Vanita Green. Black Women. 1970. Chicago, Illinois.

-~ . . o
e > & ——

have made important contributions as organ-
izers and administrators. Judy Baca, a leading
Chicana muralist in Los Angeles, obtained City
funding for a similar neighborhood-oriented
large-scale mural program (Citywide Murals) in
1974. Shelly Killen heads a program for murals
in prisons in Rhode Island, which has operated
in the correctional institutions there for the past
two years. Sandy Rubin’s Alternate Graffiti
Workshop in Philadelphia pioneered techniques
for developing the artistic potential of graffiti
writers; several of her workshop graduates have
become muralists in their own right. Ruth
Asawa and Nancy Thompson developed the Al-
varado School-Community Program in San
Francisco, which brings community artists into
the public schools to enrich the school experi-
ence and has helped to open the doors to “Art-
ists in the Schools” programs around the coun-
try. In fact, at the present time, the majority of
the mural programs throughout the nation are
directed by women.

The major influx of women artists into the
mural movement did not take place until 1971-
73 when news about the community walls had
become better known outside the actual mural
communities. This was also a time of expansion
for the Women'’s Liberation Movement. Many
women artists tried mural work, but not all of
them became muralists. Community mural

work, although highly rewarding, requires a
certain kind of openness and great dedication.
It also demands physical labor, community or-
ganizing, going to meetings, and an ability to
deal with the great variety of people who come
up to talk or make comments. However, a num-
ber of the women who did become involved in
the early 1970s now identify themselves as mur-
alists and are recognized for their artistic contri-
butions.

The development of Caryl Yasko, one of the
best muralists in the nation and a leader of the
Chicago Mural Group, illustrates this process.
Like Green, Yasko was introduced to the mural
movement through William Walker when she
volunteered as a parent-assistant for a mural he
was directing with children at her neighborhood
school. After this experience, Yasko and her
partner in a small art enterprise, Kathy Judge, a
ceramicist, worked with small children to paint
Walls of Hope. Yasko and Judge were then in-
vited to join the Chicago Mural Group. In the
summer of 1972, Yasko directed her first major
project, Under City Stone, a mural that runs
throughout the 55th Street underpass in Hyde
Park. Painted from Yasko’s design with the help
of a team recruited from passers-by, it shows
hundreds of figures walking around and, above
them, the machinery, technology, and pollu-
tion of today’s city. Yasko painted herself in the

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