An exhibition (April 8 - June 30), catalog and public programming that celebrate La Lucha Continua The Struggle Continues—Artmakers’ 26 political murals painted in 1985 and 1986 in a Lower East Side community garden to address six issues of paramount concern to both neighborhood residents and the artists. 

Four of the issues remain of deep concern: gentrification, police brutality, immigration, and feminism. Opposition to apartheid in South Africa has morphed into continued racism in the United States and the resulting Black Lives Matter movement. Today, opposition to U.S. interventions in Central America translates to the rise in militarism and U.S. involvement in ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

In the current political climate, these issues continue to affect (i.e., marginalize) our most vulnerable communities. More than ever, we need to engage in conversation, reflect, connect, and act. 

The project—collectively known as La Lucha Continua The Struggle Continues: 1985 & 2017— examines how the murals defined, protected and rehabilitated a community. The exhibition is more than an excavation of the past or an examination of the social, political and cultural context in which the murals were created. It is also a lens aimed at today’s Loisaida, focusing on how the issues and the neighborhood have changed over time. 

Eva Cockcroft, founder of Artmakers, famously said, “Painted images cannot stop wars or win the struggle for justice, but, they are not irrelevant. They fortify and enrich the spirit of those who are committed to the struggle and help educate those who are unaware.” In 1985, she gathered together 29 “activist artists” to create the La Lucha murals on four vacant buildings overlooking the then neglected La Plaza Cultural community garden (Avenue C, between East 8th & 9th Streets). Today, the garden is thriving but only two of the La Lucha murals still exist, the paint cracked and faded. 

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