Santa Monica Library launches mural Web site
The Santa Monica, Calif., Public Library has launched a Web site dedicated to the “Library Mural,” by Stanton Macdonald-Wright, which is currently on display in the library. Along with pictures, the Web site, www.smpl.org/mural, contains the history of the mural, Macdonald-Wright’s description of its creation and narrative themes, and information on its original and contemporary installations.
The 2,000-square-foot Library Mural was created between 1934 and 1935 for one of the city’s original libraries, and it is on loan to Santa Monica from the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington. It spent 40 years in storage before the city received a California Cultural and Historical Endowment grant to conserve and reinstall the mural in 2005. It was reinstalled in the Main Library when it opened in 2006.