Two notable student-led art projects were installed on campus during the previous academic year.
Students from the Show Me Public Art class partnered with the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) on a project that ties art to nature and students to the community. For the last several years, Yvette Amerman, resource forester with MDC, has been assisting Truman with the revamping of the small rain garden on the corner of Franklin and Patterson streets. While looking for ways to highlight the importance of water retention and filtration, she came up with the idea of having students create large sculptures of native Missouri animals that may utilize a rain garden.
Amerman reached out to Danielle Yakle, assistant professor of art, to see if students in the Show Me Public Art class would be interested in creating mosaic sculptures that would be placed in the existing rain garden. Amerman visited the classroom to discuss dozens of Missouri native animals and the opportunities/abilities to create such sculptures.
The class split up into groups and created five different sculptures including a tiger salamander, a snapping turtle and three types of frogs – a leopard frog, a bull frog and a crawfish frog. Each sculpture has a plaque with the animal’s name and a QR code next to it. By scanning the code, visitors may find out more about the species and its natural environment.
On the other side of campus, students in Printmaking courses participated in a wheat-pasting project on Ophelia Parrish depicting fauna that is native to Missouri, as well as elements that relate to the food chain of the depicted creatures.
In this style, paper artwork is installed on a surface with a liquid adhesive made from wheat flour and water. Because it is versatile and temporary, the practice used to be a popular way to display posters and other public signage.
Laura Naioti, associate professor of art, had her students experiment with wheat-pasting after using it herself on a smaller scale in some spots around Kirksville. The wheat-paste art on Ophelia Parrish was installed in mid-October.
