Art Puts Fresh Faces on Theater District

Brightly colored masks now float above Lankershim Boulevard, part of a mural that pays tribute to the community’s theater district.

The mural, covering a rough brick wall about 150 feet wide, also salutes the area’s ethnic diversity. It was designed by artist and art professor Barbara Thomason and completed by 17 high school students who Thomason taught in the Ryman Program for Young Artists, based downtown.

“They were given an idea and they just went off,” said Ken Banks, a consultant who works with the project through Los Angeles Neighborhood Initiative, a city program that helps improve communities near mass transit routes.

“There’s an African mask, an Asian mask. . . . They hit all the bases.”

The Ryman Program was named for Herbert Ryman, an early associate of Walt Disney and a North Hollywood resident. The nonprofit, privately funded program gives scholarships to aspiring high school artists throughout the city and offers art courses held at USC. Students also participate in special projects such as the Lankershim mural.

“In the L.A. schools, there is one art teacher for every 2,000 students,” Erin Horais, of the Ryman Program, said. “You can imagine what young creative minds have to look forward to. We try to give them an opportunity.”

The mural is the result of a collaboration among community groups, businesses and charities.

Horais readily recounts stories of the mural, which was conceived in June, painted in August and September, and will be given a graffiti-resistant gloss by the end of the month. One student took the bus two hours each way just to take part in the project, she said. Another was doodling on a pad while completing a community service sentence when he was invited to lend his skills to the effort.

City officials and community leaders are planning a dedication ceremony to be held Oct. 17.