Throughout the 2021-2022 academic year, Holy Cross students within the Global Society Montserrat cluster experimented with different artistic processes and media and studied how artists use these mediums to communicate and create public works of art. Montserrat is a first-year program at the college devoted to introducing the dynamic approach to liberal arts through linking class seminars to residence hall living.
In the process of rebuilding a sense of community and normalcy after the COVID-19 pandemic, Montserrat students were encouraged to be social and contribute to a lively, intellectual, and multicultural environment that fuels personal and spiritual growth. When beginning the mural project, forming space seminar students began with ideas of connecting a sense of identity with a common place. Students collaborated on designs to form the framework of the mural.
The large outline of Massachusetts on the map was designed in order to set the location of the Holy Cross as the common, connective place. The building in the mural is meant to be Fenwick, a central, staple-piece hall at Holy Cross, marking each student’s foundation within the Holy Cross community. The sunrise behind Fenwick is meant to signify new journeys on the horizon for each first-year student and mark new beginnings in the community as a whole following the pandemic. The connections between self and community are bridged in the mural through the incorporation of multi-colored butterflies across the purple-hued map to show how students of all cultures, races, and identities flourish together in the college’s environment.
To make this mural come to life, students worked with professors in the art department to gather materials and collaborate to cut out structures and mix paint tones. Decisions on texture and cohesion of structures in the mural were central to developing the final piece. Students were separated into 4 rotating groups to complete all of the aspects of this project within 2-3 weeks.