The Homeland Cultural Center’s graffiti mural art program lives, with new space to paint

PHOTO by DANIEL DE BOOM

Despite Fifth District Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske’s public opposition, and what you may have read in the papers, there is still a graffiti mural-making art program at the Homeland Cultural Center in MacArthur Park. Which is in the Sixth Council District—and which soon may have a new series of spray-can illustrations to catch your eye when you check out a basketball or do your homework.

“Not for the first time, the Press-Telegram got everything wrong,” says James Ruggirello, the Center’s cultural programs supervisor, referencing the paper’s Dec. 4 piece on the program. “The guy who wrote that article made it look like we were scaling back, we were in jeopardy, and that’s really not true.” What is true is that the building got repainted—and the city decided it couldn’t afford to preserve the faded murals that covered much of it. And while it’s sad that landmark pieces are now gone, that rather emblemizes graffiti murals’ temporal nature.

Want to see permanent graffiti? Go to Rome, where ancient travelers were some of the first taggers—carving their names into what are now ruins. Want to see murals? Find a copy of the July 2007 Juxtapoz—one of America’s best-selling art magazines—which put The Seventh Letter graffiti mural crew on its cover.

Or visit MacArthur Park, where for all we know, future modern artists may be honing their craft, adding to the center’s remaining murals from 6 to 10 Monday and Tuesday nights. They’re all over age 18, none has committed tagging offenses, none is on probation—and they all bring their own paint.

(The program’s only cost is $116 a week, for a supervisor those two nights.)

“That to me is sort of self-selecting the people who come here,” Ruggirello says. “This is where they want to paint. And they know that if they do any kind of illegal stuff—which is really the source of all the problems in graffiti—they can’t paint here.”

HOMELAND CULTURAL CENTER MACARTHUR PARK | 1321 E ANAHEIM ST | LONG BEACH 90813 | 562.570.1740 | CI.LONG-BEACH.CA.US 

Tags: graffiti, homeland cultural center, Long Beach, macarthur park, murals