Celebrating Scholarship and Creativity Day (2018-)

Document Type

Artwork

Publication Date

5-3-2022

Advisor

Bruce Campbell, Rachel Melis

Abstract

In fall 2021, students enrolled in LLAS 270 with professor Bruce Campbell (Latino/Latin American Studies) undertook a mural design process in collaboration with the Multicultural Center, with the goal of creating a mural on the theme of Inclusion/Radical Hospitality. Students attended events in the LLAS events series on the related theme of Race and Climate Change, learned about community-based mural art, toured community murals in south Minneapolis, and developed strategies for engaging the broader CSB/SJU community in conversations about how to create and sustain inclusive community. Student teams conducted online surveys, interviewed students and staff at the Multicultural Center, and organized a participatory public art event as part of a climate action gala on campus.

At the end of the semester, students gathered their community inputs (survey and interview responses, and community-sourced images) and brainstormed ideas for a mural design based on community feedback. The result was a two-part concept, put into practice in spring 2022:

•First, student artists – supervised by faculty members Bruce Campbell (LLAS) and Rachel Melis (Art) – would design and paint five trompe l'oeil windows, each one opening onto an imagined dimension of a radically inclusive shared world. (From left to right: sunflower and the bonds of friendship; Mother Nature as common home; open mind and community; justice as equal growth and development for all; and the world as collective gift.)

•Second, the broader CSB/SJU community would be invited to graffiti and doodle the wall space around the artist-rendered "windows," crowd-sourcing that part of the mural in response to a prompt about how to envision and practice inclusion.

Window in the photo was designed and painted depicting Mother Nature.

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