OUR HISTORY
Founded in 2013 as Green Communications Initiative and renamed TRANFORMATION ARTS in 2022, our organization has expanded from its initial environmental justice mission to address a broad scope of today's complex systemic justice challenges through community-based art.
You may be most familiar with our long-running Mar Vista Art Walk in Venice and W. Los Angeles which showcased the work of hundreds of musicians and artists. Over the last decade, our programs and public art have provided opportunities for more than 350 Los Angeles based artists.
2014
"AMERICAN TRASH". Our first exhibition, highlighting environmental justice at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica, CA.
2015-2020
The Mar Vista Artwalk. We hosted 18 in-person quarterly (seasonal) art walks in W. Los Angeles and Venice as well as three live streamed pandemic-era events, organized on rotating, community-based social justice themes, that attracted up to 20,000 guests annually and garnered press coverage from The Argonaut, Timeout, and more!
2016
Public Art on Utility Boxes on a 1 mile stretch of Venice Blvd.
2017
Local art is installed on fifteen public Big Belly solar trash compactors along Venice Blvd. in Los Angeles County from the 405 Freeway to Venice, CA.
Community Gallery. Over a dozen exhibitions curated by community-based artists at 12804 Venice Blvd. in Los Angeles
2017-2018
2018
LA’s first "Pavement Mural" is installed in an asphalt intersection at a Farmer's Market.
2019
Alex/Alexa Project. Public art installed in 3 solar-powered bus shelters along Venice Blvd. in Los Angeles
2020-2022
Artists awarded microgrants to live stream interviews about their work to keep community-based art alive during the pandemic, exposing their art to new audiences across the globe and making art accessible to all.
Art Marketplace (virtual). Monthly online gallery exhibitions organized around rotating social justice themes for artists to market their work in the U.S. and internationally during the pandemic.
2021
The Downtown Mar Vista Beautification Project is unveiled, featuring five murals + streetlight neighborhood-identifying medallions on Venice Boulevard west of the 405 Freeway.
2022
Transformation Arts oversees the Wilmington Town Square art beautification, adding two wall murals and six mosaic tile murals in the archways of the revitalized Town Square Park.
2023
Green Communications Initiative and the Mar Vista Art Walk become TRANSFORMATION ARTS. After our Board of Directors and staff unanimously approve the new mission and name of the organization we are given a new look.
The new TRANSFORMATION ARTS logo
TODAY
Phase II of the Wilmington Beautification is underway, to add four additional new murals to this historic community in the Los Angeles Harbor.
Additionally, the organization is awarded the Civic Art Installation in the Children’s Area of LA County’s Florence Library.
