Community Culture and Identity 1

Community Culture and Identity:

An Exploration of Public Art in East Los Angeles











Kelsey Broderick
Veronica Campos
Laura Ixta
Lorenzo Rivera











Education 405A
Professor Share & Professor Villanueva
December 12, 2013








Community Culture and Identity 2

Community Culture and Identity

Our Community Inquiry Project investigated the views of public art in the community of
East Los Angeles. As we began our conversations with community members, our line of
questioning was centered on their feelings of art in the community. We soon noticed that this
open-ended question was too broad and somewhat confusing to answer in an informal setting.
Therefore, we decided to clarify the question by directing them to a more specific answer. For
example, our subsequent questions included: Is art important in the community or is art not seen
as having importance in the community? Is art associated with negative connotations in the
community? and Do you enjoy art in the community? From this line of questioning, we
created our essential question of What is the importance of public art in the community for
community members? This essential question is meaningful to us because it allows the
community members to not only express their feelings on public art, but to simultaneously
engage in a critical dialogue on the importance of public art in the community.
We began our investigation with a combination of activating our background knowledge
on art in East Los Angeles and conducting internet research. Laura suggested starting our
inquiry at East Los Angeles College because there is an art museum on campus. After further
internet research on the Vincent Price Art Museum, we concluded that this would be a good
place to identify people to converse with about art in East Los Angeles. This would be beneficial
because one of the obstacles of studying public art is the lack of experts on-site at these
installations; thus, the museum would provide us with a platform for beginning our project. Our
investigation continued with two trips to East Los Angeles where we conducted our own walking
tours in the community, identified community assets, conversed with locals, documented our
journey with photographs, and actively continued our research in the field.
Community Culture and Identity 3

Our ethnographic conversations were a combination of formal interviews and informal
chats. At VELA (Volunteers of East Los Angeles), a non-profit organization, we conducted a
formal interview with Jackie, who manages the VELA Mural Program. Jackie emphasized the
importance of murals in that they tell a story, they are not simply random drawings on a wall,
Murals have a cultural significance. This notion of cultural significance was reiterated in our
second formal interview with Daniel from the Chicano Resource Center housed in the County of
Los Angeles: East Los Angeles Public Library. In Daniels words, ...public art is invaluable to
a community because it brings a sense of history, culture, and hope. He went on to say:
We are filled not only with a sense of pride over past accomplishments, but also with a
hope that our culture is strong and we can continue to solve problems in the future. On
some level, everyone in the community can relate to these things so the mural becomes a
centerpiece that strengthens the community.

This quote is reflective of the importance of public art in the community as it relates to cultural
identity. Through the lens of these formal interviews, we gained a more in-depth understanding
of the significance and effect that public art can have in the community.
In our scholarly research we came across similar sentiments about the cultural
significance of public art in the community. In Mexican American Exterior Murals, Daniel D.
Arreola discusses the history of Mexican American/ Chicano muralism with an emphasis on
cultural and historical identity. Arreola (1984) states, ...murals are distinctive elements of the
barrio landscape, that they exhibit specific meaning for the ethnic group, and that they give
insight into the culture of the Mexican American community (p. 413). The images depicted in
many murals are, more often than not, important to the members of the community. Murals
allow spectators to learn about, and begin to understand, the cultural history of a community.
Through our interviews and scholarly research we discovered the importance of the involvement
Community Culture and Identity 4

of the community in murals and creating a community through murals. In the book Signs From
the Heart: California Chicano Murals, Cockcroft and Barnet-Snchez (1990) state,
These murals were not the expression of an individual vision. Artists
encouraged local residents to join them in discussing the content, and
often, in doing the actual painting. For the first time, techniques were
developed that would allow non-artists working with a professional to
design and paint their own murals. (p. 9)

Murals are a way to bring a community together to work collaboratively. Through the process of
community participation the murals are able to accurately portray the culture, history, and
identity of the community as a whole.
Similarly, as we conducted a series of informal interviews, we gained a sense of the
importance of public art in the community, but through a more personal lens rather than via an
academic lens. Our first informal interview took place with Alyssa, a student at the Vincent Price
Art Museum. Growing up in East Los Angeles, Alyssa explained how traditional murals that
have been there for a long time are highly recognizable by community members. Commenting
on a mural located at the Brooklyn Pro Hardware store, an employee spoke to us about how:
There are gangs from outside the community that come out and tag murals and we cover it up
because it causes problems for businesses, customers, and the community...we know the gangs
here. This highlights how community members posses a higher level of respect for the murals
that are present in their neighborhoods in comparison to outsiders. Moreover, another local
member and employee at the Anthony Quinn Public Library was enthusiastic in providing us
with rich resources in regards to the art in the community and displayed a positive outlook about
traditional art that has long been present in the streets of East Los Angeles. Furthermore, as we
were strolling around the community park at the East Los Angeles Civic Center, we took up a
conversation with a grandpa who was there with his grandson. When asked about how he felt
Community Culture and Identity 5

about art in the community, he replied, Heck yeah! Art is good, the more art the better. We
went on to ask him: Are there any negative associations with art in the community? He
responded, Gang members mess it up, but only sometimes. We can infer from this that, for the
most part, art is viewed through a positive lens and only rarely is art defaced in a negative way.
Many of the community members that we spoke with talked about the respect that the
members of the community have for murals. Jackie from VELA spoke about how the subject
matter portrayed in the murals often times commanded more respect from the community than
others. An example of this is the use of religious figures in the murals. In Street Gallery, Robin
J. Dunitz (1993) says about murals, They build self-esteem by teaching skills and generating
respect from others. They facilitate communication between peoples and cultures (p.11).
Murals are a way to communicate ideas between creators and spectators, between people from
the community and visitors. Murals are created collaboratively and depict scenes and images
that are important to the community members which is why they are well respected.
Lastly, our conversation with Officer Milan, a local sheriff of the East Los Angeles
Sheriffs Station, informed us that art is beneficial because of the history...approved by
people in the businesses and artists will respect the historic art. Like our previous interviewees,
Officer Milan mentioned how there are one or two habitual taggers but did not place a major
emphasis on a deficit outlook on art, but rather stressed the assets that art brings to the
community. Reflecting on our personal conversations that we had with community members, we
got a sense of local pride and respect for public art in East Los Angeles.
Through our inquiry process we discovered that public art is important to the community
of East Los Angeles because it is a symbol of the respect the members of the community have
for their culture, history, and aspirations. For them art is more than just paint on a wall; it is a
Community Culture and Identity 6

form of telling stories and bringing people together. Even though we did not interview an artist,
through our scholarly research we learned from the perspective of an artist that: while an artist
is translating his own personal drama onto a canvas or a wall, he is also interpreting impressions
he has received from the ethnic group and culture to which he belongs and from the human race
(Holscher, 1976, p. 28). Public art can take on many forms, such as mural painting, graffiti,
mosaics, sculpture, and pieces on exhibit in museums with free admission.
In conclusion, we believe in the importance of public art as a form of social justice which
is reflected in the words of Conrad (1995):
Murals may be the most democratic art the United States has ever produced. Murals
giving voice to ordinary peoples concerns are not a fine art thrust on people by others,
but an art that is accessible to all, that relates to current or historical events or
experiences, and that expresses deeply felt aspiration or visions for the future. (p. 98)

Our group would like to contribute to the community through an action project that builds on the
pre-established public art foundation in East Los Angeles. We were fortunate enough to develop
a strong relationship with the VELA organization and have discussed a few ways in which we
can participate in their Mural Program. We may have the opportunity to partake in one the three
mural restoration projects that VELA conducts each year. Even though we are not professional
artists, we could become involved in the planning and organization process of the restoration.
We hope to outreach to the community members so we can get more participants in the
restoration process. Through this not only will we get more participants, but it provides us with
the opportunity to build new relationships with community members, while strengthening ones
already established. We are highly anticipating taking on an active role in East Los Angeles
through the contribution of our action plan this spring.


Community Culture and Identity 7

References
Arreola, D. (1984). Mexican American Exterior Murals [Electronic version].
Geographical Review, 74(4), 409-424.
Conrad, D. (1995). Community Murals as Democratic Art and Education [Electronic
version]. Journal of Aesthetic Education, 29(1), 98-102.
Dunitz, R. (1998). Street Gallery. Los Angeles: RJD Enterprises.
Holscher, M. (1976). Artists & Murals in East Los Angeles and Boyle Heights: A
Sociological Observation [Electronic version]. Humboldt Journal of Social
Relations, 3(2), 28.
Sperling Cockcroft, E., & Barnet-Sanchez, H. (1990). Signs from the Heart: California
Chicano Murals. Venice, California: Social and Public Art Resource Center.