What started as a pre-covid SGA initiative has transformed into a yearlong campus-wide project meant to represent Stevens in an artistic style. During Spring Break, student artists across campus were hard at work and began their murals on the bleachers overlooking the DeBaun Athletic Field.
The idea of murals covering the concrete slabs on the bleachers was first introduced by Elina Tuder, a previous Senator of the Student Government Association (SGA), and was spearheaded by Anthony Tesori. On October 10, 2019, by the SGA. The project was later approved by “several administrators, including Sara Klein, Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs, and Bob Maffia, Vice President of Facilities and Campus Operations,” who later proposed the murals to President Farvardin and his cabinet. Later in March of 2020, prior to the start of COVID-19 lockdowns, a “DuckLink application [was] opened for students to submit their ideas for painting the sides of the stairs.”
The freshly painted mural on the north bleachers was worked on by a team of volunteers across numerous organizations including the Student Government Association, Art Installations Club, Theta Phi Alpha, Alpha Phi Omega, Gear & Triangle, Stevens Dramatic Society, and Tau Beta Pi. With the mural committee project leads— Amanda Schmitt, Christine Huang, Aleese Mukhamedjanova, Zuting Chen, and Yuri Anantasub—directing over 50 volunteers and contributors, the mural was finally finished on Wednesday, March 23. The initial plan was for volunteers to paint from March 18 to March 20 and have the mural completed before students returned from Spring break, however, due to weather concerns and a temporary shortage of volunteers, the mural took an additional three days to complete.
Mural designer Mukhamedjanova described the mural to have “four sections on the main part of the staircase that each represent a school or college within the institute.” This included many key campus landmarks including Morton, Babbio, and the Gateway buildings as well as some notable Hoboken landmarks such as the New York City skyline and the Hudson River. Nothing like this has ever been done on campus before and took an incredible effort from a passionate team of volunteers. Mukhamedjanova noted, “This couldn’t have been done without our wonderful volunteers! Our thanks go out to each and every one of them.”
The scaffolding around the murals will be taken town Monday, March 28. Be sure to check out the mural on the north bleachers, it’s here to stay!
Be First to Comment