Public Art on Campus Expands with New Student Work

Four colorful panels take flight across the entrance of Wean Hall's concrete walls, the latest permanent public artwork to come to Carnegie Mellon University's campus after more than a yearlong process by the Undergraduate Student Senate(opens in new window) and Graduate Student Assembly(opens in new window).

"Four Birds," created by School of Art(opens in new window) sophomore Bella Alt, depicts four species commonly found around Pittsburgh — a cardinal, blue heron, hummingbird, and robin. 

“I wanted to create a piece that would have some meaning to everyone,” said Alt. “The one thing we all have in common is where we go to college, Pittsburgh, our new home for however long we are here.” 

Alt saw another symbolic meaning in the shared journeys of both birds and students.

“We all travel to Pittsburgh before school, then we go our separate ways, but then we all come back, and birds do that too.”

Anthony Cheng, GSA Vice President of Campus Affairs(opens in new window) and a fourth-year Ph.D. student in engineering and public policy(opens in new window), saw the initiative as an important step in showcasing more forms of student self-expression. “There wasn’t enough student-made art in public spaces on campus,” he said. “We wanted to change that by creating an initiative to support student artists and improve the campus environment.”

For Alt, a Chicago native who is blue-yellow colorblind, working in saturated palettes was a fun personal challenge to explore. 

“It doesn’t really impact my day-to-day life, but seeing certain colors apart is difficult, any colors that are somewhat close in shade are a little challenging,” she said. “So I wanted to create a piece where the shadows and the highlights were very vibrant.” 

After mocking up the piece in Procreate, Alt scaled it in Photoshop for printing, spending more than 30 hours perfecting each panel, which were then transferred to large acrylic sheets by a local Pittsburgh printer.

Alt was a first-year art student when the campus-wide call for submissions went out in September 2023, inviting students to propose pieces for various public spaces. Wean Hall, the only indoor site among the five proposed, offered a central location and an ideal backdrop. The student committee selected "Four Birds" from among 37 submissions for how it would enliven architect Dahlen Ritchey’s Brutalist design. 

“The building is very gray and blocky, so the mural provides a contrasting spontaneity to the place, making it a lot more colorful,” said Cheng. Installed in August 2024, the piece officially debuted in September at a reception for the students, faculty and staff involved in the project.

“It’s a little surreal,” Alt said of seeing the piece in its permanent home. “I’ve found myself going to Wean just to look at it. There have been times when people have been talking about it, which is an awesome experience.”