Planning for Mural Restoration Underway

Suzanne Deal Booth and Peter Norton view the mural with Lenore Brown and Inez Hollis

Planning is underway for the restoration of a beloved New York City mural, Homage to Seurat: La Grande Jatte in Harlem by the late Eva Cockcroft. The mural is on the side of an apartment building that faces Hope Steven Garden, an active community garden (West 142nd Street and Amsterdam Avenue). Rescue Public Murals assessed the mural in September 2007 and the restoration is being funded by Friends of Heritage Preservation, a small, private association of individuals based out of Los Angeles that seeks to promote cultural identity through the preservation of significant endangered artistic and historic works, artifacts, and sites.

The mural provides a backdrop to a blooming peach tree in the Hope Steven Garden; however, the pastel colors seen in the mural today are the result of extreme paint fading. The mural will be restored to the vibrant colors in which it was painted.

In April, the project participants met to discuss plans for the restoration. Janet Braun-Reinitz, a colleague of Eva Cockcroft, is the lead artist on the project. Harriet Irgang Alden of Rustin Levenson Art Conservation Associates will be the consulting conservator. They met with representatives from the Manhattan Land Trust and Trust for Public Land (owners of the garden), and Hope Steven Garden members. At the meeting, the group discussed how best to inform and involve the community in the project, how to protect the garden plantings during work, and other logistics. The work will begin in late August and will continue through September 2009.