphony forced to cut back on several weeks of service, in spite of several billionaires living in Fort Worth, while TCU and the Cowboys raised more than they needed for a new football stadium during the same period. That night in Fort Worth I knew we were at the beginning of a downward spiral for the arts community. The money has been diverted to sports, which means great football stadiums these days, but the city is without a world class arts club, or a full time symphony. Live music is on the way out, and bigger sports arenas are in. This picture is my reminder of the week when the money started to flow out of the arts community in Ft. Worth.