A wintertime scene on the Hewitt Quad; two figures dancing by candlelight; a dragon flying over hands of many colors—these are a few of the paintings a team of students worked on to compose a six-panel mural outside Tyler Hall.

The mural replaces a bulletin board the school deemed a safety hazard for its open staples and scrap metal, but the space has a separate controversial history as the spot where spray-painted graffiti reading “Free Palestine” caused a stir last semester.

“There had been these destructive elements being introduced to protesting,” Cynthia Clabough, art department chair, said. “[The graffiti] wasn’t always protesting in a way that invited more conversation.”

The controversy burned further after university President Peter Nwosu released a statement reading that “hate speech, or any speech that instills fear, has no place at SUNY Oswego.” The statement additionally referred to the graffiti and other messages against the Palestinian genocide as “disturbing.” Many students took the statement to allude to the message of “Free Palestine” as equal to hate speech, a notion Nwosu eventually recanted.

Project managers Danny Rafferty and Miranda Smith originally had to paint over the graffiti, though eventually the site appeared covered in black paint and washed out. Rafferty and Smith took the mural as an opportunity to counteract the negative tone on campus.

“We all had the basic theme of positivity through art,” Rafferty said. “Everyone in the project really believes that art can change the world for the better.”

The project was funded by a $1000 Scholarly and Creative Activities (SCAC) Grant, as well as a donation from the art and design department and small individual donations.

Rafferty and Smith, both graduate students interested in becoming art teachers, led six undergraduates on the project.

“We just hope it has a reminder of the good things about life,” Smith said. “Just hitting on mental health in a positive way, just reminding people that there’s good.”

“They’re not really given a lot of opportunity to do a project at that scale,” Rafferty said.

Due to the limited budget, the team could only buy so much paint that would have to be watered down. This was convenient for Smith, who wanted a watercolor look for her wintertime painting. But students who wanted a more opaque look had to tediously apply several layers of paint.

The biggest challenge, Rafferty said, was working during spouts of autumn rain.

The students each worked on a mural with a positive message of their choosing, including mental health, confidence and sustainability.

“I jumped right on it,” Clabough said.

Clabough, who considers herself a life-long “social justice artist,” believes that art has the capability to inspire social change. For Clabough, this is a crucial goal for this political climate.

“This is a really difficult time period for everybody,” she said. “It’s an election year. We have polarized politics. We have anti-this and pro-that.”

As for the mural, she said, the impact comes from the very act of organizing a mural with and stimulating conversation about a community.

“Sometimes it’s not the thing itself, it’s the action of the thing,” Clabough said.

The art department plans for an unveiling ceremony on Oct. 25, at 5 p.m. outside Tyler Hall. The ceremony will include refreshments and a time lapse of the mural’s progress.

Image by Evan Youngs