WHAT IS HAPPENING TO THE MURALS
OF LOS ANGELES?
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
CALL YOUR CITY COUNCIL PERSON
CALL OUR MAYOR .....NOW
TELL THEM YOU WANT THE MURALS BACK
YOU CAN ALSO:
For 30 years SPARC has been at the forefront of producing and preserving murals for the City of Los Angeles. Currently, we are facing the loss of Los Angeles’
legacy of murals as one mural after the other is tagged by youth,
whitewashed by private businesses, or simply neglected. We are in one
of the most destructive times in mural history in Los Angeles,
but whitewashing or tagging of murals is only symbolic of the larger
problem of city policies that denigrate the art form. After 15 years
of producing and preserving the murals for the city, in 2002 all mural
contracts to SPARC were cut by the city, and we are seeing the
aftermath of such a decision that disregarded these works now. Last
years budget for murals was a total of $10,000!
Mural
territory has always been off limits for most taggers. This is
changing. A generation of youth have lost respect for the murals as
they have not been educated as to their importance, nor have they had
the opportunity to take their place as youth team members working on a
mural in their neighborhood. City policy makes marking on the mural
the best place to tag as the blank wall along side the mural will be
cleaned immediately, and the mural will not. Hence hit the mural and
your tag will stay up longer. 10's of Millions of city dollars are
spent to clean blank walls via the city graffitti abatement pollicy but
not art.
SPARC
has always been a graph/artist friendly organization, working to
provide alternative venues for artistic expression for youth. Those currently tagging are very different from those who paint spray can murals.
A few even make their claim to fame the destruction of a mural. It is
time to stop the destruction with a combination of enforcement of the
VARA act (the Visual Artist Rights Act) making destruction of art a
higher penalty than blank walls and most importantly to get to the
heart of the problem with PREVENTIVE PROGRAMS FOR YOUTH. We believe if
we give youth the opportunity to beautify their community they will
value beauty.
SPARC
is proposing Murals for a New Los Angeles that works directly with a
new generation of taggers. By producing and preserving murals, we can
begin to re-dedicate, re-educate and re-energize the LA mural movement
and have LA take back the City's title as the “Mural Capital of the
World."
The
City of Philadelphia invests 4 million dollars annually in their mural
program, making it the friendliest climate for muralism in the country
and with over 2000 murals in a city a quarter of the size of Los
Angeles it is the new capital for murals.
Muralists looking for a better place to live? try Philadelphia. Don't give up on us. WE'LL BE BACK!
Judith F. Baca Debra J.T. Padilla
Founder/Artistic Director Executive Director
