Mural Project

LP’s summer 2011 mural project is centered on the value of collaboration. Through this project, LP seeks to embrace multiple levels of collaboration between community actors to enrich Chicago’s neighborhoods and foster a positive environment for artistic expression and community growth.

First, LP will continue to nurture its relationships with partner organizations, particularly Pros Arts Studio, Enlace Chicago and the Resurrection Project, to provide opportunities for community engagement. These collaborative relationships encourage resource sharing and directly strengthen nonprofit networking within the Pilsen and Little Village areas, allowing each organization to more effectively serve its constituents. Such networking will be done with the vision of expanding to the larger Chicago-based nonprofit community.

A second key component of the mural project will be the collaboration between the project’s leading artists and the community residents. By adhering to the unique framework of LP’s first mural project, wherein community members gathered to participate in the painting of the mural outlined by leading community artists, LP’s summer 2011 mural project will provide another opportunity for residents and artists to congregate in a safe space and share in the expression of their Mexican identities. Neighborhood histories will also be explored and documented through oral interviews during this process, ultimately to uncover past neighborhood dynamics and understand what they have come to signify for the established residents of Chicago’s southwest neighborhoods.

Moreover, LP’s mural project seeks to encourage collaboration between artistic styles and generations. This collaboration will largely manifest itself by bridging the younger and older generations as well as the unique artistic styles that each brings to the table. By embracing different generations of artists, LP’s mural project will support the traditional muralism iconic of past generations as well as traditional and innovative styles of the younger generations, ultimately facilitating the fusion between the artistic styles. By supporting the spectrum of these creative styles as well as the artists whose passions drive their evolution, LP hopes to facilitate teamwork within and between artistic communities.

An important component of this collaboration between artistic generations will be the professional development opportunities available to aspiring youth artists. Guided by professionals in the field of traditional and graffiti muralism, neighborhood youth will have an opening to explore their creative passions in a safe environment under the instruction of respected and established community artists. Such collaboration extends the scope LP’s mural project well beyond the summer of 2011, inspiring sustainable cross-generational relationships and mentorships.

Ultimately, LP’s summer 2011 mural project aims to bring residents and artists together in dialogue and action, ultimately highlighting collaboration as a centerpiece of the project and a tool for creative community growth.