Two bas-relief ceramic collages that illustrate significant sustainability efforts at Babson College and Wellesley College were created during the Spring 2012 semester. The design and creation of the murals was a collaborative effort, involving dozens of students, faculty, and staff at the two institutions.
The murals were funded by a BOW Mellon Presidential Project grant, awarded to Stephanie Osser, ceramic artist, impresario/mural instructor, and created at the Babson College Ceramics Studio, side-by-side.
Size for each mural is within 4’ x 4’.
The Babson Wellesley Ceramic Mural Project
Susanna Kroll ’14, designed the Babson mural and created the imagery in clay and glaze.
She brought in collaborators to help with details including Jessica Millman ’14;
Salisa Napathorn ’14;
Mo Yang ’14;
Hongling Xu ’15;
Ben Staples ’12;
Jamaal Eversley ’09;
Amelia Tan MBA ’12;
Aman Hojanepesov MBA ’13
and Stephanie Osser, who all spent countless hours working on this labor of love. Several other students dropped in to lend a hand.
Images of sustainability on the Babson mural include:
• Mandell Family Hall – This Energy Star Building uses 40% less energy than other buildings its size on the Babson Campus.
• Lights – Babson has undergone lighting efficiency upgrades to a majority of its buildings on campus. These conservation projects will save Babson 258,622 Kilowatt hours a year. That amount of energy saved in just one year could power an average American household for 11 years.
• Big Belly Solar Energy Compactor– Managed in part by a Babson and Olin College student/alumni collaboration, Big Belly makes solar powered compacting trashcans for outdoor applications. Babson is home to several Big Belly units. By compacting trash, Big Belly trashcans reduce the number of truck trips and bags required to empty outdoor garbage containers.
• Bike Share – Green Tower, a special interest housing organization on campus, started a bike share program at Babson to encourage students to ride their bikes around campus and around the town of Wellesley.
• An energy efficient water heater.
• A gardener (Babson has a community garden and a great diversity of trees).
• A person with an idea, represented by compact fluorescent light bulbs. After all, without ideas, sustainability efforts cannot continually improve.
Images of sustainability on the Wellesley mural include:
• The renovated Whitin Observatory, which was awarded silver LEED certification;
• The restoration of the Alumnae Valley including Cattail Pond behind the Lulu Chow Wang Campus Center;
• The newly installed LED lights in the iconic college lanterns;
• The beehives and honey bees behind the Science Center;
• The photovoltaic solar array on the western campus athletic fields;
• The zero-emission, all electric van retrofitted with a solar panel;
• A student riding one of the Revolution pink bikes (communal bike program);
• Students’ on-campus gardening/farming efforts…and more!
Caitlin Greenhill Caldrea ’14 designed the Wellesley mural.
Corri Taylor (Director of Wellesley’s Quantitative Reasoning Program),
Aidan Chambers ’13, and Stephanie Osser led Wellesley’s creative team. Also contributing their time and talents were:
Erika Liu ’15,
Vanessa Barrera ’12,
Olivia Froehlich ’14,
Sophie Johnson ’12,
Graeme Durovich ’15,
Patty Suquilanda ’13,
Valerie Soon ’13,
Susan Laves ’12,
Emma Maynard ’13,
Lilly Gorman ’15,
Karen Pabon (Director of Slater International),
all from Wellesley
and Jamaal Eversley, a Babson alumnus from ’09.