Century College Press Release
News Release
Nancy Livingston
8/19/04 Public Relations
New Century College Mural Celebrates Diversity
The percentage of students of color who attend Century College has climbed from 13 percent to 19 percent in the last five years, with Asian students making up the largest minority group. To celebrate its increasing diversity, Century College plans to unveil a colorful new mural painted by Susan Hsiu-fang Liu of Maplewood, an alumna of the college.
The unveiling ceremony will take place on Wednesday, Aug. 25, at noon at the Century College Multicultural Center on West Campus. Located in the hallway outside the college Multicultural Center, the mural features people from around the world with the globe as a background. Like the painting that Liu completed for the University of Minnesota's Asian American Student Union, the mural is a colorful, detailed depiction of people dressed in national costumes. Liu said the mural not only celebrates diversity, it also celebrates opportunity‹and her personal story is an example of what can happen when people use higher education to follow their dreams.
A native of Taiwan, Liu graduated from Tunghai University in 1970 with a degree in sociology. In 1974, she moved to the United States and attended Washington University in St. Louis, where she earned a master's degree in social work. Rather than pursue her career, however, she opted to get married and start a family.
When her husband moved the family to Chicago, Liu went back to school to learn computer programming. After another move to Minnesota, Liu went to work for the St. Paul Companies and was employed there for 18 years as a programmer.
Liu's love of art eventually drew her to Century College, where she took classes in drawing and painting in the 1990s. When her Century instructor offered to purchase her drawing of him, Liu began to think that she had a future as an artist.
"Since I was a child, I always saw art as a high, unobtainable goal," said Liu. "I grew up listening to my father talk about art and music, but he always said our family does not have any kind of genetic talent for art. After 15 years of painting, I think the most difficult thing for me is to accept my painting‹to think that it is acceptable. This is a long journey for me. It is a struggle."
Liu said her first big commission was to produce a large oil painting for the Asian American Student Union in the University of Minnesota's Coffman Student Union. Her success with this project led to her being hired to paint the mural at Century.
"Of all the art classes I have taken over the years, the ones at Century were the most practical," said Liu. "I really learned a lot about the technical skills of drawing and painting. Other schools tell you to just paint and express yourself, and the students critique each other. Here, the instructors really teach you the principles. You also come to understand how an artist sees things, feels things and thinks about things."
Liu said she spent about 75 hours on the Century College mural and worked on it over the summer. The project also required a great deal of research to ensure accuracy of the cultural images. As part of her research, she attended the Festival of Nations in downtown St. Paul and took photos of people's costumes.
Her completed mural features people of North America (African-Americans, Native Americans, whites and Eskimos), South America (Brazilians), Africa, Europe (Spaniards and Swedes), Asia (Koreans, Japanese, Chinese, Hmong and Lao), India and Arabia.
"The new mural is one of many efforts the college has made to help students make a successful transition to college," said Herbert King, director of the Century College Multicultural Center. "Our aim is to create a welcoming environment, in addition to providing a number of cultural programs and referral services for students of color. We were extremely delighted when Ms. Liu agreed to paint this mural for our college. We believe it provides an identity for the center, and symbolizes that we live in a diverse, global society with many different cultures and common interests."
Century College's Multicultural Mural.