Land Art Generator Solar Mural Artwork with Esperanza Peace & Justice Center

This regenerative artwork for San Antonio is the latest piece in the En Aquellos Tiempos Fotohistorias del Westside, a project of Esperanza Peace & Justice Center in San Antonio. It is an example of how we can make our cities more vibrant while we make them more sustainable!

The design of this latest Land Art Generator Solar Mural installation in San Antonio is the result of a collaborative process that began with Land Art Generator workshops at the elementary school with Mr. Vega’s 5th grade class, and with elders of the community who shared their stories. The outcomes of those workshops informed local artist Adriana M Garcia who incorporated text from a local poet, Carmen Tafolla, into her visual art.

This cutting-edge public artwork was unveiled during a ceremony on January 31st, 2020.
Click the link to watch the video stream of the event.

The Solar Mural artwork will provide the power to illuminate the existing street art on Guadalupe Street that tells the stories of the lives of the neighborhood’s residents spanning more than a century.

This project would not have happened without Penelope Boyer whose art direction and local project management led the entire process. Thank you Penny!

Special thanks to Mission Solar Energy for providing the photovoltaic modules, Sistine Solar for their SolarSkin product, Unirac for the solar mounting system, OutBack Power for power electronics, and South Texas Solar Systems for the installation, which includes energy storage.

The project was made possible through the support of Alice Kleberg Reynolds Foundation, Awesome San Antonio, the Texas Commission on the Arts, and the community of San Antonio.

Every afternoon as the sun illuminates this beautiful artwork, the solar power technology beneath the images will generate carbon-free power and store kilowatt-hours of energy in the batteries just around the corner on the roof.

The visionary commitment by Esperanza Peace and Justice Center to illuminate the En Aquellos Tiempos Fotohistorias del Westside project for nighttime viewing in the most beautiful and environmentally sustainable way is a reminder to all of us that every solution to the climate crisis is also an opportunity to lift up our communities and to beautify our neighborhoods. With this artwork you are telling the story to future generations about this time in OUR story when we did everything we could do to meet the challenge of creating an equitable human civilization that is in harmony with nature.

This artwork is not only something to take pride in as a local community; it is also a landmark to the transition we are undertaking as a global community from a system of consumption and exploitation of nature to a system of stewardship of nature and empathy for our fellow humans. The only viable transition is a just transition.

Thank you to everyone here for making this project a reality for the Westside, San Antonio, and the world.

-Land Art Generator Directors’ statement on the occasion of the unveiling of Land Art Generator Solar Mural installation for Esperanza Peace & Justice Center at JT Brackenridge Elementary School in San Antonio, TX.