In the carved figures of “Enlightenment,” a new mural in the courtyard of Lagomarcino Hall, the past and present collide in the mural’s design and the people involved with the project.

The mural will be dedicated at 10 a.m. Tuesday in Lagomarcino Hall’s courtyard. With its rounded, realistic depictions of human form and images of modern technology, the piece combines the style of Christian Petersen’s work with modern conventions surrounding today’s students.

The design of the mural features students studying and working around a giant map of the world. The student’s faces were based on actual students on campus, says Danielle Henke, senior in art and design and undergraduate assistant to the artist, Ingrid Lilligren.

When Walter Gmelch arrived at Iowa State in 1998 as the dean of the College of Education, he noticed there was something missing in the Lagomarcino courtyard. A vacant brick wall looked like it had once displayed something, Gmelch says.

Sure enough, Gmelch says, he found out the wall he’d seen had once held the “Veterinary Medicine” mural, a Christian Petersen work that was moved in 1976 when the veterinary college moved to its current location.

Gmelch says the vacant spot was “missing an opportunity to create a community and culture” within the courtyard. In 1999, he began working with the University Museums to find an artist to create a new mural.

A committee of faculty, staff, students and University Museums personnel was put together to decide on the artist for the mural, Gmelch says.

After receiving proposals, the committee decided on Gail Kristensen, a former arts professor at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., who not only has connections to Iowa State, but to Petersen himself.

Kristensen, an ISU student in the late 1940s, served as Petersen’s student assistant for two years. During that time, she helped Petersen on projects such as the “Library Boy and Girl” sculptures which now adorn the stair landing of Parks Library, Kristensen says.

Kristensen was shuttled back and forth from her studio in Sedona, Ariz. to Ames during about six months, consulting with the committee and making sure her vision was consistent with what the committee wanted, she says.

However, when Kristensen finally began the project in 2002, her efforts were cut short by chronic back pains.

Kristensen says even with help of students from Northern Arizona University, the project would have been too difficult to complete.

“I was very pleased when I was selected to it and very disappointed that I couldn’t finish it,” Kristensen says.

Ingrid Lilligren, associate professor of art and design, was chosen to finish the work. Lilligren, who teaches ceramics, could work with the mural’s clay medium, and having an ISU professor working with students was something Gmelch and Kristensen both say was in the spirit of Petersen’s work.

Starting in summer of 2003, Lilligren and her graduate students worked for a full year rearranging Kristensen’s design, adding personal touches and carving the image in 44 blocks of terra cotta clay at Lilligren’s studio in downtown Ames, Henke says.

Gmelch says he is pleased with the mural because of the beauty it adds to the campus and the extra feeling of culture and community it communicates.

“You can’t go through the courtyard without looking at it,” Gmelch says.