Visual Storytelling in Community: The Casa Zapata Mural Archive & History Project

This mural history project was created by Stanford students at Casa Zapata over several years to explore and archive over twenty murals that are painted on the interior and exterior walls of this undergraduate residence in Lucie Stern Hall, Stanford University. The sheer number of painted works, many done with the direct involvement of students in collaboration with professional artists has become one of the largest repositories of visual storytelling through murals on any U.S. college campus. This course will explore the artists, content and methods of creating this treasure of work compiled over 4 decades. Research and programs to exhibit the murals are a critical component to the archive project. Student projects will contribute to efforts to share this body of mural works that has remained largely invisible to the public and critically unexplored at Stanford.