Students and the Ball State University community have the opportunity to help make a collaborative, creative mural to bring awareness to school violence.
Paint 4 Peace, a three-day event designed to encourage nonviolent conflict resolution in schools using education and art, starts today with a series of events and a community art project.
World-renowned artist Robert Guilleman, nicknamed Sidewalk Sam, will outline a 20-by-20 foot dove as part of a community art project called "Dove for Peaceful Academic Communities" at 8 a.m. in the area between Bracken Library and the University Theatre.
Painting in the dove is open to the public from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m.
There will also be discussion groups on University Green during the event.
Sidewalk Sam works to inspire creative expression as a way to answer societal problems and encourages people living with disabilities to involve themselves artistically. He has been paralyzed since 1994.
"When you think about the world today, you see conditions that need to be improved and need new solutions," Guilleman said in a press release. "All you have to do is think of these problems and then be confident that art can provide us a solution."
Lawrence Gerstein, professor of psychology and director of Ball State's Center for Peace and Conflict Studies, co-coordinated the event.
He said planning for the event began more than a year ago when President Jo Ann Gora and Provost Terry King approved the plan.
"The advisory board of the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies decided that April is a good time to do this because it's been a violent month historically on campuses," he said.
The Virginia Tech massacre, Columbine High School shooting, Oklahoma City bombing, Waco Siege and assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. all occurred during April, Gerstein said.
"It will be dedicated to all of the people that have died as a result of violence," Gerstein added.
The center utilized public relations and advertising student-run agency Cardinal Communications to help organize and publicize the event.
Hillary Tribbett, strategic event coordinator of Paint 4 Peace and senior public relations major, said the purpose of the event was for attendees to develop their own interpretations of peaceful resolution.
"If you come into it with open ears and an open mind, you can learn different strategies for tolerance and alternative dispute resolution and realize what a difference art makes," she said.
Beth Messner, acting chair of communication studies and co-coordinator of Paint 4 Peace, will work with students on a documentary about the three-day event during the summer and fall.
"I'm incredibly excited to see people from the community and people from the campus coming together," Messner said. "I think that the message of nonviolence is a message that crosses a wide variety of audiences."
Gerstein said the Office of Facilities, Planning and Management was happy that the event wouldn't involve chalk because it doesn't want students chalking around campus. Even though the mural will be painted, he said, permission is still required for any other type of painting on campus.
"This is a chance for Ball State students to make a mark on Ball State that won't be washed off the next day," Tribbett said.
The dove will last until July, when it will be power washed off of the pavement. The organizers wanted to give the community the chance to visit the mural, Gerstein said.
Additional events7 p.m.: Panel discussion at Pruis Hall, moderated by President Jo Ann Gora, including Bart Peterson, former Indianapolis mayor and Ball State faculty member; Eric King, Muncie Community Schools superintendent; Frank Hood, Ball State student and former SGA president; and Guilleman.
April 3: Sidewalk Sam will work with Wilson Middle School special education students to paint a dove mural at the Hillcroft VSA building.
April 4: Students with emotional challenges, ranging from kindergarten through fifth grade, will paint a peace mural with Sidewalk Sam at the VSA Caring Arts Building.
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