Tucson recently became home to the largest mural in the state and is gaining notoriety for its extensive public art scene.

And while there are new murals popping up around town what seems like every day, some of Tucson’s newest murals are part of a larger effort to increase public art and digital spaces across the University of Arizona campus.

The UA School of Journalism is the latest site of these efforts, with a mural planned for just outside the Adelaida and Barry Severson Family Broadcast-Podcast Studio.

The school put out a call for artists last month, but the project has been in the works for months.

The mural is a collaboration with the University Center for Assessment, Teaching and Technology (UCATT) and Studies of Global Media, with the groups meeting regularly to discuss the theme and vision for the mural.

The call for artists says the UA is looking for murals that “reflect the theme of journalism as a profession or journalists, using novel and traditional technologies to connect with audiences.”

“Whatever concept is chosen, we’d like for the mural to have a hopeful mode, evoking feelings of empowerment and/or resilience, perhaps using brighter colors or elements that convey joy, light, space, or the natural flora and landscapes of the desert and sky islands,” the request said.

The school has already received four submissions, and committee members met this week to review the proposals and provide feedback.

The hope is to select an artist by Monday and have the mural completed by April 30, according to the proposal.

“I hope it'll be something really cool for the students and it'll light up the hallways a little bit better,” said Jordan Chin, multimedia specialist for UCATT and journalism school alum. He said he wants to  “make the school of journalism a place where people really want to be, and this is just a small step in that. And then, selfishly, to drive people towards the resources that I get to offer students, both in the broadcast studio and the digital makerspace.”

The journalism school’s mural will be the third mural to be completed under the project.

The first, in the Honors College Digital Makerspace,was painted by acclaimed local muralist Jessica Gonzales. The second is in the basement of the Integrated Learning Center and a fourth mural that’s still in the planning process will be painted in the Consumer Science Lab in the Eller College of Management building. 

The murals are partially funded by Adobe, Chin said.

“In the creation of the first Digital Makerspace and the subsequent ones, we had sort of a memorandum of understanding that when we got our Adobe Creative Campus license, or contract signed with Adobe Creative Cloud,” he said. “Part of that was that we would make these digital makerspaces and they would fund or partially fund murals in each of the spaces.”

A Digital Makerspace is a resource center for faculty, staff and students to come in and rent equipment, spend time in a studio or get help with any multimedia projects from the student employees who help run the space. 

Chin manages several Digital Makerspaces across campus, including the journalism school’s, located right next to the broadcast studio. 

The spaces’ aim to promote digital literacy and provide resources across campus to facilitate the creation of multimedia projects in academia. 

The idea for a Digital Makerspace in the journalism department was born in 2023, when the broadcast and podcast studio was being under construction. The school was looking for additional funding to complete the studios and reached out to UCATT, which was looking to staff and grow their digital maker spaces. The result was a three-year operating agreement for the Digital Makerspace located in room 311 of the Marshall Building. 

“It just kind of worked out that there were two needs, and they kind of lined up and there was a good way to fit them together,” said Chin. 

Before UCATT’s presence in the journalism department, there was no standardized way or centralized location for students to seek out these resources – they would just go to staff members to rent out equipment.

Students can now check out equipment and rent time in the podcast studio through a link or by making an appointment in person.

“Hopefully students will come in and use the resources that we're putting together for them,” Chin said. “I think it's going to overall be great and it'll be kind of a little hidden piece of art on campus.”

Chin pointed to the revamped student lounges as another recent improvement to the journalism school that’s helped increase the school’s morale, saying the addition of the new mural will only help to further uplift the space.

“They find (the lounges are) a positive space to be around,” he said. “I'm just hoping that (this mural) brings some pride into the school and maybe, depending on the message of the mural, maybe some hopefulness within the topic of journalism.”

Susan Barnett is Deputy Editor of Tucson Spotlight and a graduate student at the University of Arizona. She previously worked for La Estrella de Tucson. Contact her at susan@tucsonspotlight.org.

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