Now is the Time, the Time is Now - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on Waymarking.com

Isaka Shamsud-Din painted this mural in 1989 at the Irvington Covenant Church on the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Shaver Street. It was part of a program designed to train and employ promising young artists, enhance the cityscape, foster a sense of community pride and aid in revitalization efforts in the area. Now is the Time, the Time is Now is about education, the importance of history, identity for the African American community and knowledge of where they came from.

The mural was created with a second companion mural on the south side of the building designed by Shamsud-Din and painted by the artists Paul Odighizuwa, Charlotte Lewis, and Kathy Pennington. Regrettably this second mural was destroyed in fall, 2009 due to necessary construction on the building.

This mural depicting King and other prominent black Americans is one of the oldest murals in Portland,. Teenage apprentices helped him paint the 70-by-20-foot mural, which took the summer and fall of 1989. It was funded through Percent for Art - Multnomah County, Private Industry Council. It has been anthologized in several art books.

Of potential interest
Before 1991: all that muralists needed to paint was the consent of building owners, many of whom sought out artists to liven up their walls. Some artwork was overtly political; much of it amounted to inoffensive displays of neighborhood life. Murals sprouted in neighborhoods all over the city.

1998: Clear Channel, Portland's largest billboard company, sued the city, saying the Oregon Constitution's free speech clause protected commercial and noncommercial speech and muralists should have to follow the same rules they did. The city imposed a mural moratorium, then decided to regulate them as signs.

2005: Mayor Vera Katz searched for a way to encourage public art without flooding the city with ads. She turned mural decisions over to the Regional Arts and Culture Council. That led to the creation of at least 25 murals, but the group's high standards meant amateur artists and some community groups couldn't pass the vetting process.

August 2009: muralists are finally free of the city's sign code. All an artist has to do to paint a mural is plunk down $250, get permission from a building owner and notify the neighbors.

Sources:

• Church repairs spell end of beloved mural by Susan Green, The Oregonian, September 23, 2009.
• Isaka Shamsud-Din by Portland Public Art, Octoer 22, 2005.
• Muralists ready to tackle the big picture by Ev Hu, The Oregonian, July 16, 2009.
• Pubil Art Search, Regional Arts and Culture Council.

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