The Peters building has freshened up it look with a new mural right beside the welcome centre to brighten up the newly renovated space.
Stephanie Scott, an artist based out of Waterloo region who has painted for various spaces like ApplyBoard, Hustle + Flow, Shopify and Communitech and combines her education in fine arts and graphic design to create designs that integrate technology with art and was the artist behind the new mural inside the space.
“The idea for the mural has been in people’s mind since the move from all of our student services being across campus to a central location to bring us together, the welcome centre being the natural place for it because it is the most visible lace in the Peters building besides Service Laurier,” said Karli Imhoff Malcher, welcome centre & events coordinator for the Waterloo campus.
“We received funding from the Student Life Levy and the amount we received in that funding led us to be able to look at some artists in the area,” Imhoff Malcher said.
“It was a joint effort between recruitment and admissions who applied for the levy as well as CPAM to make sure we had all the proper messaging in it.”
The Peters building underwent renovations starting in 2017 that ended in 2018, moving many student services into the building like the Welcome Centre and Service Laurier, as well as the Arts Undergraduate Society office among others.
“As part of the Student Life Levy we had to solicit student feedback as part of it, so earlier this summer we came up with the “Stay Golden” part of the mural,” Imhoff Malcher said.
“It’s sort of an unofficial branding of the institution that people use all the time, taking that idea knowing that we needed students input we surveyed them.”
“They came up with this beautiful list of things of what “Stay Golden” meant to them, a lot of those images were incorporated into the mural, there are a lot of Easter eggs in the mural that came right from the students’ feedback,” Imhoff Malcher said.
The modernized building has many modern architectural features, but the white modern walls left the perfect opportunity for a visual representation of how students feel being on campus.
“Stephanie went on a tour of the campus with some of our ambassadors ver the summer to egt her immersed in student life at Laurier.”
“We had her taken around and she said she was so overwhelmed from the energy and enthusiasm of the people who took her around she able to articulate it in the mural,” Imhoff Malcher said.
“The feedback has been so great from the mural that people are saying that it would be great to have one in front of Frank’s or other spaces, I know the blank walls are turning into canvases in front of people’s eyes in the Peters building.”
During the first weeks of school, many new students will be drawn to the new artwork as they become accustomed to Laurier life and will be making visits to Service Laurier and the Welcome Centre.
“The welcome center is not just for new and prospective students, we’re here to service everybody, we were hoping that would be a space to gravitate to when they graduate at convocation to take a picture with or who come back for homecoming to take pictures in front of as well,” Imhoff Malcher said.
