Painting with a purpose: Student’s murals reshape The Hub’s look and feel

Sydney Zwart stands next to Scrappy in front of a mural that she painted

UTC senior Sydney Zwart has painted two murals that adorn the walls in The Hub in Lupton Hall. Photo by Angela Foster.

Sydney Zwart, a senior integrated studies major from Gallatin, Tennessee, came to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga as a transfer student last year.

Today, her work is one of the first things students see when they walk into The Hub—the College of Arts and Sciences Student Success Center.

Zwart recently painted two murals for the space at the suggestion of Student Success Center Director Erica Holmes Trujillo.

“Sydney is an artist and works for us as a student employee,” Holmes Trujillo recalled. “We were chatting one day, just talking about how white and institutional our walls looked, and I said, ‘Sydney, can you make a mural for us?’

“She designed this entirely on her own—both the mural and the selfie wall.”

Zwart laughed as she recalled that initial conversation.

“I had been watching ‘Severance’ and I was like, this feels like the hallways in ‘Severance.’ They’re very white and just kind of sterile,” she said.

Had she ever done a mural before?

“This was my first time; I had never done a mural, but now I’ve done two of them,” she said.

Zwart spent the summer designing and painting the first mural, which features Scrappy, and said it took about two months to complete. The second—a selfie wall listing majors around an archway so students can take photos pointing to their field—followed later and took a single day to finish.

With the murals complete, Zwart thought back on how she ended up at UTC.

“When I was in middle school, I did a project on my future career and UTC was the school that I chose. I then kind of forgot about it,” she said.

After finishing an associate degree in fine/studio art at Volunteer State Community College, she wanted to leave her small town and branch out while staying close enough to home.

UTC is approximately 150 miles from her hometown.

“I had friends in Chattanooga,” she said, “and I had visited people that I went to high school with who came here for college. I just fell in love with Chattanooga. I wanted to go to UTC.”

Sydney Zwart stands in front of a selfie station mural that she painted

Sydney Zwart’s selfie wall is an archway with icons of UTC majors painted around it that students can point to.

Finding her footing took time, Zwart said, but The Hub changed that.

“It took a little bit, but definitely working in The Hub helped,” she said. “I was able to connect with a lot of people through here. I’ve got a really good support system here.”

She now plays that role for others. Holmes Trujillo described Zwart as a peer advisor who “will help these students navigate everything from choosing classes to class registration to tips and tricks with Canvas.”

“I really enjoy talking to students because I feel like they don’t realize how many opportunities they have to take different classes,” Zwart said. “I feel like students appreciate someone who’s on their level.”

She has also been able to talk to students about the advantages of being an integrated studies major. UTC’s Bachelor of Integrated Studies is designed for transfer, traditional and adult students who want to build a pathway to a degree using completed credit and new coursework shaped around a goal.

From a student perspective, Zwart said the program works.

“It helped me to really focus my education on what I wanted to do—art and education— not art education,” she said. “You’re able to craft your course schedule the way that benefits you in your future career.”

Zwart said coming to UTC changed what she thought was possible.

“It’s opened my eyes to so many different career options that I didn’t even know I could pursue,” she said. “I want to be an art teacher and I didn’t even know that was an option.”

She plans to pursue middle school art education and is exploring a one-year master’s and teacher licensure pathway through UTC after graduating in May.

Holmes Trujillo said the murals are not just decoration but a visible record of student impact within the space, saying that “Sydney has left a lasting legacy for us with her mural.”

Now that the murals are up, Zwart said their visibility has not yet quite sunk in.

“The advisors will walk by talking to their students and be like, ‘Oh yeah, one of our student workers painted this,’” Zwart said, “and then I’m sitting at the desk and they’ll walk by and they’ll be like, ‘Oh, it’s actually her.’”

Holmes Trujillo said the work is already drawing attention from people who walk through the space, and Zwart added that other offices have even asked about doing similar projects—a result that, she said, that reinforces what she tells transfer students: leaving your first school is not an ending.

“I feel like I’ve gained so many experiences that I wouldn’t have had before,” Zwart said. “It’s opened my eyes to so many new opportunities.”