Artists John Pitman Weber and Hector Duarte will restore two murals located in Humboldt Park that represent the history of the neighborhood.
The two murals were waiting for funds to get renewed and come back to glory in the neighborhood.
“The murals survived and now we have funds coming from different places,” Weber said.
Part of the project is supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council.
The Latin United Community Housing Association (LUCHA) organized a meeting on Sept. 19 at the Institute of Puerto Rican Art and Culture, to present the project and get the community involved into the initiative.
The association is trying to get students from the neighborhood’s schools involved, so that they can learn about those pieces of history in the area and get more active in the community.
“That’s why this project is relevant,” Weber said. “Young people are important because they have the energy to move the world, but they do not have the perspective of what happened before.”
The two murals that will be restored are “Honor Boricua” (1992), by Duarte, and “Rompiendo las Cadenas” (1971), by Weber.
At the meeting, the artists stated the importance of maintaining the heritage in today’s people. An important focus of the project is to keep the memory of the historical changes and conquers that the previous residents of the neighborhood achieved during the years.
For more information, visit www.lucha.org.
