Sara Brown poses with her Scenic Painting class' final project
PHOTO BY LUCIE STONEA group of heretofore mysterious artists have finally been revealed as painters of the faux brick design that has covered the east side of Beta Bridge for the past month. Causing double-takes and comments from passersby, the project is also remarkable for its apparent role in preserving the orange and maroon "Hoos for Hokies" message painted on the bridge on the day of the Virginia Tech massacre.
"The day after [the massacre], everyone in class was very somber, though it's usually a lighthearted class," says Sara Brown, the UVA art professor who directed the project. "I think they were actually happy to be able to focus on a particular task.
"We've done this kind of thing as a final class project before," she adds, but since this year's project has become inevitably linked to the preservation of the emotional "Hoos for Hokies" message, it has enjoyed a different and more public success than previous ones have.
"Hoos for Hokies" went up April 16, and at press time it's still there. That gives it the distinction, according to local historians and a search of Cavalier Daily archives, of lasting longer than any other message since Beta Bridge became an ever-changing canvas in the 1970s.
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Brown began assigning the students in her Scenic Painting class a final project on Beta Bridge several years ago when she realized that a large, public project would be a fitting culmination for the skills her students had acquired. Last fall, she had graduate and undergraduate students paint opposite sides of the bridge in a kind of friendly competition. ">This spring's class had been planning their project all semester, but plans changed when tragedy struck Virginia Tech with only two weeks of classes left.