Jane and Janet Braun-Reinitz are writing a book about the cultural history of NYC’s community murals: On the Wall: Four Decades of Community Murals in New York City. It will be published by University Press of Mississippi in Fall 2008. Their manuscript is due this summer. In addition to text approximating 75,000 words and a Muralography listing over 400 community murals painted since 1969, “On the Wall” will contain 140 color photographs.
Please contact Jane at 212 989 3006 or nycmuralbook@aol.com should you have information that might be helpful. See below for details:
Background:
In the early 1970s, a number of murals were painted on Manhattan’s Lower EastSide under the aegis of Cityarts Workshop established in 1968. At the same time, there were also murals being painted in Harlem through Betty Blayton Taylor’s Children’s Art Carnival, Norman Messiah’s Harlem Muralists, Smokehouse Associates, and Harlem Studio Museum/Studio in the Streets.
INFO NEEDED
Studio in the Streets
While we know much about the first three of these initiatives, we know very little about Studio in the Streets. What we know is from a 1972 article in The Nation by art critic Lawrence Alloway.
We don’t know if the program went beyond 1972 when murals were painted at three locations:
Fifth Avenue at 128th Street (3 paintings, 1 relief)
Fifth Avenue at 126th Street
Seventh Avenue and West 126th Street (4 artists)
Studio Museum of Harlem is undergoing construction and its archives are buried in the basement. Their next step is to research the archives of the Amsterdam News, but it would be great to find an artist who worked on the project.
Pelham Fritz Recreation Center murals
They have slides taken in the mid-1970s of two murals on the Mount Morris West facade (122nd Street) of the Pelham Fritz Recreation Center.
When she met with Norman Messiah, she showed him the slides and he thought that
the style looked like that of James Sepyo.
It would be great to confirm this, or to learn who indeed painted these murals. She would also like to know the back story of the murals — e.g., the sponsor, if and how the community participated, etc.Other outdoor community murals?
If they exist, they want to know about them. For the purposes of our book, community murals are collaborations between artists and neighborhood/local organizations. The latter usually suggest/provide some of the following: themes, imagery, a wall, assistance. In return the artists works with the community to bring its vision to the wall.
Posted on May 15, 2007 by D. Bell