Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles

If you haven’t heard of the Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles (MCLA), it’s time that you two get introduced. You may have driven past the beautiful Olympic murals circa 1984 when you were stuck in traffic on the 101 and noticed that they were freshly spiffed up.

 In a hard hat and bright yellow safety vest, artist Willie Herron III crouches atop rickety scaffolding on the shoulder of the 101 Freeway in downtown L.A.

I co-founded a little NGO with artist Kent Twitchell some years ago called the Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles. Its Executive Director, Isabel Rojas-Williams, has worked some miracles over the last two years to not only bring those crown jewels back to life, but she has worked tirelessly with the City to draft a modern Mural Ordinance to replace the ban. I've had the opportunity to witness some of the sausage getting made, and let me tell you it ain't easy, especially when you don't have zillions of dollars to shower on paid lobbyists, advertising campaigns, and political back slapping. I happen to favor public servants who mainly want to perform their civic duty and improve the city, not line a few pockets at its expense. - See more at: http://www.visualartsource.com/index.php?page=editorial&aID=1807#sthash....

Though it has issues with some elements of the ordinance, the Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles (MCLA) is excited to see L.A. regain its title as “Mural Capital of the World”.
“It’s been eleven years,” MCLA executive director Isabel Rojas-Williams said. “Our muralists have been prisoners of this unfair decision that murals were not allowed on private property. We are very excited about that part. …This is very important for the cultural landscape of Los Angeles.”

Combine that with MCLA's restoration of art on the 101 Freeway, Los Angeles artists going international, and the national attention on the policy wrangling to give L.A. the chance to regain the title of "mural capital of the world," the last year has been a mini-golden era of outdoor art.

On Wednesday the Los Angeles City Council put the citywide mural ban to a vote and voted 13-2 in favor of passing a new ordinance, the Los Angeles Times reports. With a long history of murals and street art, Los Angeles has been waging a war with large-scale public painting in an effort to control content, particularly commercial imagery, consequently impacting its muralists and street artists.

Isabel Rojas-Williams, executive director of the Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles said,:“We owe it to our next generation to reclaim our legacy as a mural capital of the world.”

Artists predicted a renaissance of public muraling across Los Angeles as the City Council voted 13-2 Wednesday to lift a decade-long ban on the large outdoor artworks.

"We owe it to our next generation to reclaim our legacy as a mural capital of the world," said Isabel Rojas-Williams, executive director of the Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles.

Willie Herrón III, the Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles' official restorer, and his assistant Melody Betancourt, are working on one of the city's prized possessions: Frank Romero's "Going to the Olympics."

The Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles is helping to draft the new ordinance and are hoping for a favorable vote as murals represent more than just artwork. Isabel Rojas-Williams, of the Mural Conservancy of L.A., notes “murals tell the story of the community.”

Twelve LA-based arts organizations including: Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC), Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles (MCLA), Venice Arts Council (VAC), Plaza de la Raza, Mobile Mural Lab (MML) Self Help Graphics & Art (SHG), Art Share LA, United Painters and Public Artists (UPPA), Mictlan Murals, Siqueiros Foundation of the Arts, Conservancy of Urban Art and LA Freewalls all agree, as stated in a letter to all LA City Councilmembers...

Isabel Rojas-Williams, an art historian and executive director of the Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles, said that other cities, such as Portland, Ore., and Philadelphia, have encouraged new murals in recent years.

But Los Angeles, she said, has had a love-hate relationship with murals ever since the 1930s, when the city allowed the "America Tropical" mural in downtown Los Angeles, by the Mexican master painter David Alfaro Siqueiro, to be whitewashed because of its provocative image of a Mexican Indian being lashed to a cross presided over by an eagle symbolizing the United States. The work finally was restored and unveiled last fall in a new interpretive center.

The talk, moderated by Isabel Rojas‐Williams, Executive Director, Mural Conservancy Los Angeles (MCLA), shed light on the importance of weaving public art with politics and the community. All of the speakers, regardless of their current positions on murals, agreed on the idea of public art creating an impact on the surrounding community. All the panel speakers continue to work towards an ordinance that will make public art legal. The speakers also kept in mind the idea of youth, graffiti and the city’s past as they stressed the importance of allowing artists the opportunity to create large-scale pieces that positively influence society.

The Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles unveiled three newly completed restorations in Boyle Heights May 18: "Rescate" by John Zender Estrada at Cesar E. Chavez and Evergreen Avenues; "Flor de Canela" by Zender in Pico Gardens, and "Painting the Importance of Life" by Raul Gonzalez at Penrith and Whittier Boulevard.

As we began planning the upcoming issue, we could resist no longer. Fortunately, we discovered the Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles and SPARC (Social and Public Art Resource Center), organizations that document murals and fight for their preservation. The Mural Conservancy, in particular, posts an extensive database with images of L.A. murals that is searchable by location, title, artist and topic. That allowed us to plan the murals we’d shoot, rather than wander L.A.’s streets for weeks. Members of the conservancy can also take custom tours of murals, led by Executive Director Isabel Rojas-Williams, and I joined one that featured some 10 murals within walking distance of Olvera St. in downtown Los Angeles.

I had to wear a hard hat and day-glo vest to see the murals on the 101. All you need to do is gaze safely out of the window of your car. A million people ride through downtown each day, and, bit by bit, they’re being reintroduced to thirty-year old bursts of color, in the form of murals.

The artworks were first commissioned for the 1984 Olympics. Taggers and the elements have had their way with them, and the state painted over them a while back. Now, thanks to the Mural Conservancy Project of Los Angeles, they’re coming back to life. Executive Director Isabel Rojas-Williams gave me the tour of the shoulder. She calls the conservation work “our Sistine Chapel.”

The midweek traffic along the 101 Freeway is sluggish this afternoon, but that's nothing compared to two cars along this route that have been stalled for years.

The vehicles, bright pink and yellow, are part of artist Frank Romero's mural, "Going to the Olympics," which he painted on the freeway wall in 1984. It was one of 10 murals commissioned that year for the Olympic Arts Festival to commemorate L.A.'s hosting the Games.

"Rebuilding our Heritage" became a recanting of personal perspectives on the future of murals, with Isabel Rojas-Williams, Executive Director of the Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles, as moderator.

The panelists included artist Glenna Avila, who spoke about her revived "L.A. Freeway Kids" painted in 1984 for the Los Angeles Olympics. "This is not an art people can have and own," she said. "It is an art people can see".

Last October, David Alfaro Siqueiros’ mural "América Tropical" (1932) was unveiled after a $10 million restoration funded by the City of Los Angeles and the Getty Conservation Institute. The Los Angeles mural, located on the upper level of a building in the El Pueblo district, had been whitewashed over—literally—eight years after it was created. It was considered too leftist. The central figure was a crucified peon, a comment on imperialist oppression of the poor and dispossessed. Today the whitewash has been carefully removed, and the work is once again available for public viewing. Nearby there’s also the new América Tropical Interpretive Center, with exhibits about the mural’s history and conservation process.