Inside Out Project

Your face is beautiful.

The Inside Out Project was a public art show created at the University of Calgary in collaboration with the Taylor Family Digital Library. Inspired by the TED prize winning project by French artist JR, the Inside Out Project saw us take more than 500 pictures of student faces and then print them on massive posters which were then displayed on windows throughout the library and walkways leading to the building. The project was well received and I still hear from people about it. It was an extraordinary amount of work, and we all learned a powerful lesson: our faces are beautiful. For a brief moment, our campus was defined by a collection of different types of people who came together and reminded us how lucky we are to be together. The project connected two large courses that were designed as part of a Fine Arts research project and were supported by volunteers, among whom was Jeff Watson, then a student, now a lawyer with the City of Calgary, and Donna Livingstone, then the head of the Taylor Family Digital Library and now the leader of the Glenbow Museum.