#BeKind Instagram Walls can be found on various dorms across campus. Credit: Gabe Haferman | Assistant Photo Editor
Brutus Buckeye, dandelions and candy hearts all have one thing in common: They can be spotted in community-designed murals across campus.
Winners of the #BeKind Instagram Wall Contest, held during the spring semester, now have their art plastered on several of the most heavily trafficked residence halls on campus. Stemming from a grant by the Center for HumanKindness through The Columbus Foundation, the #BeKind Instagram Walls are a great way to highlight art from the Ohio State community and give to a handful of nonprofits, Tracy Stuck, director of community partnerships and innovation in the Office of Student Life, said.
“We kind of came up with this concept around kindness and really thought it would be awesome to have a contest to really select amazing artists,” Stuck said. “And the neat thing about it was we had entries from and we let faculty, staff, students, alumni and community all submit. So there was a wide variety of submissions, and we had over 90 submissions.”
The #BeKind Instagram Wall Contest was designed to encourage photography and exploration of different points on campus as well as philanthropy, Stuck said. The five contest winners were each given $500 to donate to a nonprofit from the Columbus Foundation’s Giving Store, which Stuck said she thinks emphasized the initiative’s goal of spreading kindness.
With the semester freshly underway, Stuck said she hopes the murals around campus will serve as inspiration for students to be kind to themselves and one another.
“We’re just thrilled with people being excited about them, you know, and we waited to put them up until right before [classes] because we wanted them to be fresh and pretty and ready to go,” Stuck said. “I just hope as many students as possible can stop by and get pictures and spread Buckeye kindness throughout the world.”
Taylor Miracle, a second-year in forestry, fisheries and wildlife and one of the winners of the contest, said she wanted her #BeKind design to be a compilation of things Ohio State students love most. “Brutus Polaroid,” which can be found at Norton House, is in the same format as a Polaroid photo, with a grinning Brutus flashing a peace sign in front of the Ohio Stadium.
“Well, if it goes on a wall, I know a lot of people like taking pictures with wall art, and I know that everyone likes Polaroids. So I was like, ‘You know what? I’m going to combine the two,’” Miracle said. “And then again, I was like, ‘Well, everyone likes Brutus. Everyone likes football.’”
Miracle said her design ended up garnering the support of Brutus’ original creator when it came time for about 25 judges from the Columbus area to choose winners. True to her major, Miracle chose to donate her $500 charitable winnings to the Franklin County Humane Society.
“I always see that they’re overfilled,” Miracle said. “And obviously that’s not the animals’ fault, so I thought giving some money to them would be very helpful so they could buy supplies, or do anything they need to do for them.”
Kim Traverse, an interior designer for the Office of Student Life’s Facility Planning and Design and one of the winners of the #BeKind Contest with her design, “Scatter Kindness,” was busy scattering kindness by helping students move into dorms last week — one of which, Smith-Steeb Hall, now boasts her design.
Traverse chose to donate her winnings to Girls on the Run of Central Ohio, according to the Kindness at Ohio State website. Although she herself was able to spread kindness by entering the contest, moving students into residence halls and donating to Girls on the Run, Traverse said her inspiration behind her design stemmed from her desire to see all Buckeyes encourage kindness as well.
“I really hope that, you know, we as Buckeyes do scatter the kindness,” Traverse said. “As human beings, that’s what we should be doing. Everybody can use kindness, whether it’s receiving it or giving it.”
According to Stuck’s Facebook page, #BeKind Instagram Walls can be found at Smith-Steeb Hall, Bradley Hall, Norton House, Scott House and Houck House for members of the Ohio State community to take pictures with, post on social media and use to spread kindness.
