General Meeting Nov. 9th 2009 @ 4:30

Arts for Action next general meeting will be on 11/9/09. Please join us! We’ll be working on Paint not Prison and Media Justice Projects. With a give away in the Speed Black Book Session. See you there Ω.

Media Justice Project works with local CSA in South Oxnard

Arts for Action uses Media Justice Project to create food justice in South Oxnard. A 2:00 minute PSA was produced to bring awareness to the new Community Supported Agriculture Project in our area, the Abundant Table Farm Project (jointhefarm.com). From this short video our goal is to get low-cost organic vegetables on to the tables of those in need.

Paint Not Prison Program In the Press!

Newspaper Article. Visit the Ventura County Star website to read a recent article about Arts for Action’s Paint Not Prison program.

Neighborhood Clean-Up. Also, give us a call or send us an email to sign up for the neighborhood clean up on Saturday, August 15th, from 8am-12 at the Rodeo

Block Party. Also, don’t forget to join us at the block party to celebrate the new mural.  Sunday, August 16th, from 12-6pm.

Special Thanks to Scott Hadly (writer) and Chuck Kirman (photographer) for covering the story.

Center.  To sign up, call (805) 415-8283 or email cankpv@riseup.net

Block Party. Also, don’t forget to join us at the block party to celebrate the new mural.  Sunday, August 16th, from 12-6pm.

Special Thanks to Scott Hadly (writer) and Chuck Kirman (photographer) for covering the story.

Block Party in South Oxnard

Join Arts for Action on …

Sunday, August 16th, at the Rodeo Community Center from 12pm-6pm

… For a Block Party to celebrate the inauguration of our new mural. There will be music, food, a car show and kids activities.  Help us to promote the event by downloading, printing and distributing these pdf fliers.

To support this event, visit our donation page.

Paint Not Prison Mural in South Oxnard

The Paint Not Prison team is adding finishing touches to our South Oxnard mural, located at the Rodeo Community Center (451 West Hueneme Road).  Below is a short film documenting the mural production process.  Also visit our Media Archive to view more of video projects.

Arts for Action would like to offer a special thanks to Jess Gutierez for this beautiful photo montage of the mural process.  Enjoy.

Arts for Action's new mural is 42 feet long and 12 feet high.

Don't worry. The "Ormando" Beach typo has been corrected.

A mixed media piece, this mural was created with acrylics and aersol paints.

A central theme in the mural is the use of art to solve problems in our community.

The mural featured portraits of community residents, including many of the parents of our young artists.

Part of the Paint Not Prison team hanging out after a long day's work

A Successful Community Action

Victor Aguilar addresses the Oxnard Planning Commission after a long day of mural painting.

Today, a group of thirteen Arts for Action members joined forces with CAUSE and MICOP to urge the Oxnard Planning Commission to change the land use designation of Ormond Beach from industrial to “open space/ resource preservation.”  This policy change would advance the campaign to clean the toxic Halaco site, increase chances of preserving the Ormond Beach wetlands and ensure that future industrial projects would be banned from the area.

Three young artists took the potium to draw attention to the fact that our South Oxnard residents, who are primarily low income people of color, already endure an unequal environmental burden because we are surrounded by factories.  This is an environmental injustice that effects the lives of many families, local wild life and ecosystems.

The Planning Commission seemed very receptive to our demands.

Join us on July 2nd for the next Planning Commission meeting, where a decision will be made on this issue.

Also, check out the mural we are painting at the Rodeo Community Center (451 West Hueneme Road), which draws attention to the Halaco issue and the need to preserve our wetlands.

Painting our Walls with Community Wisdom

On Sunday, May 17th, The Ventura County Star published an article by Dr. Roberto Vargas, who attended Arts for Action community mural forum on May 3rd.  This article highlights the work of Arts for Action members to create a mural that is truely inspired by community participation.  Here is the complete article together with some photographs, live from the mural wall itself.

And remember, in these challenging financial times, we need your support more than ever.  You can donate to Arts for Action and the Paint Not Prison mural project by with paypal.

The power of art to make positive change in youths
‘Happiness, pride, energy, love’
By Roberto Vargas
Sunday, May 17, 2009

I attended the best youth-led community gathering I have ever experienced in Oxnard last Sunday. More than 100 people of all ages and cultures responded to the opportunity to contribute their ideas for a new mural to be painted in South Oxnard. This event was organized by Arts for Action, an organization seeking to involve youths and their families in using art to improve personal and community life.

I dropped by to deliver material requested by my daughter who was volunteering. On this beautiful afternoon, I was surprised to see within the Rodeo Community Center youths, parents, grandparents and more than a dozen members of a motorcycle club called the Rough Riders. I decided to stay, participate and find out why these people were attending.

The meeting used the learning-circle approach in which they divided the audience into groups of 10 to 12 to encourage connecting and meaningful conversations. The groups used the talking-stick tradition in which each person who holds the talking stick takes a turn to speak from their heart without interruptions.

Participants were asked to introduce themselves by sharing what they ideally would like to be doing with their lives if money was not an issue. Following this thought-provoking icebreaker, residents discussed some of the most prevalent problems in their community as well as the most positive aspects of their neighborhood. All ideas expressed were recorded on an easel board to be used later to identify themes for the mural.

Magic occurred in these groups as people expressed personal hardships and their love for Oxnard. Despite being of different cultures, participants grew to feel connected to each other as they shared individual and common experiences that encompassed a wide spectrum of human emotion. Whether their difficulties were due to racism in the schools, gang influences in the neighborhood or being a single parent, they often expressed similar hopes for their communities.

They shared their appreciation for the vibrant community life in Oxnard, that people care about each other, and that we have programs that really serve the community.

Within my group, a father disclosed how he had survived the gang life, how much he wants a better life for his children, and how the Arts for Action program was making a difference for his son who now understands what it means to “give back to the community.” The group also envisioned hundreds of community gardens organized in Oxnard where neighbors could come to know each other better and promote health consciousness.

The afternoon ended with a unity circle in which everyone joined hands and each person shared their final feeling word. We inspired each other as we heard many young and old say they felt “happiness, pride, energy, love and power!”

I know this gathering will not alone transform all of Oxnard’s challenges, yet for many who participated, it demonstrated what we can become. Youths convicted for doing graffiti said they are now developing new goals to be better people. Adults were inspired to get more involved with the young people in our neighborhoods.

We all experienced the power of feeling connected to others and sharing the goal of making our community better. My thanks go out to all the young people who organized to make this event happen, as well as the city and county agencies that have supported the development of such an innovative approach to community development. They are modeling the porvida activism we need to create positive change. We do it to serve life and we do it one person and one event at a time.

— Roberto Vargas of Ventura is the author of the book “Family Activism,” which is used by some local organizations to support organizing and community-building work. He is also on the advisory board of the Central Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy, a nonprofit community-planning and policy-research center.

Live from the Mural Wall

Members of Arts for Action are painting a mural in South Oxnard.  The mural is inspired by the life stories of 150 community members that were united for a weekend cultural event.

Join us for a BBQ every Wednesday in May and June at the mural wall (Rodeo Community Center, 451 West Hueneme Road in Oxnard).  Bring by something to grill, hang out, eat, check out the mural, play some handball, and contribute your creativity to the mural effort.

If you can’t make it out, don’t worry, we’ll be posting pictures of the mural project live on our website.

To contribute to Arts for Action and the Paint Not Prison mural program, visit our donation page.

Grinding down the old wall's steco took three days of hard work.

Priming the wall...

Still priming...

One last coat...

Working on the sketch.

Tomas locking down the dimensions.

Johny, Dina, Victor and Irvin all work on sketching the crowd.

The grid technique made transfering the image from the paper to the wall much easier.

Judith had a pretty good time.

Community Mural Event – A Success!

Article in Ventura Star May 4th

On Sunday May 3rd Arts 4 Action hosted a community mural  meeting.  After three weeks of intense outreach, over one hundred (100) Oxnard community members attended the two hour long meeting.  During the meeting positive and negative memories of Oxnard were shared in break out groups, followed by reports and details.  A Special Thanks to all who attended and those donated.  If interested in helping us paint the mural contact us.  Keep your eyes open for a mural coming soon!

Community Mural Event in South Oxnard

On Sunday, May 3^rd, at 4pm Arts for Action will host a community gathering to explore ideas for a new mural that will be painted in South Oxnard. Come share your vision for a more colorful Oxnard and enjoy free food and music. This community event will take place at the Rodeo Community Center, located at 451 West Hueneme Road in Oxnard.

Recent studies have shown that community based murals help to reduce crime, violence and urban blight. Community murals also promote pride in the community, especially when residents have an active role in determining the images that are displayed on their walls. Come support this group of young people in their effort to beautify the community and offer your vision for a stronger, healthier and more beautiful South Oxnard.

Download this PDF file of a double sided flier in Spanish and English.

This new mural is a project of Arts for Action's Paint Not Prison program