Mural Most Needs the Color Green

The future of a half-mile-long mural chronicling the city’s history, particularly struggles by ethnic groups, remains in financial limbo.

Supporters have begun raising $500,000 to restore the fading cultural canvas while seeking $1 million more to finish the timeline.

Known as the “Great Wall of Los Angeles,” the mural spanning the Tujunga Wash was painted in the late 1970s and early ‘80s by juvenile offenders and disadvantaged kids recruited by artist Judith Baca, who conceived the notion of documenting the city’s history through art. The mural depicts scenes such as the deportation of 350,000 Mexican Americans in the 1930s and the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

“There are tremendous amounts of money spent on projects that don’t have impact on people’s lives like this one,” said Baca, who founded the Social and Public Art Resource Center in Venice. “The people who have worked on this project gave much more than their time. They made a giant monument to interracial harmony.”

Although the City Council has agreed to contribute $100,000 to repair what many consider the longest mural in the world, Baca estimates it may take $400,000 more to complete the refurbishing. She will look to private agencies for assistance but hopes people will donate equipment to reduce the costs.

Victim of the Elements

Baca has faced similar challenges before. When a flood washed away scaffolding and other materials in 1984 as artists were finishing the last portion of the wall, the community rallied to their aid and donated $20,000 in two weeks.

Although the mural’s location has improved an otherwise barren flood channel, weather and pollution have taken a toll on the artwork, which is marred by large cracks and peeling paint. The first portion of the wall is the most damaged and will receive the most attention, said Deborah Padilla, director of Baca’s resource center.

The repair work may begin next summer, the only time workers can safely enter the flood channel.

Baca said she plans to ask alumni who helped paint the mural when they were kids to return for the project, which also will mark the wall’s 25th anniversary. Many still live in the area and credit the mural for fostering their future careers.

“It’s the reason I got into the movie business,” said Mark Meisels, 35, of Palmdale, who works as an assistant set decorator. Meisels, who was 15 when his parents volunteered his services for the mural project, said he has taken his two children to see the wall.

“I would like to be part of that again . . . if only for a day,” he said.

Perhaps more exciting than the restoration will be the completion of the wall’s visual history book, Baca said. Nearly two dozen UCLA students are researching the city’s history of the past four decades, the mural’s unfinished chapters.

Technology May Help

Encouraging news came this summer when the resource center received two grants totaling $175,000 to finish the wall. Although Baca does not know how much completion will cost, she estimated it could be up to $1 million.

But technology could cut the costs in half, she said, if the final design is printed on weather-resistant material, such as that used for billboards, and adhered to the wall. Then kids could fill in the blanks with paint.

“It may take four or five years, but technology has caught up to such a degree, it really benefits us,” she said. “We are already seeing a great interest for the entire campaign. Our plan isn’t just about the restoration but the completion of the wall.”