NEW MURAL RECRUITS STUDENTS AND COMMUNITY TO PARTICIPATE IN ‘DIVERSITY’

MELANIE SLOCUM
PRIDE STAFF WRITER

The Student Arts Association is working with the Visual & Performing Arts (VPA) 181 class to plan, propose and paint a mural at the University Village Apartments on campus.

CSUSM recently created VPA 181, a class dedicated to learning the process involved with the conceptualization, collaboration and creation of a large-scale mural.

For this project, students, artist and CSUSM professor Doris Bittar and artist Isaias Crow work to develop a work of art for the UVA. Crow pursues to mesh his unique artistic qualities with civic engagement programs to bring communities together through art.

To ensure community inclusion, the artists invited members of the surrounding San Marcos community to participate in the project and work alongside CSUSM students and faculty to represent the aspects of diversity that make up CSUSM’s community.

The mural is still in its early planning stages. Students, faculty and community members search to pinpoint what it means to be a member of the CSUSM community.

“We want to represent us students, you know, really capture the heart of Cal State San Marcos, and we’re still searching to find out exactly what that means,” CSUSM student participant Brittany Galante said.

To answer that question, Galante and other project members set off to interview students from all corners of campus, invoking questions about what it means to be a member of the CSUSM community and what makes CSUSM so unique. The CSUSM community offered words such as “diversity,” “inspiration” and “passion.” These words serve as a sneak peak into what the mural will convey.

The project leaders divided members of the project into groups, where each group proposed ideas for the mural. Then, each group presented their ideas to the rest of the project members and leaders.

Now, Crow and Professor Bittar can amalgamate ideas from each group into one cohesive mural design. The conceptualizing process of the mural represents the community because it aims to portray multiple groups of people and ideas that aim to unite and improve our campus.

The mural’s location will be inside the lobby of the UVA. Since the project’s leaders and members want an accurate account of CSUSM student life, they plan to take a careful amount of time to propose their vision. Participants’ actual painting of the mural is set to start later this semester. Soon, the mural will greet CSUSM students and residents with an aim to make them feel even more accepted and included in the CSUSM community.