TCU senior Caya Crum turned a FIFA World Cup soccer ball into a bold Sundance Square tribute to Fort Worth’s cowboy culture and creative grit.
TCU artist Caya Crum is taking Fort Worth culture global, one oversized soccer ball at a time.
The Texas Christian University senior and studio art student was selected for a FIFA World Cup-themed public art display in Sundance Square, where massive soccer balls are being transformed into local storytelling pieces ahead of soccer’s biggest international spotlight.
Crum’s contribution doesn’t try to play it safe. It leans hard into Cowtown attitude, Texas mythology and the strange, stylish edge that makes Fort Worth feel unlike anywhere else.
Her piece, titled “Welcome to Cowtown,” turns the soccer ball into a hand-painted mashup of western grit and playful weirdness.
Think smoking cowboys, cats, horses, desert imagery and decorative chinoiserie-inspired patterns. It’s not a postcard version of Fort Worth. It’s louder, stranger and more alive than that.
That’s what makes it work.
Crum didn’t just slap a Western theme on a FIFA display and call it a day.
She built the concept from the same visual world she’s been developing in her own studio practice.
Before paint ever touched the final surface, she worked through digital mockups, tested ideas and shaped the design into something that could hold up in a public space.
Then came the hand-sketching, painting and protective coating needed to make the piece ready for thousands of visitors downtown.
For Crum, the real payoff came when the ball left the studio and landed in Sundance Square.
Art changes when people can walk around it, talk about it and react in real time. Instead of living on a wall or inside a classroom, her work is now part of the city’s public conversation.
That matters even more with FIFA-related events bringing new eyes to North Texas.
For some visitors, Sundance Square may be their first real taste of Fort Worth. Crum’s soccer ball gives them something better than a basic tourist brochure. It gives them personality.
It also gives TCU another creative win beyond campus.
Crum previously created artwork for TCU’s 2024 Homecoming celebration, but this project pushes her work into a bigger arena.
The World Cup connection gives the installation international energy, while the subject matter keeps it rooted in Fort Worth dust, swagger and folklore.
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