Mural is a ‘gateway to culture;’ Terracotta warrior artwork added to IAC exterior

(PHOTOS/ Kerissa Justice)

Troy graduates Kavarus Moore and Sara Ivey work on painting the warriors before moving on to the background.

Kerissa Justice Contributor The Troy University International Arts Center, which houses art pieces and exhibits, is now itself a work of art. Two Troy graduates painted a mural of the terracotta warriors on a wall of the IAC building in the Daniel Foundation plaza. The location for the mural was chosen to tie it to Troy’s terracotta warriors exhibit that it overlooks.

“They can come up to here to see that, ‘Oh they got a mural here,’ (and it) actually leads into a terracotta exhibit down there where you can learn all about the information about them,” said Kavarus Moore, a Troy alumnus and of the artists who worked on the mural. “And then you can go upstairs and actually look at furthermore work from different artists and students in there. “This is the first thing they see before they go into the International Arts Center to see more artwork and maybe even go into the room to learn more about the terracotta warriors,” said Sara Ivey, a Troy alumna and the other artist who worked on the mural. Moore and Ivey spent at least five hours multiple days a week during the summer to finish the mural, and now that it is complete, they hope it serves as a symbol of accomplishment for the arts program at Troy. “It’s very inspirational for me because of the fact that it can give future students an outlook of what alumni are doing in and around campus,” Ivey said. “You can make that mark as an artist; you can be successful; you can break the stereotypes and the stigmas that surround artists and still live out your dream and be just as successful as everyone else in life,” Moore said. And while some might just see a painting on a wall, these artists see beyond the outermost appearance. “This piece is a gateway to so much more than it just being an exterior piece of artwork,” Moore said. “It’s a gateway to culture. “It’s a gateway to people and a gateway to conversations and learning and just an overall universal connection with people.”