crproject, Author at Community Rejuvenation Project

Alice Street Mural Project A Big Hit With Local Media Outlets

August 21, 2014

Recently, CRP pulled off a pretty cool feat: within the course of ten days, the Alice Street Mural Project received media hits from the Mercury News , Oakland Tribune, KQED, Oakland Mayor Jean Quan’s newsletter, Oakland Tribune (again), and the Contra Costa Times. That’s easily the most attention from local media CRP has ever gotten for any of the 150 mural projects the organization has done in the past four years. Even more impressive was what the media had to…

Alice St. Mural Project Phase I Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony Highlights

August 14, 2014

crproject

CRP Blog & Updates, Events

On Friday, August 8, 2014, CRP announced the completion of Phase I of the Alice St. Mural Project with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, held in the parking lot at Alice and 14th St., in front of two sections of the mural wall. The event, which was noted by the Oakland Tribune, the San Jose Mercury News, and KQED, was an overwhelming success, with over 120 attendees, including approximately 75 residents of the Hotel Oakland, along with neighborhood residents and artists-in-residence at…

Alice Street Mural Phase I Completed; Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony Announced

August 5, 2014

crproject

CRP Blog & Updates

Community Rejuvenation Project artists Desi Mundo and Pancho Peskador have completed Phase I of the monumental Alice Street Mural Project, capping two weeks of intensive painting which often saw the artists pulling ten-hour days. The first wall, completed earlier in July, covered a large wall facing the Malonga Casquelord Center for the Arts on Alice and 14th Sts., which was decorated with portraits of Malonga, dancer Carla Service, an Ohlone Indian chief and drummer, social justice activist Cephus “Uncle Bobby”…

Alice Street Mural Project Report-Back

July 17, 2014

crproject

CRP Blog & Updates

After a little more than a week of painting the wall at 14th and Alice, CRP is pleased to report the wall is nearing completion. This project has been a real eye-opener; the level of interaction we’ve had with the community has been unprecedented. It’s not an exaggeration to say the mural has started to become a magnet for community-building, even before it’s completed. The project started with covering the entire wall—covered with unsightly and highly unartistic graffiti tags–with…

The Community Rejuvenation Project Announces the Alice Street Mural Project – Phase I

July 7, 2014

crproject

CRP Blog & Updates

For Immediate Release: July 8, 2014 (Oakland, CA) — The Community Rejuvenation Project, an Oakland-based non-profit organization specializing in community murals, proudly announces Phase I of the Alice Street Mural Project, which runs from July 2 -Aug 3rd, 2014. This mural project will encompass painting three large walls surrounding the parking lot at 1401 Alice Street (opposite the Malonga Casquelord Center and facing the historic Hotel Oakland.) The walls cover an approximate surface area of 2500 ft., and have…

South Shore Mural a Shining Beacon in Chicago’s Sea of Bureaucracy and Brown Paint

June 20, 2014

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CRP Blog & Updates

Chicago, Illinois, is a city with a deep division over public art. A case in point: The city’s controversial “Graffiti Blasters” abatement program, which for the past 21 years has criminalized street artists and muralists, by linking aerosol expression of any kind with gang violence. Introduced in 1993, the same year as the classic hip-hop albums “Midnight Marauders” and “93 Til Infinity,” Graffiti Blasters – the name sounds like a lightweight racist take on the term “ghetto blaster” – became…

CRP’s Desi Mundo Returns to Chicago for Two-Week Residency at Hyde Park Art Center

June 2, 2014

crproject

CRP Blog & Updates

It’s been said you can’t go back home again. For Community Rejuvenation Project founder and Executive Director Desi Mundo, however, that wasn’t exactly the case. After 14 years of living in Oakland, where he founded CRP — which has become the city’s most prolific producers of public murals — Mundo returned to Chicago, the city he first learned the aerosol arts in, for a two-week residency at Hyde Park Art Center, which happened to be celebrating its 75th anniversary. In…

CRP x Biblioteca Popular / People’s Library : Community Engagement = Community Empowerment

May 22, 2014

crproject

CRP Blog & Updates

Every mural tells a story. That’s a truism for every single mural painted by the Community Rejuvenation Project. Visual art is a form of storytelling in and of itself; murals offer a way to weave stories together into a visual narrative through the use of vibrant imagery which carries both symbolic and literal meaning. Often, there’s an even deeper story behind the murals CRP does. In the case of the Biblioteca Popular / People’s Library, the location of a recent…

CRP x StopWaste.org x Melrose Leadership Academy mural raises awareness about composting

April 28, 2014

crproject

CRP Blog & Updates

Did you know composting food waste is one of the easiest and most effective ways of recycling? According to Stopwaste.org, food scraps and food-soiled paper – paper plates, pizza boxes, and paper napkins – comprise the largest portion of the waste stream. Such scraps represent 35% of all waste in Alameda County. While removing harmful toxic waste and hazardous household waste is more complicated and may require safety precautions, recycling food scraps by sending them to a composting facility allows…

CRP x HHREC = Beautiful New Mural in Oakland’s Jack London Sq. District

April 9, 2014

crproject

CRP Blog & Updates

Celana Pearson is the Program Director for Health Through Art, an initiative of the Health and Human Resource Education Center (HHREC), a non-profit organization located in Oakland’s waterfront warehouse district, near Jack London Square. For many years, the center had waged an ongoing battle with tag vandals and its building was looking a little run-down. As Pearson relates, “the area was blighted and had lots of tagging.” Not a good look for an organization which promotes art as a means…