Young Quesada Gardens Initiative member, Sabrina, poses in front of the Joseph P. Lee Recreation Center during the reopening celebration. When the Joseph P. Lee Recreation Center reopened in October of last year, Quesada Gardens Initiative members went to see the transformed building and playground, and were thrilled by what they saw. The comments from other visitors where uniformly positive...with one exception.
An older African-American man was disappointed to discover that part of the mural on the side of the building was gone. He said that he knew some of the people who had been pictured. And he talked about how, like the missing part of the mural, "his" community was getting lost in all the changes happening.
It didn't make a difference to this man that the missing part of the mural had been photographed for representation inside the building. His heart was connected to the real thing.
The Fire Next Time II, the massive mural on the west side of the community center, was created by Dewey Crumpler in 1984. At that time, Crumpler painted murals focusing on African American social and political issues, and drew from the compositions of artists he studied in Mexico City: Pablo O'Higgins and David Alfaro Siqueiros. Crumpler is now a Professor of Art and Art History at San Francisco Art Institute where he has taught since 1990.
On Thursday, August 14th from 11:30am to 3pm at the Joseph P. Lee Recreation Center (1395 Mendell Street between Newcomb and Oakdale), Dewey Crumpler will rededicate his mural, and talk about "Reframing the Context of Mural Art for the 21st Century."
Panelists include Timothy Drescher, Art historian/Author; Katy Untch, Senior Conservator - ARG Conservation Services/Fellow of AIC; Malik Seneferu, Artist/Art Educator
Those interested in attending should RSVP by Monday, August 11th to Ave Montague at 415.346.0199.
1 comment:
I always motivated by you, your views and attitude, again, thanks for this nice post.
- Norman
Post a Comment