The Need for Restoring Community Murals

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Depending on location of public sponsored murals, whether they are indoors or outdoors, all public murals need to be maintained and guarded against signs of deterioration. Without proper restoration, valuable community murals, especially those exposed to the weather and city dirt and grime, must be restored before they are permanently damaged or else they will vanish from our communities. Mural restoration for those types of large scale artworks that were made and executed by communities where they serve as cultural sources of pride, can help to regalvanize the same original community by bringing together not only sponsors, muralists, participating artists, volunteers, community members, but also new interested persons who may wish to participate in restoration work. This paper explores the urgent need for restoring valuable aging community murals and offers a first-hand understanding of community mural production by the practicing muralist and educator, Kong Ho. Furthermore, this paper investigates the possible effects that mural restoration can have in revitalizing the economic and social conditions of their communities, as well as prolonging the cultural heritage of these same communities. Ho founded the Hong Kong Mural Society in Hong Kong in 1997, and in the 10 years since he has been instrumental in coordinating the production of numerous community murals in both Hong Kong and the United States. Ho also started teaching mural painting courses at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford in 2002.

Stream: Arts Policy, Management and Advocacy

Paper: , Need for Restoring Community Murals, The

Kong Ho utilizes his background as an artist trained in both Chinese and Western painting to teach art as an Associate Professor of Art at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, Pennsylvania. Born and raised in Hong Kong, Ho attended Texas Tech University in the U.S. where he earned his M.F.A. degree in 1994. Always looking for new ways to inform the public of the educational benefits of art, Ho devotes his time in mural art and teaching. Besides, Ho also paints works of art in his studio that are of a more personal nature. Ho derives much of his imagery for his work from his cultural heritage, and his interest in mathematics and nature. His multi-layering of symbols creates a dynamic surface that contrasts forms, texture, and color. The resulting image instills a sense of visual tension and meditative quality, integrating the concepts of order and disorder.