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…
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…
Monday, October 15, 2012 – 2:38 PM By Natasha Riebe Cowichan Valley The controversy on graffiti in Duncan is expected to continue Monday night when a contingent of people from the Duncan Garage and neighbouring groups present a petition at City Hall. Council is also expected to discuss whether the word ‘community’, painted in big pink and purple letters between the Garage and the Phoenix Pub on Duncan St., should be painted over. At least four councillors believe it should…
On Martyr’s Road in Downtown Cairo, the ghosts of Egypt’s uprising haunt every single step. After the terrible clashes which erupted here in November last year, the long thoroughfare leading east off Tahrir Square became an unofficial shrine for Egypt’s revolutionaries; its walls transformed by street art into a mesmerising point of pilgrimage. The murals, which included Banksy-style stencils depicting victims of the regime, clearly unsettled the Egyptian Government – one evening in September, municipal workers arrived under the…
Two weeks ago, CRP featured a story from CNN on el Seed. Writing in other alphabets outside of the phonetic is something that is both exciting and inspiring. It is particularly powerful when the artist is writing in their native language, as el Seed is. It is also especially interesting to see how the mainstream American media has picked up his story and compare it to the response that he has gotten at home. Last week, Tunisia’s tallest minaret went…
Judy Baca is a master artist, a legendary muralist and a distinguished professor at the University of California at Los Angeles. She’s been awarded the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship and was Harvard’s Master Artist and Senior Scholar. Yet she says her most important revelation came not in a classroom nor in studio, but rather in the form of a question many years ago from her maternal grandmother, Francisca. An indigenous woman born in Mexico during the revolution, Francisca was a spiritual…
Here is an exciting project taking place in El Paso. It is a beautiful collaboration between artists, property owners and the community. The realization that murals create an attractive neighborhood is powerful. The transformation is powerful and deep when everyone in the area gets behind it. We see this in large cities as well as places that you would never expect, like the Art Alley in downtown Rapid City. Segundo Barrio is famous for its murals; the 79901 area is…
CRP has always been a strong advocate for mural protections. This story illustrates both the community’s love for murals and the history that they represent as well as the need for protections against murals being destroyed. Most muralists are not aware of the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA) and the scope of legal protections already in place for muralists. This story is especially relevant to us because it is a local issue. Murals related to the Chilean community seem to…
Precita Eyes is one of oldest and most amazing community mural organizations in the country. Based in the Mission district of San Francisco, Precita Eyes’ impact has been felt throughout the Bay Area. Precita Eyes has been supportive of the aerosol culture. This should be a powerful event and you can check it out after you visit CRP’s opening at the Richmond Art Center.
As reported earlier this week, Chinese consuls from the San Francisco office recently made the startling ill-judged decision to try and strong-arm a small Oregon town into forcing a local businessman to remove a pro-Tibet mural. Here, Oregon Congressman Peter DeFazio slams the consuls on the floor of the House of Representatives for not only interfering in the domestic affairs of another country but also for being generally ignorant about the law of the country they work in. I’m shocked, and appalled, that apparently…
