Have you ever walked around campus and felt as if it were a bit too plain? Maybe tan bricks aren’t your vibe. Do you wish Carnegie Mellon had a way to show off its myriad of talented and creative students? Well, wish no longer!
In September, the Student Senate and the Graduate Student Assembly (GSA) put out a call for public art to be installed on campus after two similar proposals advocating for the installation of student artwork on campus were approved in May 2023.
According to the proposals, this initiative hopes to bolster student artwork on campus and “provide opportunities for students to gain recognition and exposure for their artistic talents and contribute to the vibrant campus culture.”
GSA vice president of campus affairs Andrew Cheng ran on the platform of increasing public art around campus. “You want people to have a positive, engaged experience on campus,” Cheng said. “Making those spaces inviting and encouraging people to express … that sort of emotional and social element is really important.”
After reviewing the 32 submissions garnered by the call, the Senate business affairs committee, GSA campus affairs committee, university facilities and design teams, and the public art subcommittee chose a proposal titled “Four Birds” by first-year School of Art student Bella Alt. The plexiglass mural will feature four different panels of four different birds, which are all native to the PIttsburgh area.
While imaging the project, Alt wondered which birds were native to the region. “Because birds migrate throughout the year, and we migrate here, towards school, during the year,” Alt said. “That’s the one thing we all have in common.” The artwork will be installed in the fifth floor of Wean Hall across from La Prima and is slated to be complete by the end of the semester.
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