The Unity Mural “Towards a Legacy,” located on the Design Building, has started a legacy of its own.

The mural, designed by Kerry Ann Callaghan, junior in art and design, and David Miller, senior in architecture, is only a temporary feature on campus. The plan is to replace it with new mural design every three years, said Dean Morton, university architect for facilities planning and management.

“After three years, the paint starts to fade or it needs extensive restoration,” Morton said.

“A new competition should keep the spirit going and hopefully it will continue to be student-instigated.”

Morton said the theme would probably be different at each competition.

The competition this year was initiated by Tony Borich, president of the Design Council and ex-officio student member of the Ames City Council.

“We wanted a project that students could get involved in and that the Government of the Student Body could sponsor,” he said. “Prior to this, at least from what I have learned, students hadn’t contributed much to public art on campus; it has been mostly professionals or faculty.”

The Unity Mural theme ties into the one community ideal, Borich said.

“This is public art that highlights the connection between the university and the community,” he said.

“It’s really challenging to depict that visually and this design does that great and fits in well with the context of the Design Building and highlighting the architecture.”

Morton said they tried to treat this competition as a professional job.

“This is probably not the first work of art done by students on campus but it is the first done in a professional manner. We tried to do this as close to the way it would be done with an outside artist because it gives them experience with the way it works when designing for the public.”

A committee was formed to come up with a timeline, criteria for the competition, advertising and to judge the entries.

“We looked at the quality of the art and the idea and how well it expressed the theme of unity,” Morton said. “These kind of things are always tough to judge — you usually end up with at least two to three entries that are eligible and of really good quality. It came down to which one fit the theme the best.”

Morton added they reserved the right to refuse to display the project publicly if none of the projects were good enough to paint.

The committee also considered the teams’ capabilities to ensure it could handle a project of this scale.

Callaghan and Miller personally chose the team.

“All the students involved have taken painting classes,” she said. “We chose people with the right experiences, attitude and dedication.”

Callaghan said it took about a month to design the mural and they talked to Ames Mayor Ted Tedesco, Ames residents, business owners, students and several college deans to take into account all opinions.

“We personally asked most of them what they thought about the interaction between the city and the university,” Callaghan said.

Borich said while the student artists were paid an hourly wage for their work, the faculty oversaw the project for free.

“The artists got paid an hourly wage because basically it was their summer job,” he said. “They gave up opportunities to be employed elsewhere.”

The budget for the project was originally $10,000, but Borich raised $16,500 from the Government of the Student Body, Vice President of Student Affairs Tom Hill, the College of Design and the Design Council. Any future murals would not be as expensive because the structure is already in place, the panels would just be repainted, he said.

“The City didn’t fund any of it, but we didn’t ask,” Morton said. “It was a university project.”