Toward a People's Art: The Contemporary Mural Movement

by Eva Cockcroft, John Pitman Weber, James Cockcroft

First published in 1977, Toward a People's Art remains a classic study of the community-based mural movement that produced hundreds of large-scale wall paintings in the United States and Canada. The authors provide a comprehensive discussion of the muralists, the murals' effects on the community, and the funding these works received. Those interested in art and social change will welcome this new edition, which represents an ongoing faith in the ideal of participatory democracy as the best way to confront the nation's social problems and in the potential of activist art to have long-term social impact. The introduction describes the era-the late 1960s-and a new afterword looks at the 1980s and 1990s and the continuing commitment to the community-engaged process of making public art.

Genres: Art

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

Reviews

[Charlotte · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is my bible.

[Joshua Nomen-Mutatio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this while taking a mural design and painting course in which we were commisioned by the Waukegan Public Library to design and paint a mural on the exterior of the library. See more about the Mural Project.