Reframe: City Hall
Mural Project
Phase I Report
February 13, 2024
AGENDA
• Review the Recommended
Actions from Staff
• Discuss the Community
Process
• Discuss Proposed
Implementation Priorities
2 Purpose of Tonight’s Meeting
1.Review and accept the
report’s community
recommendations presented
by Meztli Projects
2.Direct City Staff to begin the
implementation phase of the
Reframe: City Hall Mural
project, starting with planning
for the 9 recommendations
included in the report.
3 Recommended Actions
Meztli
Projects
4 Community Engagement
• Content
Phase I: City Hall Mural Project, Facilitators
Engagement
Approach
6 City Hall Mural Community Engagement
Public
Engagement
7 City Hall Mural Community Engagement
Working Circle
8 City Hall Mural Community Engagement
9 • 123 respondents to March 2022 survey
• 100 youth participants in Summer 2022
Belonging in Santa Monica
• 13 Working Circle members selected from 32
applications
• Approximately 270 participants at 9 public
events featuring 12 guest speakers
• 15 interview participants
• Approximately 240 participants at 14
presentations or listening sessions
• 200 Feedback Activity sheets distributed at 5
additional community events
• 337 respondents to the Reframe: City Hall Mural
Feedback Activity
City Hall Mural Community Engagement
Public
Engagement
10 About the Mural - Perspectives
It reminds me not only how unwelcome
my history is in the story this place
wants to talk about itself, but also how
the real experiences of my family and
friends need to be made invisible to
make this story make sense. It reminds
me that City Hall is not accountable to
me at all, which I think is a relatively
true fact about the way that Santa
Monica city governance behaves.
Unfortunately, this mural’s revisionist
histories tell some actual truths about
it.
The beauty of Santa Monica’s coastline
shows through time, connecting us to
this place and to people who have come
before us. I am intrigued to learn more
about the water portrayed in different
ways - the rivers, the waterfalls, and the
engagement of the birds, horses and
people with water. Technically I am
intrigued by the tile formations of the
mural itself - the horizontal and vertical
lines - I’ve read about petrachrome and
would like to know more about how the
artist created this
About the Mural - Perspectives
12 About the Mural - Perspectives
13 Phase I: Mural-based Recommendations
14 Phase I: Equity-based Recommendations
1. Commission New Artwork(s) in City Hall Lobby
2. Commission New Interpretive Panels
3. Ensure that Santa Monica’s Public Art &
Commemorative Landscape Centers Equity and
Belonging
4. Create additional educational materials about
the mural
5. Expand DEI+ Trainings for City Staff
6. Adopt a Citywide Land/Territory
Acknowledgment Initiative
7. Improve Representation on Santa Monica
Committees
8. Facilitate Land Back in Santa Monica
9. Facilitate Kuruvungna Springs Relationships
15 Phase I: Recommendations
New Artwork Placement Considerations
17 Anticipated Initial Implementation Timeline
March 2024
Develop process for:
New artwork
commissions
Interpretive and
education material
creation and
Other priorities
June 2024
RFPs released to
further community
engagement around
new artwork for the
lobby.
manage process to
synthesize input from
community
stakeholders
June-Aug 2024
Selection and
Procurement process
for new artworks and
panels
Develop RFP for
citywide cultural
assessment
Aug 24-Aug 25
Implementation of art
project(s) approved by
the Arts Commission
and
Implementation of the
Interpretive panel
production.
1.Review and accept the
report’s community
recommendations presented
by Meztli Projects
2.Direct City Staff to begin the
implementation phase of the
Reframe: City Hall Mural
project, starting with planning
for the 9 recommendations
included in the report.
18 Recommended Actions
Reframe: City Hall
Mural Project Phase I
Report
THANK YOU!
Questions?
Blank slide, extra content behind around engagement
The artist and muralist Glenna Avila
was commissioned to lead workshops
with local elementary, middle and high
school youth.
Students discussed the artworks at
Historic City Hall and City Hall East and
considered questions about
representation and belonging.
The result is a collection of original
artworks reflecting young people’s
thoughts on their home and
communities.
22 Youth Poster Project, Summer 2022
This precursor event took place at
photographer Matika Wilbur's Project 562:
Changing the way we see Native
America" exhibit at SMC's Barrett Gallery.
The event focused on the multiplicity of Native
and Indigenous voices, and the setting, which
showcased contemporary people from a
variety of tribes around the country, was a
strong affirmation of this theme.
The event sparked deep conversation, aired
differing viewpoints and tensions, and raised
important issues around the representation of
Indigenous Peoples in public space.
23 Prisms of Indigeneity, December 2022
A tour through of three
significant places in Santa
Monica history: City Hall,
Historic Belmar Park, and
Kuruvungna Springs.
Accompanied by a
discussion of how we
address memory in
public space.
24 Sites of Memory Tour, February 2023
A virtual workshop and walk
through of the public
feedback activity,
accompanied
by background resources for
considering the MacdonaldWright mural. Presented in
partnership with the Santa
Monica Public Library.
25 What do you see here? February 2023
New approaches to telling
stories about the places we
live, featuring technologist
and storyteller idris brewster
and artist Christine Wong Yap.
Presented in partnership
with the Santa Monica Public
Library.
26 Memory Work Today, March 2023
Small group work
with facilitator Anu
Yadav for community
members to share
their diverse views on
the Santa Monica City
Hall Mural.
27 Community Listening Workshop, April 2023
An opportunity for all to
stop by the Historic City
Hall lobby, view the
mural and give feedback.
28 City Hall Mural Open House, May 2023
A dive into the histories of the
communities and locales not
represented in the mural.
Speakers were: Mona Morales
Recalde, enrolled member of the
Gabrieleno/Tongva San Gabriel Band
of Mission Indians; Jaime Cruz, lifelong
resident of Santa Monica’s Pico
neighborhood and history professor at
Santa Monica College; and Carolyne
Edwards of the Quinn Research
Center.
Presented in conjunction with the
Santa Monica History Museum.
29 Other Histories of Santa Monica, June 2023
Screening of a documentary
about the WPA-era murals at
George Washington High
School in San Francisco, with
facilitated discussion by
Meztli Projects. Presented in
conjunction with the Santa
Monica Public Library.
30 Screening of Town Destroyer, July 2023
A second open house event
at City Hall, where attendees
viewed the
Recommendations that
arose from the Phase I
process. A forum for
the sharing of thoughts
and informal conversations.
31 Open House and Mixer, November 2023
• 123 respondents to March 2022 survey distributed to
Santa Monica residents and employees
• 100 youth participants in Summer 2022 Belonging in
Santa Monica workshops with Glenna Avila
• Approximately 270 participants at 9 public events
featuring 12 guest speakers/facilitators
• Approximately 240 participants at 14 presentations or listening sessions with community groups
• 337 respondents to the Reframe: City Hall
Mural Feedback Activity
• At least 200 Feedback Activity sheets distributed at 5 additional community events
• 13 Working Circle members selected from
32 applications
• 15 interview participants
• 9 mass email newsletters
• Many SaMoNews and City social media mentions
• Press coverage from SMDP, SM Mirror, Spectrum
NewsTwo City blog posts
32 Communications about the Project