Neville Garrick, Helen Singleton and collaborators
A project to repair and restore an important visual piece of UCLA history is now complete. A special reception and ribbon-cutting marking the successful revitalization of “The Black Experience,” a 10-foot-by-27-foot mural created in 1970 by a group of seven black UCLA art students, was held June 4.
The event, which attracted UCLA students, faculty, staff and alumni, as well as members of the Los Angeles community and individuals who contributed to the project, was held as part of the year-end celebrations hosted by the Afrikan Student Union. Special guests included Neville Garrick and Helen Singleton, two of the original artists who were instrumental in helping advance the effort to bring the mural back to its glory, as well as Distinguished Professor Emerita and renowned civil rights activist Angela Davis, a former professor of Garrick’s whose image appears in the mural.
The mural is located next to Panda Express on the first floor of Ackerman Union. A false wall erected during renovations in 1992 had kept the mural hidden for two decades. The movement to uncover the mural gained momentum in fall 2012 after members of the Afrikan Student Union brought the mural to the attention of the Associated Students UCLA board of directors.
– UCLA Newsroom
Singleton said that the art piece was created in response to the “emotional turmoil” that took hold at UCLA and other college campuses throughout the United States in the aftermath of the Kent State University shootings, which claimed the lives of four students protesting the Vietnam War. In reaction, protests broke out on campuses across the country, including one that drew thousands of students to UCLA’s Janss Steps.
“When it all died down, what we saw was that a lot of vandalism had taken place on campus,” Singleton recalled. Students decided that a mural depicting pride, achievement and important moments in African-American history seemed like the best response to the situation.
– UCLA Newsroom