South Seattle College Celebrates Completion of Inaugural Mural Project

Posted on : Tue, 06/10/2025 - 13:47 by Ty Swenson - Public Information Office

“When you are walking through that hallway with that mural there, there is no way you cannot smile and take a deep breath because you can feel the magnitude that those walls, that those colors, and that those images carry. And most importantly, you can feel the love.”

The words of Dr. Eileen Jimenez, Dean of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at South Seattle College, echoed through the Robert Smith Building Courtyard on June 6, 2025, as students, faculty, staff and community members gathered to celebrate the completion of an inaugural mural project that will welcome visitors for generations to come. 

The Mural, We Carry the Light, We Carry the Sky, has revitalized the main entrance to South’s main campus in West Seattle. It was designed by Seattle-based Indigenous Pacific Islander Artist Toka Valu with community input and inspired by the creation stories of Indigenous Peoples native to the lands where the college resides today.

The celebration kicked off with a welcome from Seattle Colleges Tribal Government Liaison Willard Bill and included a program where individuals key to the project shared their perspective, the finished mural was officially unveiled, and a special menu of food was provided by South Culinary Arts Alumna Chef Liiv (an Afro-Indigenous chef) and Chef Shawn (an Indigenous chef from Hawaktsup). South Seattle College music students filled the air with eclectic sounds to keep spirits high as we enjoyed the warmth of a clear spring day.

The actual painting – a collaborative effort including art students and faculty, college staff and community members – took 300 hours over nine weeks. As evidenced by the giddiness and cheers from the crowd as the finished mural was revealed, the results are astounding. 

As Toka described it, “Across two campus walls, a procession of human figures and animal allies run side by side, each carrying a torch not just of flame, but of purpose and hope. Graduates, workers, elders, and professionals of different vocations move alongside otter, cougar, bear, fox, frog, coyote, squirrel, big horn ram, and deer. Some carry tools, others carry memory and clarity of purpose. Each of them bears light.  

“Behind them rise the hills of West Seattle where the South Seattle College is situated and skies of the Duwamish lands, echoing inspirations of formline and Pasifika carvings as a tribute to the original stewards of this region. The sky columns, marked with ancestral faces, remind us that we do not move forward alone. 

“We Carry the Light, We Carry the Sky honors the invisible labor, the intergenerational knowledge, and the boundless potential cultivated on this campus. It is a celebration of those who push upward and onward together lifting not only themselves, but the very communities that propped them up.”

Like all great things, the mural started with a spark. 

“I think of this project as a seed – a very simple, very small seed,” said Scott Mexcal, Art Faculty and Mural Class Instructor who led the project. “We thought of having a class … and in that class we would make these murals to add a little color to gray buildings because we know on gray winter quarter days, we could use a little bit of color in this space.” 

And from there, the thought became a plan and a project. The South Seattle College Foundation provided critical funding for project costs, instructional leadership approved and supported the creation of a mural class, a committee came together to select an artist for the design and gather community feedback, and once Toka’s vision was complete, Scott worked closely with students, staff and community to start painting walls and bring that vision to life.

“And so, this project grew, and what might have been one wall became two, it wrapped forward, and it spilled from the outside in, a gateway from the greater community into the intimacy of our learning community,” Scott said. “It grew from just being a class to a community, a product much greater than any single effort of an individual, a class, or a department. It is a radical imagining of our aspirations for the future. It is an offering and an acknowledgment of those who came before us. It is what we leave for those who will follow in our footsteps. And like the figures depicted in our beloved mural, it carries the light in these times, which too often feel dark.” 

Much praise and the loudest cheers were dedicated to the student muralists who put countless hours into the project. 

“I want to give a big shout out to students,” Toka said. “They were on it, they were really encouraged to find their own voices in certain aspects of that mural, and I’m really proud of what they did here.”

“My most heartfelt thanks go out to the students,” Scott added. “Your grit and heart are inspiring. Thank you for sharing your talent so generously. Thank you for trusting the process. Thank you for trusting me to lead you on this journey.”

For South student and incoming 2025-2026 student government president Judas Iscariot, being part of the mural class “was an amazing process from start to finish … I can tell you it was probably one of the most formative experiences of my education. And what we kind of discovered - what I personally discovered - was that building community is not just showing up. Showing up is about half the battle, and then it takes intention from there. It takes knowing things about people; it takes being vulnerable.” 

As the program came to an end and folks lined up to grab food and share a feast, Toka Valu stepped away from the crowd to take in the finished mural. We asked Toka how he was feeling at that moment: 

“I’m feeling hopeful,” he said. “I’ve been watching way too much news for the past few days so it’s easy to kind of lose sight of what’s great about community sometimes. But coming here today has been amazing, especially seeing students. I worked at University of Washington, and I miss that aspect of students and how bright everything seems when they are around.  

“So, I feel hopeful, and I feel good about the rest of my day coming up.”  

The hope is that We Carry the Light, We Carry the Sky will be the first of several murals created at South Seattle College. Eileen Jimenez shared that the long term vision is to do seven murals in honor of the seven generation philosophy in many Indigenous cultures “because we believe that our collective work today should center the healing, the grounding, and the sense of belonging for the next seven generations.” 

To donate and support future murals, please visit JustGiving.