Three student winners of the Wabash Arts Corridor competition—one banner designer and two student muralists—will become part of the college’s inaugural Big Walls Street Art Festival and be featured with 17 esteemed local, international and alumni street artists. 

The finalists, who competed against five other students, are junior photography major Charles Loggins, who will create five banners to be displayed above the Averill and Bernard Leviton A+D Gallery, 619 S. Wabash Ave.; senior design major Andrea Dunn, who will have her mural displayed on the south-facing wall of the 623 S. Wabash Ave. Building in time for this spring’s Manifest; and junior design major JJ McLuckie, whose mural will be displayed in October 2016 on the same wall over Dunn’s mural. 

Voting took place at the Arcade Gallery, 619 S. Michigan Ave., where student finalists displayed smaller-scale banners and murals alongside a brief history of the WAC.

The South Loop community voted for its favorite mural and banner during March 31–April 22. 

“The work is so impressive; I looked at every one of [the proposals] and said, ‘Give it to all of them,’” said Mark Kelly, vice president of Student Success. 

Dunn said she is excited to have the opportunity to complete such a large-scale work of art on campus as a senior set to graduate in the Fall 2016 Semester. 

“I’ve worked on sets for plays, but it’s not the same as painting a detailed mural on a wall,” she said. “It’s definitely an honor to have my work on such a popular building on campus that so many people walk past every day.” 

Her winning design depicts a black-and-white peacock, which she said differs from her typical artistic style because of its freeform design.

She said she thinks the design appeals to a broader audience. 

Matt Doherty, a lecturer in the Design Department who teaches the “Management for Designers” course in which Dunn is currently enrolled, said he was not surprised to learn she had been chosen as one of the winning student muralists. 

“She has a delightful hand and a wonderful sense of detail and whimsy,” he said. “I think it’s significant that she gets the 623 S. Wabash Ave. Building because we’ve got murals going up all up and down the WAC, so it’s really nice to have her work on our home building that design students spend most of their time in.” 

Doherty added that he thinks it is “wonderful” that opportunities are being made for students to participate in Big Walls and have their work in a public display that will likely be up for years. 

Loggins said he wanted to create banners that reflect people breaking away from things that haunt or worry them. 

“I wanted to portray [the conflict] using the idea of birds,” Loggins said. “To me, birds reflect the most liberating animal on the planet because they can go wherever they want.” 

McLuckie, who was a finalist for both the mural and banner competitions, said he used the WAC as an “urban art museum” by working outside of a set frame. 

“We are all frame-based, and I wanted to work on bringing the gallery out into the public,” McLuckie said. “[That] is why all of my ideas I submitted had the images coming in and out of the frames and interacting more with the environment around [them].” 

McLuckie previously worked with high-profile street artists including Ben Eine, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, KASHINK and Ricky Lee Gordon, all of whom have been featured on the WAC. 

“It feels like all my hard work is finally paying off since being more involved in WAC and volunteering,” McLuckie said. “Now, I can finally have my own