Two months after introducing three Canadian artists to the Queen’s community, one has been selected to create and install a mural on the Athletics and Recreation Centre this Spring.

Anna Jane McIntyre was select through a public voting process hosted on the site of Principal and Vice-Chancellor Patrick Deane. The artwork designed and presented by McIntyre is called “We!”

“The artwork created by Anna Jane McIntyre speaks to a genuine sense of welcoming and togetherness. It shows us that society is made up of a beautiful tapestry of cultures that should be celebrated,” says Principal and Vice-Chancellor Patrick Deane. “I am excited to see the diversity of our campus community reflected in artwork that will greet students, staff, faculty, and visitors to our campus.”

The mural, to be located on the south wall of the ARC, symbolizes an opportunity to visibly illustrate the diversity of the Queen’s community and signal a future that is focused on celebration, healing, resilience, cultural diversity, and optimism. It is expected to measure approximately 23-meters x 8-meters (76-feet x 26 feet).

“I am absolutely thrilled to create a joyous public artwork celebrating the vital, historic and contemporary QTBIPOC presence at Queen's University in collaboration with Queen’s University Advocacy Coalition and STEPS Public Art,” says McIntyre. “It is a profound honour to be of service. It will be a fabulous and important art adventure. Thank you so much for the opportunity!”

McIntyre will incorporate art that will be commissioned from collaborative workshops with Queen’s and Kingston community members into the original design. Workshops will be held in the fall and the illustration will be installed a short time later.

Read more about Anna Jane McIntyre’s concept here.

In addition to McIntyre, artists Charmaine Lurch and Nuff also presented their concepts during a virtual open house in early February. Following that initial presentation, suggestions were taken, helping to advise the final concepts from which the Queen's community selected the winning artist.

The mural project is a partnership between the student-led Queen’s University Advocacy Coalition, the Office of the Principal and Vice-Chancellor, and STEPS Public Art.

“We are very excited to work with her on this project and directly include the lived experiences of the Queen’s community through art workshops in the mural’s realization,” says the Queen’s University Advocacy Coalition.

McIntyre is a visual artist based in Montreal with a playful practice that combines storytelling, drawing, sculpture, printmaking, performance, installation and microactivism. Her work investigates how people perceive, create, and maintain their notions of self through behaviour and visual cues and is an ever-shifting visual mashup of British, Trinidadian and adopted Canadian cultural traditions.