Uploaded August 2024 | Updated September 2026, 3 hours ago
#centralhighschool #centralhigh #evansvillecentral #evansvillecentralhigh #evansvillecentarlhighschool #matthawes #art #artwork #copyright #credits #centralbear #bears #centralbears #centralhighbear #frankmiller #batman #bobkane #monalisa #andywarhol #drawing #drawings #legalrights #mascot
In 1987, Evansville, Indiana Central High School student and artist Matthew Hawes was approached by a teacher at the school to create a drawing to be based on a large painted mural located in the school's gymnasium. Hawes was informed this was for some sort of contest regarding the school mascot. He complied and made the drawing, handed the original artwork over to the teacher, and didn't hear back about the status of the contest or his artwork.
1989, Hawes first learned of the school using the artwork he drew as it was printed on cards sold by the school as graduation invites. From that point onward, the bear image was used on various items used to promote the school, its sports, and the like. Hawes' bear drawing appeared on t-shirts, jerseys, posters, vanity license plates, banners, ads, in news articles, on calendars, on student ID cards, and a street sign facing the street leading to the school.
Hawes did not approach the school during for a time, feeling it would likely not result in anything coming from it, as schools typically have exploited the intellectual properties of its students with free reign and abandon, perhaps since the beginning of such institutions. But he wondered if the school at least acknowledged his contribution it had continued to profit from so regularly. The image Hawes drew had become the predominant image representing the school.
In 2012, on Facebook, a former Central High student who was aware of Hawes' art being utilized by the school, and how Hawes had never received public credit from the school for said work, poste a comment about how regretful the situation was. A former teacher and Facebook friend of Hawes who was also on Facebook saw the comment and inquired about the matter. Once Hawes relayed his story, this teacher approached Central about the subject only to claim to him that Hawes' art was not what was being used. This was demonstrably false.
Hawes would then go onto write the school and the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation, the school administration, to challenge that assertion. EVSC director of staff, Paul Neiding wrote back Hawes with a letter that claimed they had conducted an investigation that revealed that Hawes had contributed to the "overall design," but denied that it was his actual artwork being used by the school. Hawes wrote back to ask, then, what was his "contribution," as the only thing he "contributed" was the artwork, itself. Which would mean, naturally, that the drawing being used by the school was Hawes' artwork.
Hawes would not get too much further for a couple of years, and the situation seemed likely to remain unsettled. Unfortunately, the teacher that approached Hawes to draw the bear in the first place back in 1987 had passed away in the mid-1990s, so he couldn't verify what Hawes had told anyone. But, in 2016, Hawes came across more substantial evidence to prove his case and got back in contact with Neiding and the EVSC.
A meeting at the EVSC building with Matthew Hawes, Paul Neidig, and his EVSC subordinates, Pamela Hight and Jason Woebkenberg was arranged and held in August of 2016. In attendance as a witness to the proceedings was Hawes' mother. This video is a recording of the meeting, with some edits for "dead air," interruptions by other staff during the meeting and superfluous conversation not directly pertaining to the subject matter.
As a result of what happened in this meeting, and Hawes' unrelenting pursuit to get the public acknowledgement and credit for the artwork he drew and from which the school used and profited from for three decades, Hawes finally succeeded in his mission. The EVSC and CHS would go on the print and display two banners that detailed the history of the Central bear mascot images, and in that display, it would finally acknowledge Hawes' artistic work as his own.
#centralhighschool #centralhigh #evansvillecentral #evansvillecentralhigh #evansvillecentarlhighschool #matthawes #art #artwork #copyright #credits #centralbear #bears #centralbears #centralhighbear #frankmiller #batman #bobkane #monalisa #andywarhol #drawing #drawings #legalrights #mascot
In 1987, Evansville, Indiana Central High School student and artist Matthew Hawes was approached by a teacher at the school to create a drawing to be based on a large painted mural located in the school's gymnasium. Hawes was informed this was for some sort of contest regarding the school mascot. He complied and made the drawing, handed the original artwork over to the teacher, and didn't hear back about the status of the contest or his artwork.
1989, Hawes first learned of the school using the artwork he drew as it was printed on cards sold by the school as graduation invites. From that point onward, the bear image was used on various items used to promote the school, its sports, and the like. Hawes' bear drawing appeared on t-shirts, jerseys, posters, vanity license plates, banners, ads, in news articles, on calendars, on student ID cards, and a street sign facing the street leading to the school.
Hawes did not approach the school during for a time, feeling it would likely not result in anything coming from it, as schools typically have exploited the intellectual properties of its students with free reign and abandon, perhaps since the beginning of such institutions. But he wondered if the school at least acknowledged his contribution it had continued to profit from so regularly. The image Hawes drew had become the predominant image representing the school.
In 2012, on Facebook, a former Central High student who was aware of Hawes' art being utilized by the school, and how Hawes had never received public credit from the school for said work, poste a comment about how regretful the situation was. A former teacher and Facebook friend of Hawes who was also on Facebook saw the comment and inquired about the matter. Once Hawes relayed his story, this teacher approached Central about the subject only to claim to him that Hawes' art was not what was being used. This was demonstrably false.
Hawes would then go onto write the school and the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation, the school administration, to challenge that assertion. EVSC director of staff, Paul Neiding wrote back Hawes with a letter that claimed they had conducted an investigation that revealed that Hawes had contributed to the "overall design," but denied that it was his actual artwork being used by the school. Hawes wrote back to ask, then, what was his "contribution," as the only thing he "contributed" was the artwork, itself. Which would mean, naturally, that the drawing being used by the school was Hawes' artwork.
Hawes would not get too much further for a couple of years, and the situation seemed likely to remain unsettled. Unfortunately, the teacher that approached Hawes to draw the bear in the first place back in 1987 had passed away in the mid-1990s, so he couldn't verify what Hawes had told anyone. But, in 2016, Hawes came across more substantial evidence to prove his case and got back in contact with Neiding and the EVSC.
A meeting at the EVSC building with Matthew Hawes, Paul Neidig, and his EVSC subordinates, Pamela Hight and Jason Woebkenberg was arranged and held in August of 2016. In attendance as a witness to the proceedings was Hawes' mother. This video is a recording of the meeting, with some edits for "dead air," interruptions by other staff during the meeting and superfluous conversation not directly pertaining to the subject matter.
As a result of what happened in this meeting, and Hawes' unrelenting pursuit to get the public acknowledgement and credit for the artwork he drew and from which the school used and profited from for three decades, Hawes finally succeeded in his mission. The EVSC and CHS would go on the print and display two banners that detailed the history of the Central bear mascot images, and in that display, it would finally acknowledge Hawes' artistic work as his own.
