UNG Campus Murals

The UNG Campus Murals are fully designed and executed by students in the Visual Arts course Special Topics in Mural Painting. These murals are a fun way to get our students engaged and involved with the applying their developing skills and the Big Bet of Accelerating the Fine Arts and Entertainment.

For the first eight weeks of the course, students participate in a rigorous design process lead by associate professor, Vivian Liddell, M.F.A. The next steps are to meet with the Division of Strategic Communications and Marketing to determine design goals and parameters, each student create four initial design sketches in grayscale. The designs are created in proportion to a wall’s dimensions.

After a class critique, the grayscale designs are presented and the three top designs are chosen to develop further. Each student then created color versions of the top three designs, tweaking the original design as needed to make the designs their own. Artist-quality synthetic polymer paints were ordered according to their lightfastness rating and suitability for mixing the colors of the chosen design. 

What Comes Next Face the Strange

This gives students confidence they can create something on this scale and encourages them to make that leap after graduation.

Vivian Liddell, M.F.A.

Associate Professor, Visual Arts

What Comes Next Mural

The “What Comes Next” mural on the Dahlonega campus was fully designed and executed by nine students in Spring 2025. The designs were developed in proportion to the wall’s dimensions, approximately 4 and a half feet high and 275 feet long.

After twenty-seven designs were presented, one design was chosen for execution. graduating senior Emma Jackson’s design was chosen. Students then divided into three groups — one for each design — to present all nine newly revised color versions.

Students created a grid on the wall using yellow paint and masking tape to scale up the design. After gridding out the design in yellow, students then spent the rest of the semester mixing accurate colors and painting in the design on the wall. For more details, check out the UNG Newsroom article, "Students create 'What Comes Next' Mural". 

Participating Artists:

  • Ayla Millar
  • Emma Jackson
  • Ella Whitfield
  • Ruthie Nash
  • Zoe Presten
  • Maria-Paola Russi
  • Chandler Hensley
  • Cathy McLendon
  • Abigail Brown
I have thoroughly enjoyed this class from start to finish. It's a very collaborative environment. It felt more like a collective group of artists working together on a project, not a college course.

Kathryn Woods, Art Education (BSEd)

Visual Arts Student

Face the Strange

The “Face the Strange” mural on the Gainesville campus was fully designed and executed by nine students in Summer 2025. The mural is on a wall that connects to the side of the Arts and Technology building. It is a lyric from the David Bowie song "Changes" that UNG President Michael Shannon referenced in his August 2024 Reveille address outlining a bold vision for the future of UNG.

This was the second semester in a row Liddell has led a class in creating a mural on campus. The selected piece for the mural this summer course was Kathryn Wood's first design and incorporated Haley Ellard's color palette.

For more details, check out the UNG Newsroom article, "Students paint mural on Gainesville Campus". 

Participating Artists:

  • Angelina Peebles
  • Amelia Battle 
  • Avery Caviness 
  • Blake Giron 
  • Catherine Clarke
  • Haley Ellard 
  • Jesse Shipley 
  • Kathryn Wood
  • Tim Noel 

More details for the next mural will be here when announced!