The final matches of the FIFA World Cup will be held this weekend, which will undoubtedly bring together many people from the community to watch the games. In Reseda, there will be a community watch party for the third-place play-off match between France and England on Saturday at the Metro G Line Station.
But unlike other watch parties held in the San Fernando Valley, this event will debut a new arts and culture festival that will transform the station into an open-air gallery where the community will be encouraged to paint.
Culturamafest is being organized and presented by 11:11 Projects, a women-led art and culture nonprofit. The event is named after their flagship program, Culturama, which brings together communities through public art. In addition to the watch party, the festival will include an art zone, a zine giveaway, interactive booths and murals.
One mural already completed is titled “Future City,” painted by 89 students at Napa Street Elementary School in Northridge on four-foot-by-four-foot wood panels.
A teen mural expresses their view of the raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in MacArthur Park; another called “The Care Mural” depicts a “wish for the future” by Fairfax High School students and by a group of artists who have collaborated on a mural to celebrate the Culturamafest.
The Culturamafest mural is painted on a large piece of cloth and includes the message, “The Only Thing Stronger Than Hate is Love.” It will be completed on Saturday, and festivalgoers will be able to participate by adding their own touches to it.
The Culturamafest mural is being housed at Third House Studios, an art studio in Van Nuys, while the artists are still working on it. Megan Pinkston, studio manager of Third House, said they wanted to highlight the sense of community and unity that art can bring.
“We are artists. We wanted to be able to walk people through the community arts [projects] that we’ve been working on, and all of these projects have been very community-focused,” Pinkston said. “There’s really going to be something for everybody, and we want to use this as a platform to talk about what we value in the San Fernando Valley as artists.”
The festival came about, Pinkston said, when Metro reached out to 11:11 Projects about the World Cup watch party they would be hosting and asked if they wanted to collaborate to make the event a cultural experience. Their organization readily agreed.
“We also have the opportunity to invite other artists that 11:11 has worked with, … who will be showing their pieces,” Pinkston said. “It’s just going to be a fun time bringing people together.”
Kelly Larkin, an animator, and Daniela Granados, a photographer, were among the dozen artists who collaborated on the Culturamafest mural. It was the first time either of them had worked on a large mural, and both helped to make zines that will be handed out illustrating the layout of Culturamafest and information about the different murals on display.
Larkin said this project began in May, and artists spent the next six weeks discussing what they wanted the Culturamafest mural to look like, and they learned about each other as people and artists.
“I think what is really important about Culturama and this process is that there is a common language, but everyone is also bringing their own individual piece to it,” Larkin said. “Since Culturama is a celebration of the culture we wish to bring into the future, everyone’s unique perspective is really important. It allows us to nominate only the best things to bring forward.”
Granados has lived in the San Fernando Valley her whole life and has used the Metro G Line Station many times. Until the festival, she had never considered the idea of using a transit hub as a community space to bring people together, but she expressed that she thought it was a wonderful idea and that it could challenge her as an artist.
“I think it’s a beautiful way of representing the San Fernando Valley in contrast with the World Cup, which is a global event,” Granados said. “Hopefully, Culturama serves as an introduction to what the San Fernando Valley is, what Los Angeles is and everything that the artists, the creative community and our youth have to offer here.”
Culturamafest will take place at the intersection of Reseda Boulevard and Oxnard Street in Reseda on Saturday, July 18, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.