“No tolerance 4 Intolerance.” “Bullying is a Virus.” “You Are Enough.”
These are just some of the examples of the ceramic, glazed tiles now decorating the restrooms of both the Student Center and the theater bathrooms. Some sport words of affirmation and positive support, while others are emblazoned with ar
tistic expression, and all of them were created by students and faculty in American River College’s ceramics department.
“The idea was to use art against hate,” said Linda Gelfman, leader of the artistic initiative and a former art professor at ARC.
The ceramic tiles installed on the bathroom walls are a project inspired by graffiti found in the bathroom near ARC’s theater, described as “racist” by Colin Mentze, a studio art major and student collaborator with the project, and “MAGA-related” by Gelfman. The project started as a way to push back against harmful messages students might find written on bathroom walls and used tiles that had been donated to the ceramics department by ARC, according to Gelfman.
Mentze was the one who’d initially discovered and reported the words to campus police, who then locked the bathroom in question and cleaned the wall. However, this wasn’t an isolated or final incident.
“I also remember that when I told the campus police what I saw, they looked defeated, and one of them said: ‘Again?’” Mentze said. “By the time I reported these two days in a row of the same exact bathroom stall being vandalized with racist words, I was disturbed by the trend.”
With the incident in mind, Mentze said he went to Gelfman with the idea of bringing the community together to try and make the bathroom a nicer, safer place using student-made art.
“It was about creating a space that would quietly preserve its own safety and foster positivity in place of hate,” Mentze said. “The tiles cost almost nothing and improved the environment at once.”
Gelfman has been the force behind a number of artistic murals on campus, including one that can be found at the Arts and Science building, so she knew how to begin the community-based project. She started with creative workshops for designing and painting tiles that were meant to inspire “positive energy,” according to Gelfman. It was a plan that ended with student volunteers who helped paste the ceramic tiles to the bathroom walls, with at least two tile artwork pieces visible in each stall.
“I wanted students to feel welcome and secure while on campus,” Gelfman said.
The tiles can be seen all around the walls in the restrooms by the theater, as well as in the Student Center restrooms. According to Mentze, who tracks emails about graffiti reports in the restrooms at ARC, there hasn’t been any additional graffiti reported since the installation of the tiles on May 5 2023.
“Increasing security can […] make a space feel less safe instead of more, especially a space like a bathroom. Instead, art and inclusive phrases made these bathrooms safe,” Mentze said.
