Long Beach Annual Art Pow!Wow!: Long Beach Vice Mayor Rex Richardson speaks before a gathering of media at a press preview of the weeklong Third Annual Pow Wow of his city. Pow Wow artists transform blighted walls of historic Long Beach into canvases of artistic expressions of various muralists. (Photo by Ray Andres)
A number of mural artists had art power by collectively transforming drab walls of the Long Beach into giant canvases that speaks volume on the sense of community of the historical city.
Long Beach Vice Mayor Rex Richardson expressed his City’s appreciation of the collective effort of the many muralists in the project which impacted his community in his brief remarks at the press preview in launching the Third Annual Pow! Wow Long Beach at the parking lot of Varden Hotel.
The week-long art exhibition highlights the work of renowned artists who “create large format art pieces using Long Beach building as their canvases”.
Artist Jasper Wong, Pow! Wow! Founder and director and his fellow muralists whose creativity had breathed life into once “blighted walls” were on hand to present the artist behind the magical transformation of the walls.
Wong has been credited for his vision to “make the world a little better and foster peace through the art” and has corroborated and partnered with like-minded individuals for his project in many parts of the world.
Pow!Wow! from where the art gathering draws inspiration from is a native American term of a community gathering “to celebrate culture, music and art”.
Wong’s dedicated team at Pow!Wow has been responsible for keeping aflame the community spirit built into the project. His team is composed of: Kamea Hadar (Co-lead Director), Jeffrey Gresss (Operations Director), Andy Song (PW/SoM Director), Dani Concepcion (Long Beach Regional Director), Tokotah Ashcraft (Long Beach Manager), Tracy Ho (Long Beach Social Media Manager), Joni Ricar (App Development), Victoria Luong (Long Beach Coordinator), Sakura Reese (Designer), Julia Huang , Brandon Shigeta and John Pangilinan (Long Beach Advisors).
Close to 20 artists are participating in this year’s art event supported by the City of Long
Beach, Port of Long Beach, Long Beach Convention and Visitors’ Bureau and Intertrend.