By Morgan Nunley

Online Editor

A new mural will grace a wall of Brightwater: A Center for the Study of Food in spring of 2024, courtesy of an NWACC competition. 

The Northwest Arkansas Community College Art Department partnered with Brightwater, a culinary, food and beverage preparation department of NWACC to bring students a chance to win $500. The Art department and Brightwater sought submissions for a mural competition that will be installed on one of the walls of Brightwater. The submissions for this competition were due on Nov. 13.

Mary Tidy-Coyle, a member of the art faculty at NWACC, informed the EagleView that the winning mural was Emma Gastineau with the good news being revealed to her on Dec. 4. The installation will take place at the start of the spring semester, and will be completed by March 4, 2024, to line up the reveal of the mural with the NWACC Spring Arts & Culture Festival. There will also be a reception for the mural at Brightwater on March 5 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., hosted by Brightwater and the NWACC Art Club.

In their statement, the two departments explained all the details of the competition and some important information for the artists that submitted a piece to know. They also encouraged the students who are participating to make a trip to Brightwater and look at the wall that the mural will be on. A wall that is currently black. 

Marshall Shafkowitz is an Executive Director at Brightwater and was part of the team at Brightwater that got the project off of the ground. He pointed out that Brightwater is not only just a school, but an art gallery as well, to be filled with the hard work of not just international artists, but also galleries dedicated to the “local and up and coming artists.” Shafkowitz credits conversations had with local artists for being the groundwork for the competition.

Shafkowitz emphasized the importance of inspiration when speaking of the importance of the piece to the department and to Brightwater. “Our goal is that the piece that is chosen becomes a piece that inspires someone…to think differently or outside of the box.”

The students were also encouraged to speak to some of the folks at Brightwater, including potentially Shafkowitz, about what their vision for the mural is. Brightwaters hours are Monday – Thursday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and on Friday from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

The mural is supposed to be food related to tie into the other artworks around the building. Students benefited from also looking at the other pieces of art to get an understanding for what they can do for this particular mural. The departments also emphasized that the piece should be in full color, and not in black and white.

The mural will be painted on the wall in the IT room inside the computer lab at Brightwater. The mural size is 12.5 feet by 4 feet. The competition was juried and featured two judges from the NWACC Art Department, one judge from Brightwater, and one outside artist who was brought in to judge the submissions.

The submissions were emailed to art@nwacc.edu by Nov. 13, with the subject line, “Brightwater Mural Competition 2024.”

The submissions were to be a single pdf document that also includes a digital image mock-up of the artwork, a document listing the artist(s) name(s), artwork title, artist(s) statement explaining the mural concept, and an itemized budget supply list. 

As mentioned previously, Gastineau will receive a $500 scholarship for her hard work and dedication to the project. Her work and name will now always have its place in Brightwater and in the community as a whole.