Arts students, volunteers and staff from Augusta University excitedly presented a brand new mural in Downtown Augusta on the corner of Reynolds and 11th Street.
After months of planning, collaborating and painting, Augusta University’s Art and Design Department proudly unveiled the 151 inches high and 660 inches wide mural with hopes of making the community a little more colorful.
As the mural is positioned directly across the street from AU’s partner, the Georgia Cyber Innovation and Training Center, Russell Keen, executive vice president for administration and chief of staff for AU President Brooks Keel, believes the piece will make community members proud of their university and its growing efforts.
“This mural represents how far we’ve come in terms of community engagement as a university – how we’ve embraced the community and how it’s embraced us,” Keen said. “It shows how we can work together to beautify downtown and make it more appealing for everybody.”
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In this “mutually beneficial” partnership, Keen said implementing the mural not only gave the city a new piece of unique art, but also allotted art students the opportunity to gain real-world experience.
“It lets them experience how they might do something like this in the future,” he said.
AU Brand Strategist Alison Rohdy, who largely worked on the mural, said the goal of painting a large brick wall in the downtown area came from a desire to spread more awareness of the city’s and university’s close connection as both continued to expand.
“The initial idea came from the fact that we live and work in Augusta, and the university is such a big part of the city, so we wanted to tie these two together somehow,” Rohdy said. “We wanted to make it something for everyone, and it was really special to be a part of it.”
With the help of 43 faculty, students and staff, project leader and AU art lecturer Cyndy Epps said she and many others were elated to finally see the enormous mural completed.
“It’s exciting to see it finished. It’s always exciting to see a mural finished because you work and strive, and you have that vision in your head for when it’s finished,” Epps said. “It’s also great to see the response of people too.”
From having non-art majors to getting passersby involved in painting the mural as well, Epps allowed anyone to pick up a brush and add some strokes to the piece to increase local-involvement.
“I have seen firsthand how art like this can bring the community together,” she said. “You get people working on this from all walks of life and all genders, diversities, socio-economic classes, and they love it and are thankful for it.”
As students and AU personnel took turns taking photos in front of the newly painted wall, Epps and other contributors said they felt immense satisfaction in locals’ enthusiasm for the vibrant design.
“I love the opportunity to actually get students working on a project like this because it builds their confidence,” she said. “They go from working on things that are assignment driven to actually working on something that they can drive past or bring their friends out to see.”
As Augusta’s art community continues to grow, Epps said more opportunities to paint murals have also arisen, which she hopes will give her students the chance to apply their fresh experience and newfound confidence by taking on jobs as individuals.
For graphic design major Emily Radulescu designing approximately 75% of the mural and helping paint it was a valuable first-time experience and she loved seeing the gradual progress.
“It was interesting to work with an actual client for something on a real wall to become something. Most of the stuff that we do doesn’t make it outside of class, so this was exciting,” she said. “We’re kind of in our own little world, and this lets us reach outside of that.”
Inspired by vintage postcards, Radulescu said the design incorporated several university references and CSRA elements, such as flowers to represent Augusta being known as a “garden city.”
“I think it looks gorgeous and it was exciting,” she said.
