Electronic edition, Vol. 1 No. 17, Apr. 23, 2008

Artistic works festoon the campus

2. A wheat field as photographed by professor Neal Rantoul now hangs down the side of Meserve Hall, as part of a Northeastern Creates artistic installation A wheat field as photographed by professor Neal Rantoul now hangs down the side of Meserve Hall, as part of a Northeastern Creates artistic installation. / CRAIG BAILEY

Depictions of the local police force and golden fields of Idaho and Washington are two large-scale artistic renderings now hanging throughout campus, visible signs of Northeastern University’s growing commitment to arts and creative expression.

The two separate art projects were installed as part of Northeastern Creates, a campus-wide initiative to promote arts and creativity.

• In one project, Art and Design professor Mira Cantor explores the image of the modern police department in an exhibit of charcoal drawings on display at the Curry Student Center.

Her large-scale drawings of Boston and Northeastern police department officers is done with an eye toward capturing the feel of a “melting pot” within an organization that integrates power and serves a largely segregated populace, she said.

Cantor’s drawings seek to show her subjects as human beings with families and lives outside the uniform. “I wanted to get at their personalities,” she said. “The uniform is not the person.”

Cantor is working with the city of Boston to mount an exhibit of 35 of her police drawings at the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse from January through March of 2009. After that, she will travel to the Netherlands to oversee an exhibit of 10 of her drawings at a gallery outside Amsterdam.

• In another project, photography professor Neal Rantoul captures landscapes in a large-scale series of wheat fields. His work, which has been reproduced in 40-foot by 32-foot prints, now hangs on the exterior Meserve Hall.

The image was shot with a Toyo Field 8 x 10 view camera on color transparency film. His series of wheat fields, which grow in a region called “The Palouse,” captivated him for their long horizon lines and beauty, he said.

“Growing up in Connecticut, I was hemmed in by trees and a lack of a horizon line,” he said. By contrast, the wide-open spaces were a welcome relief.

Rantoul published “American Series” in 2006, which contains a collection of wheat fields.