Students leave an artistic legacy at university in Costa Rica

Monday, October 5, 2009 – Ann Claycombe

A group of Georgia State art students made their mark overseas this summer, creating a series of public murals at a university campus in Costa Rica.

“We were given the opportunity to make major, permanent public art works,” said Pam Longobardi, the professor of Art and Design who oversaw the trip. “I really impressed on the students what an unusual opportunity it was.”

The Georgia State students worked in teams with students from the Nakoya campus of Costa Rica’s Universidad Nacional. The teams sketched together, planned together, and painted murals that connected two stories of outside space by running up columns and along stairwells.

One section of the mural connected a map of Georgia to a map of Costa Rica. Another used pre-Columbian motifs, and others revolved around the natural beauty of the area.

“They really did extraordinary paintings,” Longobardi said. The students ended up painting 12 hours a day for a solid week to finish the murals, she added.

The idea for the project sprang from a trip that Longobardi made to Costa Rica last year. She met with a dean at the country’s Universidad Nacional in San Jose to inquire about study-abroad opportunities. In that meeting, he mentioned that the university’s Nakoya campus had been looking for ways to bring some life to its public spaces.

The first project went so well that Longobardi is already in talks with administrators at the Universidad Nacional about planning for another one.

The students got to do more than make art while they were in Costa Rica. The group spent the day at the coffee-bean farm of a faculty members, enjoying a traditional Costa Rican barbecue. The students also visited a volcano, saw pre-Columbian ruins, and even got surfing lessons.

“The students fell in love,” Longobardi said. “We have a couple who are trying to get back and do semester exchanges. They made friends for life.”