JanIsdeMan makes Utrecht Science Park more colourful with mural

Suppose you passed by Heidelberglaan and Padualaan in the past two weeks. In that case, you've probably seen JanIsDeMan painting a mural on the side of the Sjord Groenman building, home to the Faculty of Social Sciences. He was painting three pink compartments, which would later form the inside of a bookcase. Then, he sketched the contours of the books and filled them in with colour, unveiling the book titles and covers. The result is a bookcase with a colourful collection of works related to the university.

'It makes people happy', says Jan Heinsbroek, the actual name of JanIsDeMan. He says many people have told them they liked the mural. ‘They said that the Utrecht Science Park could use some colour. Murals bring a bit of charm to a neighbourhood as they allow you to tell a story and it is all handmade. You turn a street into a museum, so to say.’

Inspiration
The artwork is an initiative of Vuur, the student party in the University Council. Last academic year, UU asked the student section to think of a project on which NPO funds could be spent. The NPO funds are a sum the Dutch government gave universities to improve students' mental health and wellbeing after the pandemic.

Matias Edelstein, one of the student members of the Council at the time, suggested a mural. He was inspired by his hometown, Philadelphia, in the United States, which is also known as the ‘City of Murals.’ Over four thousand murals can be found there. 

UU community
The student members wanted the mural to reflect the university and its community. Matias' party, Vuur, asked students which books should be featured in the bookcase. Student assessors, study associations, the University Library and the Executive Board contributed ideas too. Lieke Fokker, one of the students of the current University Council: ‘We wanted to include books from different programmes and faculties, as well as books that represented the city of Utrecht.’

Novels
This eventually resulted in a list of about thirty books, which was adjusted right before JanIsDeMan started painting the mural. For example, DSM-5, the manual for classifying and diagnosing mental disorders, was exchanged for the book Wij slaven van Suriname (We Slaves of Suriname) by Anton de Kom, which the UU community read last year for One Book One Campus.

The books on the shelf are now a mix of novels, academic works and books about UU and the city of Utrecht. Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, suggested by the Faculty of Humanities, is one of the literary works featured. The Safekeep, by UU graduate Yael van der Wouden, the first Dutch writer to be nominated for a Booker Prize, is also depicted in the mural.

Textbooks
All faculties suggested significant titles in their fields. One of the works chosen by students of the Faculty of Social Sciences is Yuval Noah Harari's Sapiens, which tells the history of humanity. The Faculty of Law, Economics & Governance selected the 18th-century work The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, the ‘father of modern economics’. The Faculty of Science contributed the introductory texbook for first-year Biology students, Biology: A Global Approach.

The geoscientists chose Stephen Marshak's Earth, Portrait of a Planet, while the Faculty of Medicine went for the Sobotta Atlas of Anatomy, a handbook on the anatomy of the human body. The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine suggested Veterinary Anatomy of Domestic Animals.

Utrecht University stipulated that no political or religious books could be included in the mural to avoid controversy. Students from the pro-Palestinian movement suggested Maya Wind's Towers of Ivory and Steel, about the role of Israeli universities in the oppression of the Palestinian people, but the title didn't make it in the mural. Lieke: ‘I would have loved to see Maya Wind's book on the bookshelf, but the university made it very clear that it did not want any politics on the mural.’