Giant Historic Murals Being Restored On-site at Harcum College

Artist and educator Dave Walsh is breathing new visual life into a collection of historic murals painted between 1967 and 1987, working on-site on the Bryn Mawr Campus of Harcum College this week to restore these giants to their former luster and in time for a fall gallery show.

The murals were painted by graduating art classes of the late Martin Zipin, reflecting the events, trends, and newsmakers of the previous year. The content displayed runs the gamut from sports to politics to art and pop culture from a regional, national and global perspective.

The largest murals are approximately 6 feet wide x 12 feet high and currently line the walls of the Klein Dining Hall. For the last year, Walsh has been working on restoring the entire collection including 4x8 panel murals for a gallery show opening October 8 during the College's
Homecoming festivities.

Besides the sheer scale of the restoration, one of the most challenging aspects is blending and matching paint colors that are more than 50 years old. “Often, student-grade paints are made of pigments different from high quality paints and recreating those colors can be difficult,”
Walsh said. As a result, he is spending hours mixing colors to repair sections.

Restoration relies on a deep material knowledge that comes from years of schooling and practice and is like putting together a puzzle of many fine layers.

The hanging murals are the final leg of a restoration project supported by the Rittenhouse Foundation to restore and showcase the mural collection created by student artists from more decades long past. The Rittenhouse Foundation supports higher education and cultural
initiatives and this project is the ideal blend of both.