The Many Faces of Inglewood are two ceramic tile murals by Darby Park Summer Camp participants and artist Karen Koblitz. Youth sixteen and younger were asked to illustrate what Inglewood meant to them. While the youth developed individual visions of their community, Koblitz guided the technical process. Together they produced hand-painted glazed tiles depicting family, friendship, animals, and rainbows. Koblitz arranged the tiles into two rectangular panels permanently installed in the city’s Locust Street parking facility’s pedestrian entrances. This artwork was funded through the City’s Community Development Block Grant. The artist was contracted through the non-profit Inglewood Cultural Arts.

Karen Koblitz is a master ceramicist with work in collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Skirball Cultural Center. She has exhibited in the US and internationally. She was American Art Ambassador to Moscow, Russia as part of the U.S. State Department’s ART in Embassies Program in 2002. She taught ceramics at the University of Southern California for over a decade and received multiple awards and grants. She writes, ‘I pay homage to the functional roots of ceramics while elaborating on historical and decorative elements.’

Date: 2000
Collection: City of Inglewood Community-Based Public Art Projects
Medium: Murals
Material: Painted ceramic tiles
Size: Two works, each

Location:
Locust Street Parking Facility
101 N. Locust Street
Inglewood, California 90301

The Many Faces of Inglewood, Karen Koblitz

Community Murals of Inglewood, MonaLisa Whitaker