Miss Othmar School for Teachers: Turner Middle School

2026 On view

Turner Middle School

DetailsDecommissioned parachute, re-established 40-foot flagpole

Address 2615 Billups Ave
St. Louis, MO

Site Description

Accessibility: The artworks are located in multiple outdoor locations surrounding Tandy Park and are accessible from sunrise to sunset. Artworks are viewable from sidewalks.

Artwork Details

Timmy Simonds is a New York City–based artist whose work moves between sculpture, performance, writing, and teaching. For Counterpublic, Simonds continues an ongoing work, Miss Othmar School for Teachers, an imagined school without students that asks the question: What is teaching beyond the transfer of informational knowledge, as an embodied activity? The project centers on Sumner High School and its lesser-known role as the birthplace of Sumner Teachers College, later Harriet Beecher Stowe Teachers College—the first Black teachers college west of the Mississippi River. A series of wind-activated flag sculptures is installed outside the historic schools to tell the story of a shared educational history. Each flag is shaped like pants and references the historic school colors.

The flags are installed across several connected sites. Locations include Sumner High School (Normal Department and Sumner Teachers College, 1890–1929), Simmons Elementary School (Stowe’s laboratory school, 1929–1940), Turner Middle School (the purpose-built Stowe Teachers College, 1940–1954), and Harris–Stowe State University.

This project is additionally supported by Ian Harris, Noah Robbins, and Alexander Clark.

01 Timmy Simonds