Editor’s Note: Today’s guest post is from Matthew Kemp, the Writing Student Services Coordinator at the Learning Center at Auburn University at Montgomery, sharing how they teamed up with student artists to create murals in their tutoring space.
A communal coffee pot (or perhaps a Keurig), grammar textbooks, computers, loose leaf paper: things you’ll probably find in writing centers from Texas to Toronto and beyond. Recently in the WCENTER listserv, a question arose regarding ways a new director could decorate his/her center. Of course, there are many ways to answer this question, and many answers were offered: posters, chairs, rugs, paintings, local newspaper articles. However, the suggestion that struck a chord with me was student art. You see, my multidisciplinary center has three large murals painted on our walls, and all of them were designed by students for a Typography course. My center uses these murals as ways to brand ourselves on campus. They represent our mission as well as our values to students, and we absolutely adore them.
So how did my center come to have these large murals? I can tell you with certainty, it wasn’t originally our plan! A few years ago, my center relocated from a small room in the nursing building to the second floor of our library tower. We filled our new space with the typical items from above. It wasn’t unlike many other centers across the world: computers, funny memes pinned to the walls, pencils, and scratch paper. The idea of murals never entered our minds. That is, until we saw our student phone operator, a graphic design major, working on some homework for her Typography course. The assignment asked students to sketch and alter letters and numbers. As our center is a multidisciplinary office, the sketches of various letters and numbers seemed to be a perfect way to illustrate what we did. We asked if she thought her class could do a mural in the same vein as her homework. She was delighted at the prospect! So our director contacted the Typography professor and told her our idea.
The professor immediately agreed. She thought it would give her students not only good experience working with clients but also pride in seeing their work become a part of campus. Our office agreed to buy any materials needed, and she agreed her students would paint it. Campus administration had previously told us we could decorate the space as we pleased, so we didn’t even have to fill out forms or requests (this may not be the case at every university; check in with your campus administration about regulations). As our walls were gray, we asked the students to design a black mural. It also needed to incorporate elements of both numbers and text that represented our services. To get a feel for our attitude and work, we linked the students to our campus website and gave them a copy of our mission statement.
The class worked for a few weeks designing concepts for the mural. The design was narrowed down to two options; however, the class couldn’t decide which they liked better. One was more text-centered, and the other was more number-centered. After seeing and loving each design, we told the class, “Why not paint both in our office!” The class gave us a list of materials to purchase, which was no more than a few brushes, paint, tape, and tarps to cover the carpet. All said, we spent less than $50 on materials. The students came in on Friday afternoons and completed the murals in 3 weeks.
Later on, our office expanded into a second area right next door, leaving us again with a bare concrete wall, although this wall was painted a nice, bright orange (black and orange are our university colors). So again, we contacted the Typography professor and asked if her current class would be interested in creating a mural for us. She and her class enthusiastically agreed. We wanted this mural to be text-based and focus on success and motivation. We didn’t give the students any other guidelines. They created and chose a design which featured multiple quotes of varying sizes, and all parties loved it. Within no time, the class had completed the new mural on our big, orange wall.
These three murals encapsulate the work we believe we do for and with students. The two gray and black murals represent the work we do across disciplines, blending letters and numbers. The larger orange and black mural captures our desire to motivate students and see them succeed, a core value of our campus. The murals also represent the vibrant personalities of our students, their work ethic, their creativity, and their talent. The large “success mural,” as we sometimes call it, is a logo of sorts for our office. Many of our videos, whether they be promotional, for training, or for orientations, are filmed with this wall as a backdrop. It is the only large, orange wall on campus, and we love students knowing where they can find it and who they can find there.
We had never considered asking anyone in the fine arts department if they might be interested in something like this. And we may never have if it weren’t for a talented student worker doing some homework in the office. The murals have been excellent “friend-raising” opportunities (to steal a line I heard at SWCA). The fine arts professor was more than excited to give her students an opportunity to design something for campus, and the students were more than happy to create something at their school. So if you’re wondering what you can do in your center, think about your local, talented students!
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