Murals Approved for Private Homes in Parts of Los Angeles

Get your paint cans ready! Murals can now be painted on single-family homes in northeast Los Angeles, Boyle Heights, and parts of South Los Angeles under a pilot program given final approval Tuesday by the Los Angeles City Council!

This approval was the final step for the Los Angeles Mural Ordinance, spearheaded by councilman Jose Huizar. The push to pass the mural ordinance  brought together Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC), Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles (MCLA), Venice Arts Council, Plaza de la Raza, Mobile Mural Lab, Self Help Graphics & Art, Art Share-LA, CARTWHEEL, United Painters and Public Artists (UPPA), Mictlan Murals, World Siqueiros Foundation of Arts, Conservancy of Urban Art, and LA Freewalls, who went down to City Hall for the council meetings on murals and were there to celebrate when the ordinance was passed, allowing murals to be painted on businesses, for a small permit fee.

Ron English’ Urban Bigfoot  was the first legal work to begin under the new Los Angeles Mural Ordinance. You can see it at Imperial and Jesse, Los Angeles, CA. 90021 in the Downtown LA Arts district, across from Urban Radish. (The actual building address is 667 Santa Fe).

The newly approved pilot program allows murals on single-family homes in the 1st, 9th and 14th districts, represented by City Council members Gil Cedillo, Curren Price Jr. and Jose Huizar, respectively, which means I still don’t get my dream mural on my chimney. But Venice-area Councilman Mike Bonin requested that city staff explore an “opt-in or opt-out” program that would allow other communities to petition for murals to be allowed on single-family homes.

In addition to the pilot program, the amended ordinance also would allow murals on roll-down security doors on commercial and industrial buildings.

Now Los Angeles is  truly poised to reclaim her place as the Mural Capital of the World!

In council chambers after after the Los Angeles City Council Mural Ordinance passed. Mural Conservancy of Los ANgeles executive director Isabel Rojas-Williams, who will be leading the LA Art Show panel discussion on the future of murals in Los Angeles, holds the proclamation, with CARTWHEEL founder Cindy Schwarzstein directly on her left. Photo © 2013 Zeus BigHapps Villegas