Visiting African American murals: a content analysis of Los Angeles, California

ABSTRACT

In the twentieth century, several large cities in the United States used murals to promote African-American culture and issues. For example, California had three decades, known as the ‘Golden Years’ of Afro-American muralism, between the 1970s and the 1990s, although this movement lost steam over time. At the time, public policies in California encouraged muralism in cities like Los Angeles, but today, African-American murals are absent from the visitor’s experience. However, literature has demonstrated that mural movements create positive effects as drivers of community development and identity preservation. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to explore new mural routes in Los Angeles that could be an opportunity to showcase African-American issues, whilst adding value to the visitor’s experience. For this purpose, we performed a content analysis of the literature and other documents related to these topics and we classified the city’s most representative African-American murals.

KEYWORDS:

• African-American culture and history
• mural movement
• community development
• cultural tourism
• mural routes
• public art

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Universitat Politècnica de València’s Vice-Rectorate for Research, Innovation and Transfer for its support during Prof. De Miguel’s Visiting Scholar period at UC Berkeley (Department of African American Studies).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Prof. María de Miguel Molina, PhD, is a specialist in Public Policies and Management. She studied at the University of Valencia and the Universitat Politècnica de València. She lectures in Public Strategy and Research Methodologies. She has been a Visiting Scholar at Lakehead University (Canada) and UC Berkeley (USA). She is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Management and Business Administration, Universitat Politècnica de València. She is member of the Research micro-cluster VLC/CAMPUS International ‘Globalization, tourism and heritage’, participating in the research projects of the Microcluster.

Prof. Blanca de Miguel Molina, is Associate Professor at the Universitat Politècnica de València, Department of Management and Faculty of Business Administration and Management. She lectures in Business Models, New Trends in Service Strategies, and Services Design. Her main research areas include creative and cultural industries (location and innovation), corporate community involvement (including support to arts and heritage), and luxury sustainable tourism. She is member of the Research micro-cluster VLC/CAMPUS International ‘Globalization, tourism and heritage’, participating in the research projects of the Microcluster.

Prof. Virginia Santamarina Campos, Fine Arts Degree at the Universitat Politècnica de València. She received the National Award from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports for her final dissertation. PhD in Conservation and Restoration of the Historic-Artistic Heritage, UPV. Associate Professor at the UPV, Department of Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage (Faculty of Fine Arts). She has been visiting researcher in Italy and Mexico. She lectures in mural art, creative heritage and culture areas. She is the coordinator of the Research micro-cluster VLC/CAMPUS International Campus of Excellence ‘Globalisation, tourism and heritage’. She is currently coordinating AiRT, an EC funded project.

ORCID

María de Miguel Molina http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4264-8000

Blanca de Miguel Molina http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1267-6070

Virginia Santamarina Campos http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6151-8271