According to House Coordinator Eunice Lee `23, Art House has “always been sort of fluctuating in terms of its existence.” Over the years, the house has existed as more of a concept than a certain structure, occupying different buildings that are now French House or Food House.  

Lee described it as an “underdog” on campus – Food House has meals, Farm House has a garden, but Art House, in her eyes, had no defining characteristic making it immediately recognizable within the Grinnell community. Last Saturday, the residents made a big step to change that. 

At one of their biweekly house meetings, Art House residents discussed potentially painting a mural inside the house. Upon deciding that might be too logistically difficult, they decided to test the waters with administrative approval, setting their sights on their unpainted two-story back porch. 

Residents primed the porch and spent the weekend of Oct. 2 welcoming any and all students who wanted to take a break from studying, roll up their sleeves and leave their mark on the house. “There wasn’t even a color scheme,” said house resident Derin Sivrioglu `23.  

In lieu of a pre-planned design, the porch is now covered in a cascade of bright colors and funky patterns. Residents expressed surprise at how many non-Art House residents showed up to help out. “Community building wasn’t the reason we did it, but that was a consequence,” Sivrioglu said.  

In the vein of community building, this year Art House hopes to bring students together to make art regardless of background, interest or major. Resident Annalise Rummelhart `23.5 said of living in Art House, “A lot of people are always like, oh, are you an art major? And I don’t even know if there are any art majors in the house.”  

The house is filled with students of various academic interests united by creativity, whether that manifests through writing, dance, theatre, visual art, or anything else. Sivrioglu, a physics major who loves to dance, said that she applied to live in Art House because she “wanted that environment of people always wanting to create.”  

Their first of hopefully many successful projects this year has left the house with not only an immediately recognizable multicolor dream porch, but a stronger sense of physical belonging. 

“I think that this really solidifies our presence on campus and gives us the security that we’ve been looking for all these years,” Lee said. Some residents left handprints on the porch as a memory for Art House residemts to come.  

Art House is already back at work planning more events, including a Halloween haunted house and art-based study breaks. “You deserve to make time for that even if your homework isn’t done,” Rummelhart said. As we transition back to on-campus living and learning, relearning work-life balance is difficult but integral to everyone’s success, and for many, making room for creative expression is a key (and cathartic) aspect of that equilibrium.  

“This is something we can manage, and ultimately this is something we need,” said Lee.  “We need time to care for ourselves and each other, and doing that through art is a way to connect.”