As winter quickly approaches and Queen’s colours fade into November, campus got a fresh pop of colour last month.
The exterior south-facing wall of the Queen’s Athletics and Recreation Centre (ARC) now features a new mural from Montreal-based artist Anna Jane McIntyre. The piece, We/Nous, displays colourful figures from different cultural traditions alongside 2SLGBTQ+ pride flags, and was installed on Oct. 27.
The project “envisions a future rooted in celebration, healing, resilience, cultural richness, and optimism,” the University stated in an article by the Gazette. We/Nous was commissioned through the Advocacy Coalition Mural Project, which is no longer active, Queen’s said in a statement to The Journal. The project also involved the Office of the Principal and Vice-Chancellor and the student-led Queen’s University Advocacy Coalition, according to the Gazette.
For their first large project with Queen’s McIntyre was “absolutely thrilled” to see We/Nous installed, she wrote in a statement to The Journal. The mural’s design is “open to interpretation,” they said.
“I don’t really work in binary or absolute meanings, as I prefer that people look at the artworks and come up with their own ideas,” McIntyre wrote.
Many different designs and figures are represented in the work, including Robert Sutherland, ArtSci ’52, a lawyer, Queen’s graduate, and the first Black graduate at a Canadian university. We/Nous also features McIntyre’s paternal grandmother, Thelma Paul, students from the Queen’s University Advocacy Coalition, friends and collaborators of McIntyre, and the artist’s own designs.
Elements of the mural address “the specific wishes of the students to see a diverse and well-populated composition that was centered on representing people,” McIntyre wrote.
We/Nous is eye-catching even from a distance, adding detail to a campus space with plenty of foot traffic.
For some students, this has a daily impact.
“As someone who walks through the ARC every day, public art like this really improves the student experience,” Rachel Heaney, ArtSci ’26, said in an interview with The Journal. “I’m glad to see Queen’s beautifying campus while making space for artists of all backgrounds.”
In general, McIntyre hopes the We/Nous comes at a good time to influence students’ moods. “My wish is for the mural to provide a bit of joyous colour therapy encouragement, particularly during the winter greys,” she wrote.
Ultimately, the mural serves as “a reminder that everyone’s efforts matter [and] we can only truly thrive if we collaborate and work together to create a democratic present-future in which all beings are respected,” McIntyre wrote.
Tags
Art, Athletics and Recreation Centre, Mural, Public art, Visual art
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