Photo courtesy of Alfred Quiroz

Fine arts students Eric Ahern, Teresa Bowman and Kristin Koedyker contribute to an 8-by-12 mural depicting UA football history at the stadium. Ten murals have been completed over the past year on the second and third floor in the Sky Box area.

Thursday August 30, 2001 |

It is a common stereotype that art students do not attend football games. But fine arts professor Alfred Quiroz may have generated an interest for a handful of his students.

Quiroz has many years of mural-painting experience under his belt. So when Zoe Tsighis - the marketing director of Stadium Sky Boxes - asked him to facilitate student murals for the hallways of the stadium, he was prepared for anything.

"The hallways are narrow," Quiroz said. "At the time, there were standard graphics already on the walls - a stenciled wildcat, a big letter 'A,' et cetera."

Ten fine arts students, few of whom had previous mural-painting experience, volunteered to contribute their time on eight 8-by-6 murals in the fall semester of 2000. Six other students completed two more 8-by-12 murals in spring of 2001 at the football stadium.

The project was completed with funding and supplies from the football marketing director's office.

"Two of the murals were individual efforts, and the rest were two-person teams," Quiroz said.

Quiroz researched the project with the help of the UA Hall of Fame office, which provided primarily black-and-white historic photographs of UA games.

"I selected three photos from each decade, and the students would then select one they liked for the mural project and proceed from there," Quiroz stated in an e-mail.

Students worked closely with the Hall of Fame office to ensure historic accuracy in the color and styles of uniforms and game equipment.

"It is a long process, but the idea was to replicate the initial photo image as closely as possible," Quiroz stated.

The subject matter may not initially have been of interest to the art students, but as a site-specific project, the murals' public presence outweighed their skepticism.

"I do not believe that the students had an affinity for the subject, but it was a public mural, and public art is something that interested all of them," Quiroz stated.

Public art is also an area of concern for Quiroz, who has completed numerous mural projects in the 12 years he has been at the university (including the first-ever student mural on campus).

"I have personally been involved with several mural projects both on and off campus," Quiroz stated. "The mural frieze around the Joseph Gross Building was the first public art project on campus completed by students. Two other mural projects were completed at Christopher City and the former ASUA Bookstore."

Quiroz explained what ingredients work together to create an ideal mural.

"A successful mural is one that causes people to stop and look," Quiroz stated. "All paint is photoreactive, so special care needs to be taken so that the mural does not fade too soon. All the murals I have worked on on-campus are varnished with a UV protective varnish."

Quiroz's main goals for the project include raising campus awareness of public art and helping students realize their potential.

"My aim was and is to get students involved artistically throughout the campus and to let other areas of the university become aware of the impact of public art and especially what students can accomplish," Quiroz stated.

Quiroz finds a parallel in the public display of an athlete's skill and an artist's talent, but ends all further comparison there.

"Aside from the spectacle, the fine arts and athletics have very little in common," he said. "For this reason, I wanted to bridge the gap. More art for a larger audience."