Josef Albers, one of the most influential abstract painters of the 20th century, is best known for his contribution to art education. A prominent teacher in the Bauhaus movement and Black Mountain College community, his research on color theory provided a cornerstone that Foundations programs have been teaching for over a century. He experimented with shapes and colors, noticing how their placement and the contrast of hue and intensity could change how the eyes perceived. Senior Lecturer Neill Prewitt referenced Alber’s philosophy when discussing the public project his Foundations class completed on campus in fall 2024. “Albers was known for saying he wanted to open people’s eyes,” Prewitt shared. “ He wanted to help them to see things that they see all the time but to see them anew. I hope this project can do that for our students.”
Georgia State University has a new and vibrant mural on campus just south of the library Greenspace. The mural, created by 126 Ernest G. Welch Art & Design students, is a collaborative effort across seven sections of the Foundations course, Two-Dimensional Design. The mark of each artist is visible in the eye-catching, abstract work, which features strips of color and pattern mounted together like a patchwork quilt. The work was commissioned by the University along the GSU Blue Line as part of its new “placemaking” initiative.
Prewitt conceived of this project—an extension of a Foundations assignment he’s been teaching for a couple of years—but this is the first time it has been realized into public art. The Foundations program in the School of Art & Design is a critical first step in the BFA/BA Studio degrees. The core pre-requisite classes ground students in fundamental concepts of drawing, research, and two and three-dimensional design (mark-making methods, color theory, shape, perspective, etc.) that will be essential to their studio work in the future. When first-year art students join the University, they try to find their place on campus and within the department. They haven’t chosen their concentrations yet, and Foundations courses serve as that gateway.
Prewitt, who has been Foundations Coordinator since 2019, has been focused on the concept of “placemaking” as a program objective for a few years now because “placemaking allows these students to feel like they belong in this new creative community.” He wanted to create opportunities for students to see themselves in their campus environment. “This group experienced COVID shutdowns at a critical point in their education. We need to support them and create a sense of belonging.” This project helped students do exactly that. According to Prewitt, it was a fortunate coincidence that “placemaking” was a key concept the University established as one of its core pillars.
Prewitt shared his project concept with Art & Design Director Michael White, who saw its large-scale potential and recommended that Prewitt seek a CETLOE grant. The concepts strongly overlapped with university pillars and campus beautification priorities downtown. The project gained momentum after encouraging meetings with facilities and Renata Irving and Matt McCullin of the GSU Office of Public Relations and Marketing Communications team. It was given a prime location on the GSU Blue Line with heavy foot traffic. This mural would contribute to the new 3.7-mile marked walking path that connects the campus, creates distinctive quads, and builds a better sense of place at Georgia State.
As the Foundations Coordinator, Prewitt shared the mural project curriculum with Foundations teachers Lizzy Storm, Darya Fard, Sophie Lee, Rachel Warren, and Azin Yousefiani), and those faculty members adapted it for their classes. Certain facets of the project were set, but Prewitt encouraged faculty input and each instructor put their own spin on the process. Printmaking faculty Stephanie Kolpy and Serena Perrone offered their materials expertise.
Students across the cohort worked within a grid to create a 1-inch by 1-inch design, which they repeated in patterns. Classes mixed gouache paint and developed their patterns across color schemes: monochromatic, analogous, complementary, split complementary, and triadic. How those compositions were collaged and composed into a larger 6-foot by 2-foot design was left up to each group, resulting in playful variations. Finally, students adheres their prints to the wall themselves with wheat paste—a process with a long history in the public art scene.
The mural was a collaborative effort at every level of the execution, from faculty guidance to student production. Interdisciplinary collaboration is an essential career tool in the art scene that can provide fresh perspectives and new avenues of creativity. “When students are working by themselves on a color theory assignment, it can be exciting, but it can also be a little formulaic,” explained Prewitt. “But when you put it in a larger context and see your work next to other students’ in the classroom, you can see they took a whole other approach. That can be exciting, and that can invigorate you. But then you see it at this scale— fourteen by six feet on the wall—and it's over 100 of your peers with different approaches working together… you realize that this foundational skill that you've been honing, is actually really powerful when put in a larger context.”
Just like Josef Albers experimented with combinations of contrasting colors, students saw how placing their work alongside that of their peers could create a vibrant and cohesive masterpiece in a mural that makes their mark on a growing campus.
This Placemaking mural is the first in a series of public artworks the University plans to support. To learn more about the Foundations Placemaking project, led by Neill Prewitt, visit: