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Community Mural Project

San Juan’s First Street Art Festival

Looking at the powerful new works from the San Juan Street Art Festival tells the tale that the world is in a Renaissance of creativity. Everywhere you turn, entire districts of new artwork are being created in urban centers across the earth. Seeing the works in San Juan, Miami, Valparaiso, Barcelona, Auckland, Toronto and Bologna shows that power that murals can have to help define and redefine community. Politicians and city officials with intelligence have recognized the power of artwork…

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Tribute to Howard Mallory

Howard Mallory was an early pioneer in the modern public art movement in Chicago and an important player in the Black mural movement that happened on the south and west sides. He participated in the painting of the Wall of Respect on 43rd and Langley, a pivotal piece in Chicago’s public art scene. He was also well known for his sculptures, masks, pots and ceramics. Back when “Power to the people” and “Right on” were part of a new lexicon…

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St. Petersburg and the Growing Mural Movement

This article is an interesting combination of both the beauty and difficulty found in the mural movement, not just in St. Petersburg but throughout the US and the world. On one hand, murals are becoming more accepted and acknowledged as benefiting the community and aerosol writers are being recognized as for their contributions to neighborhood beautification. On the other hand, aspiring muralists are working for cheap or free to create their works and their personal contribution of time and labor…

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Clarion Alley Turns 20!

Clarion Alley has been a fixture of the Mission Murals for the past 20 years. CRP is proud to have a small piece done in 2010 in the alley and congratulates Clarion for 20 years of great art! <iframe src=”http://player.vimeo.com/video/51715787″ width=”500″ height=”281″ frameborder=”0″ webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe> It’s been said that Clarion Alley has achieved what other mural projects in the Mission District fought for. Other murals fought racism; Clarion offered wall space for artists and non-artists alike, spanning all ethnicities…

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Chicano Park and the Transformative Power of Murals

Chicano Park is legendary! It is a true home of creativity and history. This park is an example of the power that murals have on a community, the lasting impact of creativity and how murals have created a historic attraction that people from around the world travel to see. No one travels to see graffiti abatement. No one goes out of their way to see a blank wall. In fact, no one really notices a blank wall. People avoid patchy…

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Pilsen and the Art in Public Spaces Initiative

CRP has been taking a close look at Danny Solis’ initiative, Art in Public Spaces. This program has all the makings of a good idea. It is an an antivandalism initiative that’s intended to control and limit defacement of public property. It points out the former Mayor, Richard J. Daley, spent millions of dollars on costly and ineffective Graffiti Blasters. However, CRP has two concerns. First, it appears, according to this article, that Solis has only spent $13,000, which brings up…

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Community Choses Mural over Anti-Graffiti Coating

The Shawmont Valley Association made an intelligent step forward when they chose not to cover a retaining wall with anti-graffiti coating. The community decided that a Mural would be the best long-term solution to their problems with ongoing vandalism. Indeed anti-graffiti coating doesn’t make a wall look any better and hasn’t proven to be an adequate deterrent despite all of the hype around it. Murals promote community engagement, help decorate and empower a community and improve the look of unsightly…

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Yakima Graffiti Abatement Proves the History will Repeat Itself

This story illustrates the average graffiti abatement initiative, in this case in Yakima WA. It includes a combination of criminalizing the youth, penalizing the property owner, and not engaging the community. Once again, community murals are left out of the equation, in favor of repeatedly painting out vandalism over and over again. Graffiti abatement is big business that is increasingly being privatized. We see that “tough on graffiti” initiatives can appear to have impact immediately often fall off like an…

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MEAR ONE’s London Mural Vandalized in Attempt to Censor Him

This article is both an update and also includes the backstory on the neighborhood where the mural was painted. Its clear that this mural has been vilified and attacked for striking a nerve. The question remains if that nerve is a historical bias against Jewish people or the mere mention of the power elites. The questions of anti-semiticism have drowned out any dialogue about the global banks, class and the plutocracy. Despite the mural’s vandalism, it has opened up a…

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Pilsen Muralists Fight Gentrification

The Pilsen neighborhood has been a center for the Mexican community in Chicago and a haven for historical mexican murals for decades. It is home to the Mexican Museum and numerous other historical landmarks. Yet as the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) continues its land grab for property south of its campus, Pilsen has been in the direct line of fire for a massive gentrification. With the influx of yuppies and college students, much of the history and many…

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