Our team is interested in promoting and building an inviting workspace: #MySpaceMyCampus will serve as an umbrella concept for promoting art and visual interest on the Carleton campus. We are taking a broad approach to art by focusing on both designated pieces of art on the Carleton campus (e.g., mural in Tory building, art gallery exhibitions) as well as prints in frames in our shared spaces (e.g., departmental lobbies), and the way people make their personal spaces on campus (e.g., offices, dorm) more inviting.
There are two main goals: 1) encourage people to make their workspace more inviting; and 2) bring greater awareness to the existing efforts to promote art and visual interest on campus. To achieve these goals, we first researched existing art promotion efforts on campus and potential obstacles in its promotion. Next we devised a plan to increase art and visual interest.
To begin with, we recommend a website dedicated to the “personal side” of art and visual interest on campus. Students, staff and faculty could be encouraged to contribute photos of inviting personal spaces on campus to a Tumblr-like website (e.g., pictures of their desk, office or dorm room). Additionally, people could be asked to submit pictures of art and visual interest on campus that they enjoy and briefly describe why it contributes to a healthy, inviting workspace. Secondly, we want to promote the existing art on campus. One way to do so is by linking up information about a particular art piece with the online campus map (i.e., people could click on the map and find detail information about the art piece). To facilitate this process, we would involve students (e.g., as an independent study for course credit, an art history student would research the background of the art pieces). Third, we want to provide information to Departments about a list of best practices and resources for displaying and maintaining existing print forms of art in shared spaces. Our proposed mentors include: Daryl Boyce (Assistant VP, Facilities, Management and Planning), Ed Kane (Assistant VP, University Services, Sandra Dyck (Director, CUAG), Don Cumming (Director, DUC), and Anne Richards (Assistant Director, Space Management and Capital Planning).
Broadly, we hope our proposed initiatives will bring greater aesthetic pleasure to members of the Carleton community and to engage the campus in a meaningful conversation about how our workspace influences and impacts our environment on a daily basis
- Sally Babson (Sr. Events Advisor, DUC)
- Trish Ballamingie (Associate Professor, Geography & Environmental Studies)
- Deborah Casselman (Executive Assistant, Sprott)
- Cheryl Harasymchuk (Assistant Professor, Psychology)
- Kim Hellemans (Instructor III, Neuroscience)
- Lloyd Keane (Archives & Rare Books Coordinator, Library)
- Sylvain Pitre (Manager, Research Computing Services, CCS)
- Mark Robinson (Manager, Financial Aid, Awards)