Muralism and the art of collaboration
By hola | Published | No Comments
Perhaps more than any other art form, muralism is inherently a community project. Artists need apprentices and helpers. And while humanity’s earliest authors of cave drawings might not have worried about permits, today most murals cannot begin without official sanction and support from the community. Building owners must agree. Given the number of difficulties muralists face, it’s inspiring to us at Hola Cultura that there is so much street art in the District of Columbia today.
At least three-dozen Latino murals exist or once existed in Washington D.C. They span nearly half a century from 2013’s “My Place/Mi Lugar” in Columbia Heights to “El Pueblo sin murales…,” the city’s oldest street mural. We’ve mapped them all and will present our work at next week’s roundtable discussion. You are invited. Please join us because murals are, after all, a community affair.
Preserving murals also takes collective action. For instance, the restoration of “El Pueblo sin murales…” earlier this year was the second time this 1970s masterpiece of street art has been saved from oblivion thanks to collective action. Government agencies such as the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and the Mayor’s Office on Latino Affairs provided key funding along with local companies. The building’s owner, Manh Phung, hung in there for more than a year of funding delays. Kristen Barden, executive director of the Adams Morgan Partnership BID, wrote the grant applications. DC Arts Center served as fiscal sponsor. Hola Cultura also played a small role, editorializing in favor of its preservation and following the story for months before local artist Juan Pineda hoisted his first paint can to repair the original work by Carlos Salazar and an earlier generation of community members.
Our DC Latino Murals Map also took collective effort. Hola Cultura’s summer 2014 interns got the project off the ground. Perry Frank and her team at the DC Murals project provided key historic information and photographs. We mapped the murals with help from MapStory.org, a nonprofit organization we found out about through to the Dream Lab at the DC Public Library.
The work wouldn’t have been possible without our fiscal sponsor, the District of Columbia Arts Center, and our funders, the Washington DC Mayor’s Office on Latino Affairs, and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. And we are very happy to partner with the Carlos Rosario International Public Charter School to hold a roundtable discussion on DC Latino muralism at auditorium of the school’s Harvard Street campus. The Smithsonian Latino Center and artists Carlos Arrien, Jorge Somarriba, Karla “Karlisma” Rodas, Juan Pineda, and Laya Monarez also contributed photos and knowledge and several of the artists will be with us on Sept. 24 to get the conversation started.
See you Wednesday!
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