Massive stacks of shipping containers and miles of rows of cranes composed inside a thriving port. Pristine sands and a lighthouse by the water along a bustling public beach. These are a few of the images you may think of when you envision the city of Long Beach, CA. But Long Beach is quickly becoming known as one of the world’s foremost convergences for art. Particularly murals. This year Long Beach Walls brought over 18 art installations to the city. The event now a familiar staple of the summertime festivities.
This year’s event kicked off with the cities own Mayor Rex Richardson putting a stencil on the side of Renaissance High School for the Arts. In fact, Renaissance High is at the heart of the event, with four of the murals being painted at the school. For many years the school walls laid dormant, banal white, lacking semblance of creative inspiration, which is the state of most schools in California. Now after Long Beach Walls the school is home to several world-class caliber murals.
Artists working with the LBW program are given a great deal of creative latitude in terms of subject and aesthetics and the individual murals deeply reflect the individual stylings of the artists. On the north side of the school, Mister Toledo brought forth a scene where a girl leisurely floats 10 thousand miles above the Earth while scrolling through her phone. Toledo told me he wanted to evoke the nostalgia of his own school days. His own experiences reflected in the meticulously detailed elements of his work. “I wanted it to look like this person had been through something” Toledo explained indicating the wrinkled jacket, Though lush with character he intended to incorporate more hand-painted details before the piece’s completion.
On the opposite side of the school and almost opposite creative direction Stevie Shao calmly hand brushed the finishing touches on her mural. Traveling from Seattle Stevie brought her own unique history and culture to LBW. Fusing her own sense identity into her work, Shao gathers inspiration from her childhood, folklore, as well has her own family. The corner design spanning two walls contains two birds and two dogs facing each other. The figures are representations for her family. “I’m the green.” she said good natured, indicating a green dog with distinct Chinese-influenced pictorials.
“We’re adding value to our communities while at the same time investing in our future.”
In recent years, Long Beach has been undergoing its own transformative renaissance. Mayor Richardson remembered when Long Beach Walls first arrived and observed the profound impact of public art made on the community first hand.“We saw the transformative power of public art. We identified spaces that were tagged with graffiti from young people and we understood that those young people were communicating with our city and telling us the areas that needed our attention.” Richardson said. To date Long Beach Walls has brought over 100 murals to the city of Long Beach. “By investing with paint, a little bit of love, a little bit of creativity, your placemaking, you’re turning that space that was important to someone to an iconic location for all of us.” Richardson continued. “We’re adding value to our communities while at the same time investing in our future.”
In its inaugural year, Long Beach Walls faced wasn’t as widely embraced. Businesses were reluctant to participate because, “They equated mural art to graffiti and crime and things like vandalism and things like that” said Julia Huang the founder of Creative Collective, which helps to organize Long Beach Walls. Yet after the first year the influence was undeniable, “The instant transformation was very, very impactful. I mean, you saw that effect that art has on the landscape of a city immediately.”
Long Beach’s burgeoning reputation is now beginning to garner international attention as an artistic oasis. Attracting talents from around the world. “We always say that we want the world to come to Long Beach and we also want Long Beach to go to the world,“ Huang said. The festival lineup boasts a blend of local and international artists, with the level of quality seeming to rise every year.
“We always say that we want the world to come to Long Beach and we also want Long Beach to go to the world.”
Many of these artist work and travel full time. Returning artist Dina Saadi traveled a great distance to contribute. Coming from Dubai she paints and creates murals full time. Before murals Dina had a career in digital marketing. Left creatively unfulfilled she branched out, found murals and never looked back. Switching from digital to aerosol was an easy transition she said and as of today she has created over 100 murals in countries around the world. Her work is some of the most vivid on the streets of long beach. Having work already on W. Broadway in Long Beach her new work at the convention center is almost an extension, melding colors and forms into a radiant array. Her current dream inspired work features a background of brilliant amalgamation of figure, skylines, and vegetation displaying the interconnectivity of all things.
Jack Soren, also painting at Renaissance High School also traveled to participate in the event. Hailing from Hawaii his heritage instantly transmitted through his work. Hawaii didn’t have a thriving street art scene growing up and he mainly found inspiration via the internet, following other artists from SF, NY, and LA. Some people would paint graffiti on the abandoned bases from WW II but as Soren matured he wanted to find a creative outlet that would also keep him out of jail. So he transitioned to murals.
Having visiting artists in the event is as vital as highlighting local talent. The cultural exchange throughout the city creates windows into other peoples lives. “I wanted a lot of my pieces to kind of be a portal to my world, and sharing that Hawaii and Hawaiian influence.” Soren said. “The leis in Hawaii represent weaving together each other, each other’s connections, and how they grow, and you add more flowers, and the community grows, and you keep adding more people and flowers to the thread. It eventually becomes larger, and turns into something beautiful.”
The sentiment is uncannily similar to the overarching mission of LBW. Adding more murals, more artists, and weaving a thread of creativity throughout the community. Soren continued, “Usually when you give a lei for like a birthday, or a celebration, or to honor someone, or to make them feel special. So that’s kind of how our community works, is the more people we take in and work together with. You know, we honor them, we respect each other, we share that with everyone, and make each other feel important and special.”
“Usually when you give a lei for like a birthday, or a celebration, or to honor someone, or to make them feel special. So that’s kind of how our community works, is the more people we take in and work together with. You know, we honor them, we respect each other, we share that with everyone, and make each other feel important and special.”
The murals of Long Beach transport its citizens to realms beyond the city walls, some of them are real and some are imaginary. But all of them made with the unadulterated voice of the independent spirit. It’s something that is intrinsically important for a Preforming Arts school like Renaissance. Many of the artists participating in this year recalled how there were no inspirational art or murals when they attended school. Students at Renaissance High will now get to experience world class art on a daily basis. It’s a testament to a school whose students have gone on to prestigious universities such as Stanford and Harvard.
This energy from the murals seems to breath life into the vacant halls of the school and the spirit is infections even from the student volunteers. It’s hard to ignore the dynamic transformation that the Long Beach has undergone in recent years. The project has forever changed the face of the city. In some ways the physical walls of the city have actually become an informal art collection of sone of the worlds premiere public artworks.
As a result the city has seen an influx of growth, both in economics and population. Murals have played a large in role in the exponential expansion within the city. Creating public artworks endows a space with a sense of worth. It takes an essentially bland city wall and turns it into a work of art. Making it a more appealing space for business to operate, communities to gather, cultures to flourish.
As the week concluded with a celebration at Long Beach Promenade. Long Beach Walls tallied another 12 murals for the city with no end in sight. The year also featured a bike tour where riders could see the works in progress. The number of murals is likely to increase with subsequent years continuing to fulfill the vision of welcoming the world to Long Beach. It’s possible that future generations may find themselves in a city that inspires with every step.
