CityWide Mural Program
In Partnership with:
SPARC is proud to be a part of the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) new CityWide Mural Program. Inspired by the legacy of Los Angeles’ murals and the passing of a new city-wide mural ordinance in 2013, funding was designated by the City of Los Angeles for new mural production and the restoration of city-sponsored fine art murals. SPARC’s Mural Rescue Program will lead the initiative to restore and preserve 9 murals deemed ‘historically significant’ by the DCA.
THE 9 MURALS:
Scheduled for restoration in 2015, the 9 murals were originally produced through SPARC’s Neighborhood Pride mural program. During its span from 1988-2002, the Neighborhood Pride program produced 105 murals in almost every ethnic community of Los Angeles and employed over 95 different established and emerging muralists from Los Angeles and around the country. The program 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 all to produce images that speak to the multi-ethnic communities that make up the city.
KEEP UP & GET INVOLVED
CITY WIDE MURALS PROJECT BLOG: The blog represents an accessible portal for steady information and resources related to the historical development and restoration of 9 murals through the 2015 City-Wide Mural Program in Los Angeles. Its content encourages awareness and support for the complex narratives embedded within each piece by utilizing multi-media to provide contextual insight on the artist, the community, and up to date coverage of its ongoing maintenance. The page is complete with novel opportunities for visitors to support the vitality of these public art works through active links to the campaign’s fundraising and social media platforms. Show your support for LA’s artistic legacy and click the link to find out more!
A STANDARD OF CONSERVATION EXCELLENCE
SPARC is uniquely positioned to mount an expansive preservation, conservation and restoration program that meet the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works Standards and Practices and are defined:
- Restoration: as traditionally practiced, focuses its efforts upon returning an object or work of art to the objects original aesthetic state, an assumed condition, or an earlier appearance.
- Preservation/Stabilization: Measures employed to slow active deterioration and ultimate loss of an artifact or artifact component.
- Conservation: focuses on the stabilization and preservation of an objectusing preventative measures to inhibit on-going or future deterioration of the object or its components. This is accomplished by selecting methods and materials that do not adversely affect the artistic objects’ original materials and are reversible. Conservation efforts may but do not always include aesthetic recovery.
KEY COMPONENTS OF THE CITY WIDE MURAL PROGRAM
A key focus for any SPARC restoration project is community engagement to: Rededicate the mural, re-educate the present community and to ultimately include the artists and community members who produced the original work. With its archives and history in commissioning the original work, SPARC holds the capacity to return to a community and reactivate previous participants in the recreation of the original work. Often this includes the artist and children of the original youth who participated. These sites therefore offer opportunities for training new mural painters and to provide stipends for the artist whose work is being restored:
- Youth
- Community Members
- Students
- Community Service