How Murals and Public Art Impact Distressed Communities

Author: rayela

Brazil 18years + Chicago 20yrs + Paducah since 2005 These have shaped my path and interests. I spent many years as an active artist (ceramics and textiles) but have focused on promoting the creative community online since 2010. My current projects are Artizan Made and this site, Creative PlaceMakers.

I lived in inner city Chicago from 1984-2005.  My neighborhood, largely Puerto Rican, was controlled by the Latin Kings gang and a port of entry to cocaine and other drugs.  Although I saw kids with guns, witnessed a bullet go through a kitchen window at a pastor’s house, had my apartment broken into three times (not bad for 20 years!), and knew that we had to have street sense, I rarely felt threatened or scared.  I was not the target. I knew many other artists living in these neighborhoods because we could afford the rent and public transportation made it easy to get around. For the first 10 years that I lived there, artists and other creatives could work part time, develop their craft, and afford to eat out and listen to live music.  By the time I left, Chicago had become so expensive that the joy of being there became a weight for me.

The media portrays Chicago as a violent place and it does have its moments, but when you think of the density of the population, millions of people going about their business every day, it’s amazing that it can even function. I used to think about that when I lived there, riding on a train or walking around, how with all of its flaws as a social experiment, most people got along and the infrastructure held up.  Toilets flushing, garbage collected, people chatting on the corners….  Uptown, one of the neighborhoods I worked in, was a point of entry for many immigrants and the local schools had over 20 languages represented!  Yes, there were problems, but it was also exciting and dynamic.

One of the blights people cried about was the graffiti.  Gang signs, tagging, defacing properties…  Over time it evolved into an art.  Now, we see graffiti artists who have become sought after muralists.  Their art work changing the urban landscape in stunning ways….  Bansky has become famous for his secretive and recognizable style, quick works at night, often challenging the status quo. Who is Bansky?  Ironically, his work has attracted well heeled collectors which led him to create a self-destructing piece that sold at auction.

David Zinn, a chalk artist from Ann Arbor, Michigan (USA), pulls heart strings with cute critters that are ephemeral, washing away with the first rain…  He raises some interesting points in a TEDtalk where he questions his own identity as an artist and how he overcame a fear of the “blank canvas”.  Finding points of reference out in the world triggers his brain to see something that he can enhance.  It culminates into one permanent piece he made on a wall, instead of chalk on a sidewalk.  Delightful! In the same way, Creatives can see a challenge and imagine solutions that most people might not think of.

Humans have been decorating walls for as long as history has been recorded.  Think of the cave paintings showing hunters and their prey, of Egyptian tombs covered with stories of that time, of traditional styles found in Poland, India, and so many African groups.  Mexico is full of murals!  Some of these are purely decorative, others full of symbolism and others document their local histories.  Murals often engage a community effort, helping people feel more ownership over their surroundings.

One of the most interesting government experiments in the United States, the WPA (Works Progress Administration starting in 1942), hired artists, musicians and writers to work on creative projects that would bring hope to the people during the Great Depression.  Artists painted murals of every day life scenes in post offices, schools and other public places.  This video shows a great collection of them:

This governmental approach needs to come back!  The impact these Creatives had on a terrible time helped alleviate deep suffering and offered hope.  My local post office in Chicago had one of these murals and it was a sad day when they decided to renovate the facility and they covered the mural, still in great shape, with bland brown paneling.  Ugh.

Individuals have tackled social problems with large scale art projects.  Dutch artists Jeroen Koolhaas and Dre Urhahn did a TED Talk on how they were in Vila Cruzeiro, a favela in Rio (Brazil), to film a documentary when they befriended the local people.  They came up with an idea of using paint to personalize the favela.  This led to several years of experimentation which then took them to other countries.

Another artist, JR from France, has used photography to unite people and to challenge preconceptions.  In 2007 he photographed Palestinians and Israelis who had the same job and then plastered them on the wall that divided them.  He encouraged them to be funny, to make people laugh.  Now we are in 2024, witnessing horrors beyond what had ever been done before.  It is heart breaking.

These are just some visual examples of how Creatives think outside of the box to look at a problem or challenge in a new way.  Music, dance, storytelling, theater and all of the efforts at cleaning up the environment, growing healthy food, and dealing with poverty, displacement and violence intersect with each other, creating a tapestry of solutions that becomes our safety net.

One of my favorite success stories is of a musical group in Paraguay, Orquesta de Instrumentos Reciclados de Cateura.  This community lives on and off of a landfill and Fabio Chávez, an environmental technician, decided to create a music school for them. They make the instruments out of the trash from the landfill.  It worked!  The kids learned how to play their instruments and now perform all around the world.

I am especially interested in projects that can create livelihoods for people, but whether public art comes from a personal place or from a governmental initiative, all of the arts have the capacity to heal, to unify and to personalize space uniquely. We are trying to do that on the property where I live, the Green Roof International House.  We’ve done a lot of work on the outside of the house, the grounds and on outbuildings that were an eyesore.  There is still much more to do and little by little, we will have impact as a creative space.

We have three sheds that sit closely together.  They looked awful.

They have been repaired and painted.  They are not completely done yet, but what a difference!  The one with the striped doors was inspired by the Ndebele houses of South Africa. Imagine if the whole neighborhood could fix up their buildings and decorate them!  It’s expensive, unless there are donations.

Paducah, Kentucky (USA), where I live, is a Unesco Creative City.  We are a port city on the Ohio River and have a flood wall that has murals depicting the history of the area.  It’s wonderful!  Visit Paducah Wall to Wall to see them.  One of my favorites is this map of Paducah in 1873.  Green Roof was built in 1886, so this is what the landscape would have looked like back then.  I’m pointing to the spot where our house was built.

Paducah does not have many great job opportunities. Two hospitals and the Ohio River are big employers, and there are lots of law offices, clinics and realtors, but most of the jobs tend to be entry level, paying low wages.  Many people work two or three part time jobs to make ends meet.  The arts attract tourism which supports our creative assets, which are many.  We’ve come a long way, but there are still many opportunities to explore that could create better paying jobs, even at a low entry level.  As a Fellow of the Goldin Institute, we were assigned an exercise to create asset maps, showing local resources we found beneficial.  I focused on the arts and created this:

These are just some of our creative assets.  Every community, even those in war or suffering from climate disasters, has assets that they can tap into.  Often it’s a matter of organizing, dreaming and working towards a common goal.  The Great Green Wall of Africa, still a dream, is greening desert areas due to the hard work of the people who dig, plant and water.  Their example has inspired other projects around the world, bringing arid areas back into productive ones.

What about you?  Are you inspired by any creative projects in your community?  Do you have any favorite videos or websites showing how the arts promotes economic opportunities?  Leave a comment so that we can learn about them!

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