Communicating Carolina’s Excellence through Art

Craige Parking Deck with artwork that represents Carolina
“Drawn to Explain” is international artist Amalia Pica’s tribute to the teaching on Carolina’s campus. The beautiful colors that dress a typically gray Craige Parking Deck are used to illustrate several complex concepts from science, medicine, physics, dance and even a certain basketball offense.

“‘Drawn to Explain’ by renowned artist Amalia Pica is a beautiful and deeply moving exploration of the sense of discovery that we have here at Carolina,” said Chancellor Kevin M. Guskiewicz in opening the ceremony. “It’s the perfect example of Arts Everywhere and its mission to make the arts accessible for all.”

Pica, an Argentinian native now based in London contemporary artist, often explores communicating through engaging and playful ways.

“Like many artists my age, I inherited this question about what the relation between art and language is and the role that understanding plays when we look at an image,” Pica said. “This is something that sometimes makes contemporary art feel inaccessible to people. They feel they don’t understand. That question about whether there is something to understand is something that has been with me since the beginning.”

Five years after Pica began work on the project, UNC’s Ackland Art Museum held an event in September at Craige Deck celebrating its installation.

To help with understanding the art, the Ackland staff created an informational website about “Drawn to Explain.”

“Drawn to Explain” was commissioned by Arts Everywhere with the support of the Office of the Chancellor, Transportation and Parking, the Carol L. Folt Fund for the Arts, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Lockwood Jr., James Keith Brown ’84 and Eric Diefenbach, Ackland Fund and John A. Powell ’77.

Written by Susan Hudson, University Communications

Read more about this event.

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