Located near The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center is Blues Bird, made out of painted steel by D.C artist, Michele Colburn. The five-foot, musically themed bird was the result of a 2003 "Birs-I-View"" public arts campaign by Prince Georges County to increase tourism. Local artists were encouraged to create their own renditions of the Prince Georges County official bird. Colburn's Blues bird was made as part of this initiative and was put on University of Marylands campus by Patsy Mote, the wife of the University’s President at the time.