MCLA Home Page
Cultural Affairs Grant for 1996/97 Tops to Date
Lundeberg's History of Transportation Still Awaiting Facelift
Artist's Copyrights and the Web
New Mural Rescue Program Policy
The Problems with Urethane, part 2
Touring the Gateway Transit Center
Urban Art to Assess Condition of L.A. Public Sculpture
California Confederation of the Arts Slates June 24th "Compact" Gathering in L.A.
The coming year's Mural Rescue Program (MRP) picture had been clouded by a determination by MCLA's Maintenance Committee that many of the murals presently included in the Program are requiring fresh work. For example, Alonzo Davis' "Eye on '84" mural on the Harbor Freeway has experienced serious peeling of its urethane coating. What this implied was whether during the coming year MCLA would place its resources into further MRP additions or upgrading the maintenance of the now twenty-two murals already included.
The Cultural Affairs Department helped answer this difficult question in the best possible way when the grants for the coming fiscal year were released in May: There will be room for doing both.
At $9,000 the 1996/97 grant represents the largest thus far awarded, and translates into MCLA being able to have things both ways.
One important change in the ongoing maintenance of murals that are part of the MRP program will be the professionalization of mural cleaning. In the past this has been an entirely volunteer-based activity. While there will continue to be in-the-field sessions requiring volunteer assistance from activist MCLA members, the more dangerous and routine jobs will be assigned to one or more specialized contractors. Happily there has never been an injury sustained by an MCLA volunteer (our rules of safety have always been assiduously employed), but it is the Board's feeling that the new practice will further reduce such a possibility.
In another policy decision, the Board has removed the deadline cycle from the MRP application process. This means that an application may be requested and submitted at any time. The Board will consider each individual case based on its merits for immediate inclusion, planned inclusion, or denial of inclusion in the MRP.
Published quarterly, © 1996, Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles (MCLA).
Editor: Bill Lasarow
Contributing Editors:
Robin Dunitz, Orville O. Clarke, Jr., Richard Solomon, Nathan Zakheim
Masthead Logo Design: Charles Eley.
The Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles was formed to help protect and document murals, and enhance public awareness of mural art in the greater Los Angeles area. These programs are made possible by the tax-deducible dues and donations of our members, the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, the California Arts Council, the National/State/County Partnership Program, and the Brody Fund of the California Community Foundation.