NIU Homecoming festivities are officially up and running.
The week started with the kickoff in the MLK Commons outside, but it was also bustling inside the Holmes Student Center.
New this year is a custom mural installation made of individual squares for students to chip in and paint to reveal a drawing of Altgeld with a psychedelic sky and the lagoon in front.
Jessica Labatte is the director of the School of Art and Design. She says the design comes from Ryan Travis Christian, who graduated from NIU in 2007. It's inspired by old school comics.
"We have some white paint in case there's any little mix-ups," Labatte said. "But we designed it so that anyone could participate regardless of your skill. There's just little squares, and you just paint in the black lines. It's kind of like a coloring book."
Students can also suggest silhouette ideas for people well known to NIU or DeKalb that will be drawn inside the castle’s windows.
This week also includes the traditional recycled boat race on Tuesday, downtown DeKalb block party on Thursday and the NIU Huskies football team's game against the Air Force Falcons on Saturday night.
Full schedule here.
