Mural selected as art piece for Health and Science Center

A mural created by glass tiles that appear to move as observers walk alongside has been selected for the new Health and Science Center at Central Wyoming College.

A “glass frieze” by Massachusetts artist Rufus Butler Seder was selected by a committee that included CWC faculty and Wyoming Arts Council staff. It will be installed between the doors that go into the building’s auditorium, said committee member and art Professor Nita Kehoe.

A national call from the Wyoming Arts Council’s Art in Public Building program was issued and 39 artists submitted proposals.

Seder’s proposal calls for the creation of 42 eight-by-eight “life tiles” that create optically animated images that represent the courses that will be taught in the Health and Science Center.

David Newell, the curator at the Wyoming State Museum who served on the committee, said Seder’s work will “knock people’s socks off.” He said Seder’s proposal utilizes optics to animate its imagery and morphs from a single atom through a series of images that ends with the expanded galaxy.

“It will be amazing and perfect for a facility dealing with both health and natural sciences,” Newell said.

Seder, who began his career as a filmmaker, said the ribs in the sturdy glass tiles are actually cylindrical lenses, which create the illusion the painted image on the back of the glass is moving as you pass by.

Kehoe is planning to invite Seder to the CWC campus to conduct workshops when the Health and Science Center opens this fall.