A new mural for the Rev. Francis X. McCabe, C.M., DePaul University's third president, sits beside a mural for Sister Mary Tersita Frawly, S.P., one of the first female graduates in DePaul University history, under the CTA's Fullerton 'L' station on the university's Lincoln Park Campus. The two murals are part of Brother Mark Elder, C.M.'s public art project titled “The Story of ‘The Little School Under the ‘L’’ — Under the ‘L’,” which began in 2016. (DePaul University/Russell Dorn)CHICAGO — A multi-year public art project to memorialize key
figures in DePaul University’s history now includes four new murals on the
pillars under the Chicago Transit Authority’s Fullerton ‘L’ station. In the center
of the university’s Lincoln Park Campus, the murals honor a legendary
president, a pair of student pioneers, the origin of the university’s nickname,
and a key local relationship within the Lincoln Park community.
The project, “The Story of ‘The Little School Under the ‘L’’
— Under the ‘L’,” began in 2016 and is the vision of muralist Brother Mark
Elder, C.M., an adjunct faculty member in DePaul’s art, media and design
program.
“The big thing about community supported public art is just
that: It benefits the community, but in ways both tangible and not,” said
Elder. “The art will make the space look nice, but the process also prompts a
dialogue that helps find common ground. People get so excited when they’re
doing something as one unified community. There’s a natural, earnest bonding
that occurs from participation in and the making of community art.”
The new murals honor:
- Rev. Francis Xavier McCabe, C.M., DePaul’s
third president, who admitted female students for the first time and played a
key role in keeping the university open during World War I.
- Marion Amoureux and Rose Vaughan, believed to be
the first two African-American graduates from DePaul in 1943 and 1944,
respectively.
- Joe Wilhoit, a multi-sport star at DePaul, who
went on to become the university’s first Major League Baseball player. He was
part of the DePaul football team that earned the nickname “D-Men,” which
eventually led to the current nickname “Blue Demons.”
- The Sheffield Neighborhood Association, a local
organization started in 1959 — and still active today — that helped improve
living conditions for DePaul students in the Lincoln Park neighborhood.
These new murals join four inaugural murals installed in
2016 to honor former men’s basketball coach Ray Meyer; DePaul law alumnus
Benjamin Hooks; Olympian Mabel “Dolly” Landry Staton; and DePaul’s first female
graduates, Minnie Daly, Sister Mary Teresita Frawley, S.P., and Sister Mary
Clemenza Leahy, B.V.M.
“We should recognize how diversity became a value for us
here at DePaul,” said Elder. “From the first Jewish students in the early days
of the university, to women attending in 1911 and African-American graduates in
1943 and 1944, these murals are a positive way to remember some of the key
moments in our history that speak to the mission of the university.”
Elder’s process from ideation to installation can take as long
as 10 months. He finalizes the mural concepts in late fall, lays out and draws
the murals during the winter, and works with a mural class of DePaul art
students in the spring to paint the murals and prepare them to be moved under
the ‘L’ tracks. A small group of students then joins Elder each summer for
installation, where their hands-on work includes some final painting, preparing
the canvases, and laying the murals carefully onto the pillars for drying.
“I’m always looking for opportunities to not just teach
students about the making of public art, but to get them involved in the actual
making,” said Elder. “This was a good way to certainly take advantage of that
while creating a service tradition in that direction.”
In total, Elder will install 25 murals, 24 to highlight
DePaul’s history and a 25th — that’s already installed — that gives an artistic
overview of the project. Elder’s plan includes adding four murals a year for
four more years to finish the project. Each row of murals represents a
different 20-year period in DePaul’s history, starting from the school’s
founding in 1898 on the pillars closest to Belden Avenue and moving north toward
Fullerton Avenue.
Additional murals in the coming years plan to feature former
DePaul men’s basketball star George Mikan, a 1959 Naismith Memorial Basketball
Hall of Fame inductee; the 50-year anniversary of the Black Student Union
forming in 1968 and the student protests of 1969; and the emergence of DePaul’s
Loop Campus.
A dedication for the newest murals will take place during
DePaul’s alumni weekend Oct. 13-15. Final details for the dedication will be
announced in the coming weeks.
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Source:
Brother Mark Elder, C.M.
melder@depaul.edu
773-325-2560
Media Contact:
Russell Dorn
rdorn@depaul.edu
312-362-7128