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One of the mural committee members, , chairs the music department, and serves as a professor of the practice of music.

Mösenbichler-Bryant said the faculty members had long discussions on how to celebrate the building’s anniversary.

“It’s a really important milestone that coincides with the centennial, so it was important to mark this important occasion and to somehow capture how the department has grown over the last few years,” said Mösenbichler-Bryant, who also directs the and is the artistic director and conductor of the .

Mösenbichler-Bryant added that the music department considered other artists who could capture the history of the music department and worked closely with several of them before choosing Robinson for the project.

“Her work was inspiring,” she said. “It really captured our intentions, and it was so beautiful, and how she combined it into one beautiful artwork.”

The building’s foyer features a turn of the century of Mary Duke Biddle that’s replicated by Robinson in her mural. The whimsical, colorful work was also inspired in part by a Mary Lou Williams’ drawing titled, “.”

The mural begins with Morton, Waller and Hines, who inspired Williams before it segues into the figures of her contemporaries, Armstrong, Ellington and Goodman, who were also sources of inspiration for her.

There’s a twisting, brown vine throughout the work, and flowers painted in the same colors as Williams’ musical inspirations that speaks to connectivity, growth and love.

Williams is seated at the piano with the notes from her composition, “,” flowing behind her. 

is a graduate of the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. Her work has been featured across the state, and in Brooklyn, Miami, Chicago, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C. She is “absolutely honored” to create art that commemorates the building’s half-century mark. 

The work has added significance because her father, Michael Robinson, a recently retired physician, attended Duke’s medical school.

“I hope this piece really inspires others to chase their dreams and accomplish whatever it is they want to do,” Robinson said. “And it’s also a special tribute to my dad, because he graduated from here and he pursued medicine. So to have this contrast of the arts and science is a beautiful thing.”

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