For about an hour or two for five days each week, Theodore Coffin works in Indiana University’s Arts and Sciences building, working to paint various icons who once called Gary home.
Coffin, a junior studio arts student at IUN, is one of seven students designing and painting a series of five 17-foot-long murals for the shuttered Sears building in downtown Gary.
“I’ve never done this before, but it’s really cool to be able to do it,” Coffin said. “It’s nice to do something on such a large scale.
The murals will feature well-known people through Gary’s history. Each mural has a different theme, including sports, architecture, industry, music and a black and white mural with different portraits.
People featured on the murals include former Mayor Richard Hatcher, singer Janet Jackson and basketball player Glenn Robinson.
Rather than painting outside on the Sears building, IUN students are painting on boards on campus, said Sebastian Thomas, an IUN professor and project coordinator. The boards will then be installed on the sides of the Sears building, Thomas said, likely next month.
As a professor, Thomas said it’s his favorite thing to watch students create and display their own work.
“It’s been a privilege and an absolute joy to have this opportunity that is totally unique to this program,” Thomas said. “You don’t see art schools too often that are able to produce five 17-foot murals.”
IUN partnered with Gary leadership for the murals because the city has invested in artwork to encourage people to witness downtown revitalization. Thomas is happy that city leaders are interested in IUN’s art program and want to see students’ work downtown.
“Any institution wanting to work with another institution and collaborate like this, I think this is nothing but positive and nothing but an opportunity,” Thomas said.
Summer Boezeman, an IUN graduate and non-degree seeking student working on the project, said the mural work is a different experience than she’s used to. These are the first murals she’s completed.
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“It’s definitely interesting to step in and work with everybody to collaborate on making something so huge,” Boezeman said. “I’m just trying to work wherever everyone needs me.”
Although it’s nerve-racking to create something that will be so large in the city, Boezeman said it’s an exciting opportunity for all students involved.
“It definitely makes me nervous because it’s a lot of pressure, but it’s so cool to be part of a project of this scale,” she said.
Redevelopment Executive Director Christopher Harris visited IUN on Wednesday to see progress on the murals.
“I definitely think the essence of Gary’s culture is captured,” Harris said. “I can see the city being honored in a way that the residents can identify with and be happy with.”
The city’s partnership with IUN is important, Harris said, because it allows the university to become more involved with the community. With the mural creation and installation, Harris said IUN is also helping to economically revitalize Gary.
“What many people don’t realize is that arts and culture play so much into your local economy,” Harris said. “Being able to encourage creatives to get together and congregate with one another, that spurs opportunities.”
Three murals will be installed throughout the city’s downtown Broadway corridor, according to a previous Gary news release. The projects are all city-funded and expected to be completed by the end of 2025.
Coupled with involvement from the University of Notre Dame architecture school, Harris believes people will start seeing change throughout the Broadway corridor.
Erin McHugh, IUN’s director of arts programming, has primarily worked with the city to coordinate the mural creation and installation. The project started in March, McHugh said, after the university met with the city’s economic redevelopment team to view vacant spaces for potential art opportunities.
“The city offered us the entire facade of the Sears building to paint on,” McHugh said. “I’ve been working closely with the city to firm up timelines, delivery of materials and on design feedback. It’s really worked in the same way that an art commission might.”
City officials have been present throughout the mural process, McHugh said, and they’ve provided constructive feedback on the artwork. The university had two design feedback sessions with the city, and officials have also seen the boards as students paint.
McHugh is proud that IUN students are among the artists highlighted in Gary’s art scene.
“(City leadership) is placing a lot of trust in us,” she said. “The Broadway corridor is such a prominent part of Gary, so to think that cars and people passing through this busy area are going to see our art work every day is really important.”