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Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

Hilltop Garden and Nature Center to receive new signs

Visitors may soon find it a little easier to make their way through Hilltop Garden and Nature Center.

Through a fine arts seminar taught by Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts lecturer Jenny El-Shamy, nine students will be designing signs for the gardening ?hotbed.

Located near Tulip Tree Apartments, Hilltop Garden and Nature Center encompasses multiple gardens, greenhouses, classes and workshops, according to the IU Landscape Architecture website.

“It’s a really amazing, fantastic space,” said Michelle Winchell, a third-year graduate student pursuing an MFA.

However, no signs currently exist to indicate which area is which, Winchell said.

“And since a lot of (the areas) are kind of adjacent to each other or some of the areas are small or some of the edges kind of bleed into each other, if the visitor wasn’t doing a guided tour, it would be a little confusing to figure out what all of the different (areas) are,” she said.

The nine students designing the signs have been split into two teams, each of which will design its own set of signs, Winchell said. Representatives from Hilltop Garden and Nature Center will then decide which of the two sets of signs they prefer.

“Lots of times the final solution ends up being a hybrid of both,” Winchell said. “But initially, we’re working in two teams and we’re each going to develop a different idea. And we’ll have several rounds of presentations and we’ll get feedback about what’s working well and what isn’t.”

Winchell said the teams will also receive feedback before the presentations.

“I think we’re going to visit the IU sign shop and a few other vendors around town just to get an idea of what’s possible and realistic to produce,” she said. “And that will kind of guide our design ?process.”

A provision of the IUB Strategic Plan from last spring called for an increase in high-impact practices, such as service-learning ?opportunities, on the IUB campus.

Winchell said such a service-learning project may be the first opportunity students have had to work with a ?real-world client.

“I think one of the great things about a service-learning project is it’s a good opportunity to work with someone in a real-world context,” she said.

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