Progress is being made on a project that will brighten up Tufts' Dewick-MacPhie dining hall.
Dining Services is currently working with the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate to create a photo mural for the large blank wall behind the dining hall's performance stage.
"The mural will consist of photographs taken by Tufts students of Tufts students depicting all aspects of life on campus," Director of Dining Services Patricia Lee Klos said.
The design, which will incorporate 40 enlarged photographs, will serve as a backdrop for performances on the stage and a focal point during regular dining hours. The original idea to place art on that wall was proposed in 2003 by Alison Clarke (LA '03), then a TCU Senate Services Committee member.
Inspired by a project she had seen at Wright State College, Klos proposed the idea of a photo mural comprised of student photography - an idea that the committee liked and elected to enact.
Progress has been stalled a number of times throughout the process, however.
In an announcement on the Tuftslife.com Web site last year, junior and former TCU senator Kelley Ferro advertised the need for photographs for the mural. Ferro and senior Jeffrey Katzin, current TCU President, sifted through the student-submitted photographs and chose 20 of the best.
"We wanted mostly group pictures, people interacting, student groups, athletics, campus activities," Katzin said. "We wanted to display a variety of students doing different things and interacting on campus."
The photos were then submitted to Visual Graphics, a design company in New York City that had been chosen to create a design for the mural.
According to TCU Senate Historian Ed Kalafarski, a senior, the mural was supposed to be completed over the summer, but the designer needed more photographs to complete the mural design.
Katzin then put together a second batch of 20 photographs to augment the previous selection.
Rumors have been flying that the project will be finished over spring break, but Klos said it was uncertain when the design would actually be ready.
"Now it's in the hands of the designer," Kalafarski said.
According to Kalafarski, Klos' ability to secure funds for the project in the Dining Services budget will also be a factor: The project is expected to cost between $5,000 and $20,000.
Kalafarski was impressed by preview of what the mural might look like. He described a Board of Trustees meeting in February in which a large image of Ballou Hall was projected onto the wall as a backdrop.
"Clearly, putting some kind of picture on that wall is going to look good," he said.
So far there have been no specific plans to redecorate the other dining facilities on campus. Carmichael Dining Hall underwent several changes recently, including a complete retiling of the floor last summer and the addition of 100 chairs this past winter
break.
"Carmichael is also not being considered at this time because of its interior layout," Klos said. "There is less wall space, and it is much less noticeable because of the low ceilings and the columns that draw your eye away from the actual walls."
