A project two years in the making was unveiled in King Hall on Sept. 1. The project was a mural celebrating those individuals at Guilford who give their time to community service. The artist, Kathleen Kennedy ’10, has been preparing for the mural since 2008.

“To research, I visited a few different community service sites,” said Kennedy.

“I explored them and did art projects with the children to make connections with the different settings.”

The mural covers both sides of the hallway on the first floor between the Multi-Cultural Research Center and the Center for Principled Problem Solving, two of the departments that helped Kennedy with the project.

The mural features five scenes from various Bonner Scholar projects and other student initiatives. Two of the sites include The Glen Haven Multicultural After-school Tutorial and The Avalon African Refugee Center. A brick wall extends throughout the mural and frames each scene.

“I wanted to bring the red brick inside; it would feel like we’re still at Guilford looking through these portals at what our students have done,” said Kennedy.

The Guilford community gathered to show their appreciation for Kennedy’s work at a presentation on Wednesday.

“It was moving to hear Kathleen talk about the mural being her own piece of service,” said Mary Pearl Monnes ’10. “The possibilities of art contributing to a community are endless and her work is a testament to that.”

Monnes is featured in the mural’s Glen Haven scene and was an active participant in spearheading the project.

Others were optimistic that the mural will catch the eyes of students and encourage them to get involved in the community.

“When people walk through these halls, they will realize that the service we do is international in scope,” said James Shields, director of Community Learning. “We hope that this mural will inspire students that haven’t done service to get involved.”

“The words ‘community service’ are dry and don’t live up to what goes on at our programs,” said Kennedy. “I essentially wanted to replace these words with the beauty I have observed at these sites.