Neighborhood Pride
The Great Walls Unlimited:
Neighborhood Pride Mural Program
was conceived as a citywide extension of
the Great Wall of Los Angeles.
Begun in 1988, the program has since produced 105 murals in almost every
ethnic community of Los Angeles.
Over its fourteen-year history
Great Walls Unlimited:
Neighborhood Pride
employed over 95 different established and emerging muralists from Los Angeles and around the country, trained hundreds of
youth apprentices, collaborated with countless community based organizations,
worked closely with the fifteen different Council Districts that make-up the city of Los Angeles,
worked with minority owned businesses, scholars, and The City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA),
all to produce images that speak to the multi-ethnic communities that make up the city.
As the first program of its kind in the nation,
Great Walls Unlimited:
Neighborhood Pride
has become one of the country’s most respected model mural programs setting a standard which has inspired other cities
across the United States.
Sadly, due to budget cuts and other issues outside of SPARC’s control, 2002 marked
the final year of the
Great Walls Unlimited:
Neighborhood Pride program.
In the final year fifteen new murals were completed,
painting a colorful ending to the mural program that helped make Los Angeles the mural capital of the world. Today the
Great Wall and Neighborhood Pride murals continue to be visited by members of the local communities and visitors from around the world. The murals have proven over time to be a valuable lens through which to see Los Angeles by residents, artists
and social scientists alike.
For scholars, these murals hold the visual keys that give the voice to those often not included in the traditional historical recordings.
Neighborhood Pride Mural Program
was conceived as a citywide extension of
the Great Wall of Los Angeles.
Begun in 1988, the program has since produced 105 murals in almost every
ethnic community of Los Angeles.
Over its fourteen-year history
Great Walls Unlimited:
Neighborhood Pride
employed over 95 different established and emerging muralists from Los Angeles and around the country, trained hundreds of
youth apprentices, collaborated with countless community based organizations,
worked closely with the fifteen different Council Districts that make-up the city of Los Angeles,
worked with minority owned businesses, scholars, and The City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA),
all to produce images that speak to the multi-ethnic communities that make up the city.
As the first program of its kind in the nation,
Great Walls Unlimited:
Neighborhood Pride
has become one of the country’s most respected model mural programs setting a standard which has inspired other cities
across the United States.
Sadly, due to budget cuts and other issues outside of SPARC’s control, 2002 marked
the final year of the
Great Walls Unlimited:
Neighborhood Pride program.
In the final year fifteen new murals were completed,
painting a colorful ending to the mural program that helped make Los Angeles the mural capital of the world. Today the
Great Wall and Neighborhood Pride murals continue to be visited by members of the local communities and visitors from around the world. The murals have proven over time to be a valuable lens through which to see Los Angeles by residents, artists
and social scientists alike.
For scholars, these murals hold the visual keys that give the voice to those often not included in the traditional historical recordings.
Venice Reconstituted (1989) by RIP Cronk
Artist:
- Rip Cronk established himself as a world class muralist before relocating to Los Angeles in 1979. After securing a postion as a muralist-in-residence at S.P.A.R.C., he completed his first California mural, “Venice on the Half Shell.” Cronk’s work has since become visually synonymous with Venice Beach.
- Subject: The piece is one of Cronk’s most recognizable, dealing with the juxtaposition of art history, contemporary society and the importance of questioning the nature of mythology. The mural is a tongue-in-cheek pop-surrealistic portrait of the Venice Boradwalk in 1989. It is a parody not only if the Botticelli masterpiece “The Birth of Venus,” but also a renaming of the earlier Venice Pavilion mural that contains the same figure.
- Status: Mural has suffered delamination and heavy graffiti.
Cecil (1989) by Richard Wyatt
Artist:
- Born in Compton, Richard Wyatt was first commissioned to paint a mural at the age of 14 by UCLA. He graduated from the university a few years later and has since exhibited widely and taught in various schools across the nation. His murals can be found scattered throughout the Los Angeles area, including pieces at Union Station, LAX, and Long Beach City Hall.
- Cecil Fergusen is a legendary figure in the field of African American Art; he is known as the “community curator” and celebrated for his incredible rise through the ranks of the contemporary art world. Starting as a janitor for LACMA, he worked his way up to the position of curator. The first African American to hold the position, he encouraged ethnically based art and co-founded the Black Arts Council. His reputation for tireless support and advocacy for his cause has given him a wealth of loyalty and respect among his peers, the artists he has helped, and the entire African American community of Los Angeles.
- Status: The mural has suffered severe UV(sun) damage.
Mujer Del Este De Los Angeles (1989) by George Yepes
Artist:
- Born in Tijuana, raised in East L.A., and formed by a hard life–of poverty, gang violence and womanizing–Yepes gained an early reputation when he painted with notable artists (Carlos Almaraz, Frank Romero and Gilbert “Magu” Lujan, among others). He then became an instrumental partner in the mural group “East Los Streetscapers” until he left, due to creative reasons. Yepes had painted over 800,000 square feet of social, historical and sacred images onto the façades of buildings ranging from hospitals to churches.His 28 murals are landmarks in Los Angeles, as are the 21 murals that his students of the Academia de Arte Yepes have painted. The Academia is a free program that has taught nearly 1500 low-income students in the art of mural painting for over the last decade.
- Subject: The mural depicts a veiled Latina holding the flags of more than 100 countries. The title, “Lady of the Eastside” is an allusion to the city’s original name, El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles. According to Yepes, the model for the mural was Guadalupe Ontiveros’, 32, a student at East Los Angeles College–originally from México. The piece represents a community that has greatly matured, and has become multiethnic.
- Status: Slightly fading; the mural is protected from direct street access, and can be directly viewed from a nearby freeway. (Painted out?)
The Pride of Mar Vista (1989) by East Los Streetscapers
Artist:
- East Los Streetscapers (ELS) was founded in 1975 by Wayne Healy and David Botello, both veteran of the East LA Mural Movement. Healy was born in Santa Barbara and worked as an aerospace engineer before dedicating himself fulltime time to ELS. Botello was born and studied in East Los Angeles. He is an experienced artist and muralist who has received two National Endowment for the Visual Arts Fellowships. ELS projects are executed in a wide variety of materials and include the Metro Rail Slauson Station and Parque Pobladores in San Jose.
- Subject: Reflecting the African-American and Mexican-American composition of the Mar Vista neighborhood, the mural draws upon ancient African and Mexican Traditions as well as imagery of contemporary family life.
- Status: The mural has suffered heavy graffiti and delamination damage, sections have been whitewashed.
“People often decry Los Angeles’ lack of an official center, a heart that feeds the arteries that run throughout its neighborhoods,
but it is this lack of center that creates the opportunity for democratic process that is multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-lingual,
multi-faith, multi-historical, in essence
multi-centered.
It is not that the City of Los Angeles
lacks heart but that it has many hearts,
beating simultaneously and inexhaustibly.”
-Pete Galindo,
former Neighborhood Pride Director
but it is this lack of center that creates the opportunity for democratic process that is multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-lingual,
multi-faith, multi-historical, in essence
multi-centered.
It is not that the City of Los Angeles
lacks heart but that it has many hearts,
beating simultaneously and inexhaustibly.”
-Pete Galindo,
former Neighborhood Pride Director
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