University Park, Pa. -- Penn State celebrated its 150th birthday on Feb. 22 by opening a present from the class of 2003 -- a mural in the HUB-Robeson Center, depicting highlights from the last 50 years of the University's history.
The mural was designed and created by New York artist Richard J. Haas in oil and acrylic paint on canvas and installed over the last two weeks in its permanent location in the first-floor lounge area adjacent to Alumni Hall. It consists of three wall sections on a painted stone background and covers an area approximately 10 feet high by 85 feet wide.
A painter, printmaker and muralist, Haas is well-known nationally for "architectural illusionism," a tradition that gives the viewer the impression of three-dimensional realism on a two-dimensional surface.
"All murals are moments in time," Haas said at the mural's unveiling. "They quickly fade into history. That is their elegance."
His work is included in the collections of many of the nation's leading museums and his large interior and exterior murals appear in at least 25 states and in Germany and Australia.
"This is a historic time in the life of our University and the gift you see before you is a particularly fitting tribute to our legacy as an institution that has not only educated generations of leaders, but also has created knowledge, spawned innovation, and vastly contributed to the economic well-being of Pennsylvania and the nation," said University President Graham Spanier. "To receive such a meaningful, enduring and timely present from our graduates is a wonderful 150th birthday keepsake."
The 2003 senior class gift committee chose the last 50 years of Penn State's history as the mural's subject to complement the land-grant frescoes in Old Main. Created by Henry Varnum Poor in 1940 and 1948-1949, gifts of the classes of 1932 and 1946, the frescoes depict the evolution of the University from its founding in 1855 to the late 1940s.
The HUB-Robeson Center's central location on the University Park campus and its function as both student union and cultural center made it an ideal location for the mural.
Visit http://www.sesquicentennial.psu.edu/mural/mural.html for pictures of the mural, and to learn more about how Penn State is celebrating its Sesquicentennial.