Temporary artwork banners along Crenshaw Boulevard near Crenshaw/Expo.

Temporary artwork banners on Crenshaw Blvd.

Temporary artwork banners along Crenshaw Boulevard near Crenshaw/Expo.

Temporary artwork banners along Florence Ave. in downtown Inglewood.

Temporary artwork banners along Florence Avenue.

As part of its efforts to mitigate visual impacts during project construction, the Metro Art program recently installed temporary art banners on construction site fences along the Crenshaw/LAX project corridor. The banners can be seen from Crenshaw Boulevard near the Expo/Crenshaw Expo Station and in Leimert Park, and along Florence Avenue in downtown Inglewood.

From June 2015 through January 2016, Metro Art hosted a series of workshops for the Crenshaw/LAX corridor at Lula Washington Dance Theater, KAOS Network, the Inglewood Center for Spiritual Living and Inglewood High to mentor local youth on designing banners that celebrate neighborhood icons.

The series was coordinated through the nonprofit arts education organization artworxla and led by artist Michael Alvarez. The banners have been installed at the following sites:

Expo/Crenshaw

The banners at the site of the new station recognize notable figures such as Mayor Tom Bradley, Nina Revoyr and Lula Washington and honor the neighborhood’s strong African American and Japanese American heritage.

Leimert Park

The banners are installed at the intersection of Crenshaw and Vernon and celebrate neighborhood cultural icons such as Biddy Mason, Billy Higgins, the Vision Theater, the Leimert Park drum circle and the World Stage.

Inglewood

The banners installed along Florence Boulevard feature neighborhood cultural icons such as Helen Lundberg’s History of Transportation Mural, the Centinela Adobe, the Forum, Racetrack and the ever popular Randy’s Donuts, with a special nod to Casey Veggies, the talented rapper who is Inglewood High School alumnus.

Metro Art has a long track record of producing temporary artworks to help mitigate visual impacts during project construction phases. Previous examples include the Gold Line Eastside Extension and the Red Line station sites in Hollywood and North Hollywood.

The Crenshaw/LAX project is an 8.5-mile light rail line that will add eight new stations serving the Crenshaw neighborhood, Leimert Park, Inglewood, Westchester and surrounding areas. The project celebrated reaching its halfway point last weekend. More from that event here.