EL SERENO : Holiday Artwork Brightens Roadway

A Santa with sunglasses and a Christmas tree created by green handprints of schoolchildren can be found on panels in the median of Huntington Drive, a tradition that was revived this year after a six-year hiatus.

The nine panels, installed earlier this month between El Sereno Avenue and Van Horn Street, were decorated by students from elementary and junior high schools in response to a contest sponsored by the El Sereno Coordinating Council. The panels will be on display until mid-January, said coordinating council President David Duran, who took part in the Christmas contest when he was a student at All Saints Elementary School.

“I remember how exciting it was to see your work on Huntington Drive,” he said.

Plaques will be awarded to the top three vote-getters, judged by members of the coordinating council and the business community.

The goal, said Duran, was to bring people together to highlight the artistic talents of local youth while adding Christmas spirit to the main thoroughfare of the community.

“It gives them a very positive image of what they can do, and it keeps them involved,” he said.

The tradition was started in 1979 when Ruth Swiggett was named honorary mayor of El Sereno and looked into buying decorations for Huntington Drive, but found they were too expensive.

“We decided then to go to the schools and see if the principals would let the sixth-graders make the posters,” said Swiggett, an El Sereno resident since 1964.

It continued almost every year depending on donations from local businesses and the willingness of community members to do the work, she said.

The effort also allows budding artists to have their work displayed in public, said Manuel Lauria, a member of the coordinating council who solicited donations of lumber, hardware and paint for the panels.

“The way I see it is if you can blend into society what they have to offer in their artwork, it will clean up a lot of the graffiti,” Lauria said, adding that he would like to see more streets similarly decorated. “If we can push it and get everyone involved, it will make it nicer and people will have a better relationship with everyone.”

Three years ago, Swiggett and two other community members bought a Christmas tree that was planted in the median and is decorated every year with lights and ornaments.

It is the site of the annual candlelight vigil held by Victims of Crime in El Sereno, which remembers local youths who have been killed. This year, it was also used as the centerpiece for a holiday celebration in which 200 Christmas stockings were given away and Santa Claus paid a visit.

The 4-by-8-foot panels have brought new life to the area, where business owners are not always able to decorate their shops, Swiggett said.

“I think it’s beautiful,” she said. “It gives us the spirit of Christmas even if we can’t buy our own decorations.”