IU students, administrators and departments have united – all in the name of the squirrel.

Community members have decorated about 50 plaster-cast squirrels provided by Ars Nova, a student-run art organization established more than 30 years ago.

The collective creative impulse is part of the group’s Squirrels Public Art Project, which bears the slogan, “The squirrel is your canvas. Go nuts.”

Michael Darragh, a junior visual communication major, is the vice president of Ars Nova.

“We thought it’d be an interesting idea to cast plaster squirrels and sell them to people,” he said. “We wanted to open up NIU to the creativity that’s here, and have us artists be able to express ourselves. It caught on, and everybody loved it.”

The group, which has a regular membership of about 15 and is open to all NIU students, spent many grueling nights casting the squirrels, Darragh said. They sold more than 100, and people decorated and returned about half of them.

The squirrels still are on display on the Art Building’s second floor, across from the Jack Olson Gallery. Each squirrel is credited to the name of its designer.

“We did it so people could express themselves in whatever way they wanted to,” Darragh said. “Then they give ’em to us, and we put ’em on display.”

Notable NIU departments that decorated a squirrel include the president’s office, the provost’s office, the ombudsman’s office and the Student Association.

“It was a rather creative approach to involve the generation of a wide variety of artistic pieces,” NIU Ombudsman Tim Griffin said.

Graduate students working in the ombudsman’s office decorated most of their department’s squirrel, which was based on staff brainstorming. The pseudo squirrel ended up red and black, Griffin said, with question marks as symbolism to illustrate the office’s specialty in helping people answer questions.

The staff in the office of Provost Ivan Legg designed an academic squirrel, complete with a black graduation cap and tassel, a diploma, a book and a red Huskie T-shirt.

“I think it’s a good idea,” said Phyllis Pleckham, secretary to the provost. “It was a good effort to get departments on campus involved, and it was fun.”

Other uniquely themed squirrels include a stegosaurus squirrel, a “Clockwork Orange” squirrel, a cyber squirrel and a clown squirrel.

The sandwich squirrel, however, won the Ed Paschke Choice Award. The Chicago artist and painter was in town to juror the 2003 Juried Student Gallery. The artists made a sandwich out of different materials and put the squirrel in the middle of it, Darragh said.

Ars Nova’s members already are generating ideas for next year. The group meets at 9 p.m. every Wednesday. Meetings usually are held at Neptune North’s basement gallery, but they often meet at other locations, such as a bowling alley.

“Everyone is welcome, definitely,” Darragh said. “We want to get people to start making art … to get everybody and anybody, to get them creatively thinking.”