To Save LA Murals We Must:
Wednesday, 10 December 2008 05:09
IN LIGHT OF THE CURRENT DISCUSSION ON THE FUTURE OF LOS ANGELES' MURALS AND THE JOINT MEETING HELD ON NOVEMBER 19, 2008, SPARC WOULD LIKE TO PRESENT. . .
TO SAVE L.A. MURALS WE MUST:
1. ENFORCE THE VISUAL ARTISTS RIGHTS ACT (VARA)
This act recognizes the moral rights of an artist and protects work from future alteration or destruction after having been sold/donated. This includes both intentional destruction and grossly negligent destruction of work. On a mural, graffiti is an example of both. The tagger is intentionally destructive when he marks on the work. The city is grossly negligent when it fails to remove graffiti from the work.
CLICK HERE FOR A PDF OF VARA
2. MAKE A DESTINCTION BETWEEN GRAFFITI THAT DESTROYS ART AND SIMPLE VANDALISM
Illegal graffiti (not to be confused with graph art - a legal art form that often uses spray can techniques) is always destructive. Tagging on a wall is against the law. Tagging on a mural is both against the law and violates the VARA act. Therefore, penalties for tagging on works of art should be more severe.
3. REQUIRE THAT THOSE PROSECUTED AND CONVICTED OF VANDALIZATION PERFORM MANDATORY COMMUNITY SERVICE
This community service requirement should be part of a city-funded graffiti removal program.
4. ESTABLISH A MURAL-GRAFFITI REMOVAL PROGRAM
a. Graffiti Abatement
The city already has a graffiti abatement program with an approximately $10 million/year budget, while the county's budget is approximately $30 million. A mural-graffiti removal program would require merely 10% of these budgets for cleaning.
b. Mural Hotline
Citizens should be able to call a phone number to report mural vandalism in progress. A campaign should be created to publicize this.
c. "Mural Ambulance"
A "Mural Ambulance" should be dispatched within 24 hours of calling the mural hotline. Operation Clean Sweep has a graffiti removal hotline. They remove graffiti "using paint, chemical solvents or sandblasting, depending on the type of surface (http://www.lacp.org/2003-Articles-Main/ReportGraffitiLosAngeles.html)" from any wall in the city, except for mural surfaces. Taggers in L.A. are aware of this so they specifically target murals. It is not difficult, however, to remove taggs from murals, as most of the murals in L.A. are wax-coated for this very reason. "Mural ambulance" technicians will be trained in how to swiftly and efficiently remove marks from mural services. The "mural ambulance" director will have a salaried position. Employees will either be youth paid at minimum wage or convicted vandals (part of the community service described in section 3 above.)
d. "Sin Tax"
For additional funds, as part of their philanthropy programs, spray paint companies should donate a percentage of their profits to the program.
5. PRESERVATION
Tagging on murals is a symptom of a larger problem, not a cause. In addition to the allocation of 1% of the City and County Graffiti Abatement Budget to maintenance of a "mural ambulance," another 1% should be allocated to the preservation of murals through an educational campaign. To physically preserve murals we must clean and repaint. However, of equal, if not greater importance is education. If the citizens of Los Angeles are not educated about the significance of the murals that are in their community, they will not care about them enough to report crimes and to fight to keep histories alive.
City and private partnership created the City Wide Mural Program. Let us reestablish this connection so that we may preserve Los Angeles' mural legacy. Just as MOCA is an integral part of Los Angeles' art identity, so are the hundreds of murals that adorn the walls of L.A.'s diverse neighborhoods.
Los Angeles is currently striving to establish itself as one of the major art centers of the world, but Los Angeles was once considered the mural capital of the United States. As its murals have been increasingly neglected, LA has lost this title. But our murals have not vanished. They merely require repair.
L.A. can and should once again be considered the mural capital of the United States. To maintain the health of the Arts in Los Angeles organizations such as SPARC should be kept operative as well as MOCA. Art should not only reside on the walls of MOCA, LACMA, The Hammer, or the Getty, but also on the walls of its streets, in the sunlight, out in the open for all to see.
TO SAVE L.A. MURALS WE MUST:
1. ENFORCE THE VISUAL ARTISTS RIGHTS ACT (VARA)
This act recognizes the moral rights of an artist and protects work from future alteration or destruction after having been sold/donated. This includes both intentional destruction and grossly negligent destruction of work. On a mural, graffiti is an example of both. The tagger is intentionally destructive when he marks on the work. The city is grossly negligent when it fails to remove graffiti from the work.
CLICK HERE FOR A PDF OF VARA
2. MAKE A DESTINCTION BETWEEN GRAFFITI THAT DESTROYS ART AND SIMPLE VANDALISM
Illegal graffiti (not to be confused with graph art - a legal art form that often uses spray can techniques) is always destructive. Tagging on a wall is against the law. Tagging on a mural is both against the law and violates the VARA act. Therefore, penalties for tagging on works of art should be more severe.
3. REQUIRE THAT THOSE PROSECUTED AND CONVICTED OF VANDALIZATION PERFORM MANDATORY COMMUNITY SERVICE
This community service requirement should be part of a city-funded graffiti removal program.
4. ESTABLISH A MURAL-GRAFFITI REMOVAL PROGRAM
a. Graffiti Abatement
The city already has a graffiti abatement program with an approximately $10 million/year budget, while the county's budget is approximately $30 million. A mural-graffiti removal program would require merely 10% of these budgets for cleaning.
b. Mural Hotline
Citizens should be able to call a phone number to report mural vandalism in progress. A campaign should be created to publicize this.
c. "Mural Ambulance"
A "Mural Ambulance" should be dispatched within 24 hours of calling the mural hotline. Operation Clean Sweep has a graffiti removal hotline. They remove graffiti "using paint, chemical solvents or sandblasting, depending on the type of surface (http://www.lacp.org/2003-Articles-Main/ReportGraffitiLosAngeles.html)" from any wall in the city, except for mural surfaces. Taggers in L.A. are aware of this so they specifically target murals. It is not difficult, however, to remove taggs from murals, as most of the murals in L.A. are wax-coated for this very reason. "Mural ambulance" technicians will be trained in how to swiftly and efficiently remove marks from mural services. The "mural ambulance" director will have a salaried position. Employees will either be youth paid at minimum wage or convicted vandals (part of the community service described in section 3 above.)
d. "Sin Tax"
For additional funds, as part of their philanthropy programs, spray paint companies should donate a percentage of their profits to the program.
5. PRESERVATION
Tagging on murals is a symptom of a larger problem, not a cause. In addition to the allocation of 1% of the City and County Graffiti Abatement Budget to maintenance of a "mural ambulance," another 1% should be allocated to the preservation of murals through an educational campaign. To physically preserve murals we must clean and repaint. However, of equal, if not greater importance is education. If the citizens of Los Angeles are not educated about the significance of the murals that are in their community, they will not care about them enough to report crimes and to fight to keep histories alive.
City and private partnership created the City Wide Mural Program. Let us reestablish this connection so that we may preserve Los Angeles' mural legacy. Just as MOCA is an integral part of Los Angeles' art identity, so are the hundreds of murals that adorn the walls of L.A.'s diverse neighborhoods.
Los Angeles is currently striving to establish itself as one of the major art centers of the world, but Los Angeles was once considered the mural capital of the United States. As its murals have been increasingly neglected, LA has lost this title. But our murals have not vanished. They merely require repair.
L.A. can and should once again be considered the mural capital of the United States. To maintain the health of the Arts in Los Angeles organizations such as SPARC should be kept operative as well as MOCA. Art should not only reside on the walls of MOCA, LACMA, The Hammer, or the Getty, but also on the walls of its streets, in the sunlight, out in the open for all to see.
Joint Meeting on the Future of LA Murals Monday, 01 December 2008 10:19
Wednesday, November 19 -- The ARTS, PARKS, HEALTH AND AGING and PLANNING AND LAND USE MANAGEMENT COMMITTEES had a special joint meeting to discuss the "feasibility of establishing a process which would permit the installation of fine art murals on private property," "define what a fine art mural is," and "draft an ordinance that addresses the City's need to facilitate new and preserve existing murals."
Los Angeles was once considered the mural capital of the world, but what we now see in our streets is a proliferation of billboard advertisements and supergraphics (the advertisements that wrap around sides of buildings) and a paucity of fine art murals. The decline of this reputation has been steady, largely due to the fact that legislation meant to protect the city's inhabitants from visual blight by regulating where, when and for how long an advertisement could exist, failed to exempt art murals from its jurisdiction. On April 17, 2002, the City Council adopted an ordinance to limit and, in many cases, prohibit the erection of supergraphic and mural signs. Deplorably, fine art murals were not distinguished from "mural signs." On May 1, 2002 the City Council established the SN Sign District Supplemental Use District. These Supplemental Use Districts were originally established "to regulate and restrict the location of certain types of uses whose requirements are difficult to anticipate and cannot adequately be provided for in the 'Comprehensive Zoning Plan' (Section 12.32 S of the Zoning Code)." In the years to follow, the City Council established the Hollywood Signage Supplemental Use District, the 15th Street Signage Supplemental Use District and Sign Districts in Downtown, Mid City, Crenshaw, and all along the city's freeways (just to name a few). Advertisements clutter the skyline in these locations, and murals must compete for eye space. Worse, new murals are illegal and are therefore never painted or subject to elimination if painted outside of these Districts, inside of the neighborhoods that want and need them. The solution to this problem that was proposed on November 19th is based on the Easement model of Portland, Oregon. This model allows fine art murals to be painted on the walls of private property if the wall is donated to the City for a minimum of 5 years, and the proposed mural(s) approved by the Cultural Affairs Commission. Under the current ordinances the city cannot regulate signage on the basis of content due to First Amendment rights (i.e., make a distinction between art and ads based on content). However, if private property were donated to the City for artworks, the city would, in this way, become a patron of the arts as opposed to a regulator, and would therefore have greater leeway (hypothetically) to judge proposed murals based on content. Murals created prior to the City's ban are, presumably, legal and will not be affected by changes in regulations. Murals created while the billboard ban was in effect are, presumably, not legal. They can, however, become part of an easement if donated and approved by the Cultural Affairs Commission. John Weber Mural In Danger Tuesday, 12 August 2008 08:56
 Mural to be Sandblasted October 21st 2008 There are now plans, not only to paint over, but to sandblast John Weber's "Toward Freedom" off the side of the former Jewish Community Center. This is an excessive act of elimination that will utterly destroy the mural, making it impossible to resurrect in the future if and when the Help Group moves out. Why not coat the mural with a protective layer of paint before whitewashing over it? It is a simple step to take and this way, even if the mural is hidden from view, it will be preserved, allowing future generations to bring it back, if they so decide. You can make a quick phone call to the Help Group's VP/Public Affairs, John Farrimond, at (818) 779-5212 or District 5 Councilmember, Jack Weiss, at (213) 473-7005 to speak out against the sandblasting. John Weber Mural In Danger August 12th 2008 In 1992 John Pitman Weber painted "Toward Freedom" on the building that then housed the Valley Cities Jewish Community Center. This building has recently been purchased by the Help Group and will become a school for children with special needs. The Help group intends to remove the mural holding that it is inconsistent with their mission and non-sectarian status. Though some denominational images (a star of David and Hebrew text) are included, the mural uses the story of Exodus to depict a universal theme that many other immigrant groups of the United States can relate to. Furthermore, the mural is specific to its location's historically Jewish community. Obliterating the mural in turn obliterates the community's history. Photograph by Ava Porter 2008 |
