Painting the campus: How alumni and artists empower campus through their art

Highlighting two student-led mural projects across the Barnard campus: what they represent, how they were made, and the messages surrounding campus identity and alumni appreciation.

Photo by Vernon Demir/The Barnard Bulletin

By Aya Yamauchi

February 25, 2026

A crowd marches down Broadway. Two figures stand with conviction surrounded by blooming flowers. The 1 train snakes across the canvas, flying above the dazzling New York skyline. These are not imaginations but descriptions of artwork across Barnard’s campus. Barnard College is full of art installations that hold a variety of histories and backgrounds. Yet, rarely do we take the time to contemplate and appreciate the artists behind them — especially Barnard alumni. In this article, we do a deep dive, highlighting two artworks that have expressed on our walls what it means to be an artist and honor Barnard students. 

“Activism can be about the journey…” at Hewitt Dining Hall

Photo by Vernon Demir/The Barnard Bulletin

It is a busy Wednesday night dinner at Hewitt Dining Hall. The chairs are filling up with students hungry for a nice, hot meal. The high-ceiling room echoes with laughter and conversation, while televisions blast outdated variety shows on repeat. If you are a student like me who enjoys peace and quiet during your meals, the packed dining hall certainly feels overwhelming. 

However, there is one place that you can rest your eyes and be entertained without looking at the bright television screens: a mural on the left corner of the entryway wall. The first thing you notice is the scale. It covers the entirety of the surface. 

The mural features the Diana Center, buildings at Columbia University, and a crowd of students marching down Broadway holding up signs. The crowd is anonymous, making us wonder who they are and what they are marching for. There is a diverse cultural representation of people, evoking a sense of activism that is inclusive and open. 

The story behind this mural can be traced back to 2014, when student Angela Myers (BC ’18), submitted a proposal for the mural for Barnard’s Student Government Association Endowment Grants, which funded student-led projects aimed to foster student engagement. Myers pointed out that there was a lack of character in Hewitt Dining Hall. By implementing the mural, it would help the campus look livelier and also encourage involvement. The grant resulted in $1,500 of financial support to purchase art supplies.

The colorful backdrop of the activists contributes to a lively campus. The mural promotes a sense of community in which students are involved in improving the school. It serves as a reminder of Barnard’s commitment to nurturing students who are bold and ambitious. 

The artwork also conserves the legacy of past alumni. The marching crowd holds up signs communicating a bold message: “Activism can be about the journey, rather than the arrival,” words by alumna Grace Lee Boggs (BC ’35). Grace Lee Boggs was a Detroit-based Asian American activist who advocated for the Black Power movement and the feminist movement. She grew up in New York and majored in philosophy at Barnard, later obtaining her Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr College. 

Her quote about activism as a process parallels the ongoing efforts to organize anti-immigration control and divestment protests amid restrictions from Barnard’s administration. Thus, the mural provides a chance for students to reflect on the legacy of Barnard students challenging and changing systemic injustice.

The Diana Center Mural

Photo by Vernon Demir/The Barnard Bulletin

On the third floor of the Diana Center, a wall is decorated in a whimsical scene. Over a vivid blue backdrop, silhouettes of twirling ballerinas and dancers make their way underneath a moving one-way train, the subway tracks gradually transforming into strings of yarn knitted by a student. Iconic museums like the Guggenheim and the Metropolitan Museum and Barnard buildings also adorn the wall. Started as an open commission by the Barnard Student Government Association’s former Arts and Culture Committee, the mural was created collaboratively by four Barnard artists: Sasha Brenman (BC ’16), Asia Cunningham (BC ’17), Rachael Dottle (BC ’16), and Joanne Raptis (BC ’16).

Rachael Dottle described how “it was quite a challenging thing to not just stick to your idea but to combine it with other people’s and collaborate in that way.” She discussed how, because there were four artists working simultaneously on the mural, a lot of time was invested into reconciling with and combining different styles of the student artists. 

Similar to the Hewitt Dining Hall mural, the Diana Center mural required communication and relationship-building with people beyond the artists themselves. The mural involved Barnard’s administrative staff, such as the Associate Dean of the College and Head of Campus Life. Dottle reflects on the process of getting approval from multiple staff as a challenge that the creative arts face in general: “It is an interesting case study of how projects move forward — nothing is just a straight easy process especially when it’s creative and art.” In the end, contributing to the mural allowed her to learn what it means to be involved in collaborative work.

Both murals are reminders of how Barnard students have always been and continue to be actively involved in meaningful art making. In both cases, the pieces showcase fundamental values of Barnard students: they are skilled in performance arts, they can sing and present poems that inspire audiences, and they resist systemic oppression. Students have transformed these values into permanent images on an architectural canvas that continues to be present on campus. 

Student art sits alongside many other commissioned artworks, including two portraits in front of Access Barnard — painted by Kehinde Wiley, the first African American artist to create a presidential portrait for former President Barack Obama — and the rotating exhibitions in the  Milstein Library lobby. Yet, it is those Barnard muralists who uniquely used the medium of public art to actively engage our relationship with Barnard alumni. Mural art, when led by students for the student community, paves way for creative expression highlighting the artistic and bold nature of our unique campus.