MuralFest
About MuralFest
Starting as a Suggest-It by Fed students last year, Muralfest saw a range of entries from students all based on the theme of Belonging. A panel of judges chose five finalists who then created art across four campuses during the first week of semester, and then it was up to students to vote for their favourites!
After several weeks of voting, the final count revealed … we had a tie! Congratulations to Ally McMahon and Jay Van Nus, who each won a $1000 e-gift voucher and a trophy presented by Vice-Chancellor Duncan Bentley. All of our finalists also receive a $200 voucher, and their artwork will remain to brighten up campuses for years to come!
Check out the murals on your campus, or see below for photos of each one.
Our MuralFest artists
Angela Gerrard (Camp St)
Angela Gerrard is an artist working in her studio gallery in Beaufort, regional Victoria after completing a Bachelor of Visual Arts at Federation University Ballarat in 2022. Angela’s art is influenced by the world around her, reflecting on landscape, creatures, personalities, events and nostalgic memories.
Of MuralFest, Angela said, “it was a great opportunity to expand my art practice and gain the experience of creating large public art. Designing the mural during the final weeks of my degree inspired me to create a mural which spoke of belonging to university life. The mural reflects the many aspects of university life which fit together like a jigsaw puzzle and offer an individual connection and narrative, allowing each viewer to find their own sense of belonging within the artwork.”
Rachel Grant (Gippsland)
Rachel Grant is a local award-winning artist studying a Bachelor of Visual Arts in Gippsland. Her goal is to create beautiful public art murals. The design of the mural represents belonging and equality, working together to join hands and as a team, with the federation logo. The text “arts belong“ is also incorporated due to arts degrees being discontinued at Gippsland. Arts belong at Gippsland university!
Allison (Ally) McMahon (Mt Helen)
Studying: Bachelor of Outdoor and Environmental Education
“I have always loved art and creating and during COVID I really started painting and found that I loved it straight away. I’ve always thought it would be cool to paint a mural and also thought it would be a good challenge to paint something on a larger scale than I’m used to – what better place to do this then at uni!
As we were given the theme of ‘belonging' for our murals, my design is all about our interconnection to nature. Being an outdoor education student, I have really found the importance of nature in our lives and the role it plays in our identity, wellbeing and many other aspects of our lives. We belong and are an important part to the much bigger world of nature.”
Reece Sutcliffe (Berwick)
Studying: Bachelor of Education – Primary
“I have always loved art, I remember staying up when I was young just to draw. Majority of my work are sketches and paintings that I display around my house, always looking for a new way to add a twist to my work to make things more interesting.
With the mural design, I wanted to create a piece that had my style of surreal faces and add a sense of harmony through expressions. My art pieces have very little meaning behind them, leaving it to the audience to appreciate the art rather than the meaning shows the merit of a good artist.“
Jay Van Nus (Mt Helen)
My name is Jay Van Nus. I’m a proud Bibbulmun Noongar and I study a Bachelor of Psychological Science at Fed Uni! I’ve been doing art for my whole life and recently even started my art business ‘Jay Kulbardi’, but have never had the opportunity to make a mural before! I have focused a lot of time working on my studies but have found keeping a balance with an artistic outlet very valuable, so entering into MuralFest was a no brainer! My design draws from Noongar symbols and imagery to represent the pathways and journeys through development students at Federation University take, and aims to represent diverse peoples of all identity groups, cultures and lifestyles with the smiling, ambiguous figures in the middle! I hope my mural promotes a sense of belonging and inclusivity (and brings a few smiles) to all the Mount Helen students!
