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Community Corner

Gallery: Restoration of Baca Mural Brings Beauty Back to Highland Park

Some of the murals original artists, including Joe Bravo and Sonya Fe, were once the scene to restore the mural on Thursday afternoon.

Day by day, layer by layer, the artists responsible for creating one of Highland Park's most historic and iconic murals are now working together to restore its original beauty.

The restoration of Judy Baca's famous History of Highland Park mural, located at former AT&T Building at Ave. 56 and Meridian St., was well underway on Thursday afternoon, thanks to the of the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC), Councilmember Jose Huizar's office and Baca herself.

Lifelong Highland Park resident and muralist Joe Bravo was at the site Thursday afternoon, scrubbing the last remaining remnants of a decades worth of graffiti tagging. Working alongside him was another of the mural's creators, Sonya Fe.

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The muralists will continue to remove the tagging and apply new coats of paint until the project's scheduled completion date at the end of May. Carlos Rogel of SPARC said volunteers are also encouraged to come out and participate in the restoration effort on Saturdays.

In addition to repainting the mural, Rogel told Highland Park-Mount Washington Patch that the wall will be treated with a state of the art anti-graffiti coating developed at the UCLA/SPARC Cesar Chavez Digital Mural Lab, as well chemical solution that consolidates every layer of mural paint into a single, strong layer that will not fade after multiple cleanings.

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These efforts are being taken to ensure that SPARC won't have to ever coordinate another cleaning of the the Baca Mural.

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