Oceanside Schools’ Art Policy Ruffles Some Feathers

A policy requiring all public art projects at Oceanside schools to be submitted to the school board for approval disturbs some artists who feel the trustees may be out of touch with the community.

The policy, approved unanimously Tuesday, requires artists to submit detailed proposals, including a map of where the artwork will be located and a pictorial representation of its design, colors and dimensions.

The action comes one month after the district whitewashed a mural with a stay-in-school theme at Ditmar Elementary School, less than a week after it had been completed. Some people, including two school board members, objected to the work’s bright colors and its prominent display at the front of the school, said Bill Bragg, associate superintendent.

Artists complained that the district failed to consult with the students who painted the mural, the artists who designed it or even the school principal before painting over the mural.

“This policy was an effort to have something in place that everybody would understand so that they know what they need to do to get approval of a project up front,” Bragg said.

Fred Alvarez, the designer of the Ditmar mural, said he approved of the policy overall, but questioned whether the board had the background to judge the merits of a mural.

“I don’t think that they have the slightest idea what we are trying to accomplish” with the murals, said Alvarez, whose nonprofit North County Barrio Arts Project works with children to foster an interest in art and education.

Renowned San Diego muralist Salvador Torres said the incident at Ditmar, where four out of five students are Latino, was “a real tragedy” and said the all-white Oceanside Unified school board will have to make an effort to “have better roots in the community” before they can judge the merits of an art project in that area.

Board member Dean Szabo said he wasn’t sure what criteria he will use when judging future art projects, but said “there’s no big education process that needs to take place,” adding that he would rely in his decisions on community opinion.

Other public institutions in San Diego County have struggled with controversies over murals in the past two years. Two murals at elementary schools in San Diego and a mural funded by the Felicita Foundation in Escondido have caused uproars.

“These are all indications of the growing pains that occur when cultures are attempting to develop and grow and extend themselves and participate in the democratic right of creative growth,” Torres said.

Earlier last summer, San Diego Unified, which has more than 75 murals at its schools, underwent a similar process in the other direction, opting to allow individual schools to determine what art fits in the community.

“What we are doing is more in the way of site-based management,” said Kay Wagner, an instructional team leader in the district’s visual and performing arts department.