Saving Local Treasures: Community Activism and Mural Preservation
Join us as muralists Richard Muro Salazar and Rebeca García-González take the audience through a guided presentation about the role and importance of murals and public art. You will see how murals can be used to galvanize community activism, record public history, and enhance a city's landscape and memory. These artists will share their hands-on experience with community-led mural conservation, examples of how these groups have successfully saved local murals from destruction, and how these murals preserve the histories and heritage of California's unique communities.
A lifelong Richmond resident, Richard is a multi-talented muralist, sculptor and educator who uses his art to convey activism and social justice topics. Richard will discuss his experience and activism painting working the Greenway, a community-led reuse project transforming former railroad corridors into a public, mixed-modal trail.
Rebeca, also a long-time Richmond resident and social justice advocate, whose work focuses on social justice themes, East Bay landscapes, and in portraits of individuals in Richmond and her native Puerto Rico. Rebeca will discuss her collaborative work over the last several years with various communities on public art projects with social justice themes, including the restoration and painting of new murals on Macdonald and San Pablo Avenues under the jurisdiction of Caltrans and the City of Richmond.
Speakers
Rebeca García-González. Rebeca is an award-winning visual artist and long-term resident of Richmond, CA. Rebeca’s murals can be found all around Richmond, where she has painted with local youth in collaboration with several non-profits. Some have social justice themes, others respond to the needs of the community. She has been commissioned by the Friends of the Richmond Greenway, the Richmond Police Activities League, the Watershed Project, and the East Bay Community Foundation. She is also currently working on a portrait series of Richmond activists. While Rebeca’s painting is best-known through her public art and her portraits of undocumented immigrants, her landscapes of the East Bay have earned awards and are part of many private collections. You can see her work in person at an upcoming Point Molate exhibit at the Richmond Art Center, where her landscapes will be on display from January 24th-March 16th, 2024.
Richard Muro Salazar. Richard is a Bay Area-born and raised muralist and custom fabricator who has been practicing his artistic passions for over 30 years. Raised in Richmond, he naturally grew a love for his community, which fueled his journey to become involved in social justice and activism through his works of art. He is currently working with youth as an educator of multiple art mediums, helping to empower the next generation of socially-conscious community artists. In his free time, he loves to travel and tend to his garden with his family.