Melrose Avenue May Become Canvas for Street Art Museum

NEIGHBORHOOD POLITICS-To the business owners on Melrose Avenue, the outdoor walls and streets are covered with art worthy of a museum. Last Thursday, they announced a new initiative intended to better realize that idea. 

“The basic concept is that Melrose Avenue will be a museum of street art,” said Donald Duckworth, executive director of the Melrose Business Improvement District (BID). “The BID can play a roll as an intermediary, working with the property owners, the city and the artists — hiring a curator like Justin Bua.” 

The Melrose Mural Project was announced at a special pop-up show featuring the work of well-known streets artists such as Dytch66, Slick, Annie Preece and Jules Buck. 

Bua is a street artist better known as BUA. He is also the host of “Street Art Throwdown” on the Oxygen Network. As curator of the Melrose Mural Project, he said it was important to approach the project carefully. The street artists crew known as CBS (often interpreted as Can’t Be Stopped, but not always) has painted on Melrose Avenue for as many as three decades. 

“Here, you are dealing with real people … you are dealing with a legitimate crew, CBS, who have basically run the Melrose street since about 1983,” Bua said. “So all of the great work up here, most of the work here is done by CBS, so you have to walk a really fine line.” 

The Melrose Mural Project’s eventual goals include bringing in new artists to collaborate with members of CBS, painting over some murals or adding to them, and having approximately 10 to 15 walls that could be the main crux of the outdoors museum. A cellphone app could act as a guide through the district.  (Read the rest)  

-cw

 

CityWatch

Vol 13 Issue 28

Pub: Apr 3, 2015

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