Temporary Mural Project - Smith College KMH Hall

The Wurtele Center for Leadership and Lazarus Center for Career Development announce a co-sponsored search for an artist to create a temporary mural for the main stairwell of Kathleen McCartney Hall, a new campus building for the Wurtele and Lazarus Centers. Thematically, the mural will explore the future(s) of work and leadership, framed within the context of Smith College’s history as a women’s college with a mission to develop “engaged global citizens and leaders to address society’s challenges.” We seek to commission an artist whose work will inspire the Smith community to think critically and expansively about leadership and careers/work, and who will incorporate inclusive practices in the project.

The artist must be willing to work in collaboration with key stakeholders in the Smith community, including students, staff, faculty, and alums. We encourage applications from local and regional artists (within 3-4 hours ground travel). As part of the commission, the artist will engage 2–3 Smith students in collaborative partnership via an internship during the summer or fall semester of 2025. The mural — preferably developed off-site and digitally printed on a wallcovering substrate — will be installed for 4–5 years after which point we plan to commission a new mural in order to engage a future group of students in this creative process.

PROJECT GOALS:

• Design and install a mural to help create a visually vibrant environment in McCartney Hall that inspires students to feel a sense of belonging and curiosity as they explore their futures
• Provide a small cohort of Smith College students with hands-on experience with the practice of producing collaborative, community-engaged public mural art

STUDENT PARTNERSHIP:

Central to this project is the meaningful engagement of 2–3 currently enrolled Smith students. This will either take the form of an internship during the summer of 2025 or over the fall 2025 semester. In either case, students will each work for a total of 70-80 hours. If employed during the fall semester, they will each be expected to engage for 5 hours per week through the semester. If employed during the summer of 2025, the timeframe for the internship can be flexible and might be more intensively concentrated. We recognize that student involvement may manifest in different ways depending upon the artist’s studio practice and the nature of the proposal. Student interns should be engaged in assisting in the development of this mural project, but may also secondarily be engaged in supporting the artist’s additional projects. Possible ways an artist could engage the team of students include but are not limited to:

• Conduct site analysis
• Engage with key stakeholders and publics
• Serve as research partners (potentially accessing archival and other resources at Smith)
• Participate in design process
• Navigate feedback from key stakeholders
• Assist with review, production, or installation
  
  

Artist honorarium: $20,000.

For more information, including application details and instructions, please see the full Request for Qualifications (attached, and available at https://bit.ly/Smith_KMH_Mural)