We’re celebrating 10 years of Wild Art, and we’re doing it at the LA County Fair!
HEAD OVER TO THE LA COUNTY FAIR FOR TWO OPPORTUNITIES TO SEE WILD ART IN PERSON:
Saturday May 3rd (11 am to 7 pm) ~ We’ll be showing past Wild Art works and leading a community art activity onsite as part of Eastside Arts Initiative’s Creative Studio Showcase; bring the family and celebrate WILD ART with your favorite Ruckus-raisers!
May 2nd - 26th (the duration of the Fair) ~ RuckusRoots’ own NiNo Alicea (current Board member and former Wild Art facilitator) will be displaying his most recent installation, COQUÍ, featuring past Wild Art creations inside the interactive sculpture!
🎨 🌱 🦋 💚 🌸
Don’t miss this chance to engage with Wild Art, the Ruckus-raising crew, and what’s sure to be an incredible reflection of L.A’s thriving creative community at this year’s fair!
THE STORY OF WILD ART:
In 2013, P-22 became the most famous mountain lion in the world, photographed in his Griffith Park, Los Angeles home and featured in National Geographic Magazine that same year. For a moment, urban wildlife was launched into the national spotlight. RuckusRoots was inspired to join the conversation, developing a program centered on urban wildlife in 2014 and launching it the following year….
In 2015, Wild Art was born, debuting at Academia Avance Middle School in the northeast Los Angeles neighborhood of Highland Park. Combining visual arts lessons with hyperlocal wildlife and ecology education for Los Angeles youth, Wild Art connects youth to nature in their local community, drawing connections between waste, conservation, creative expression, and urban wildlife.
Over 10 years, Wild Art has reached 1110 direct youth participants at 7 unique partner locations across Los Angeles. The program has diverted nearly 10,000 items of trash (mainly plastic bags) into art, showcasing 16 collaborative artworks (sculptures and murals) at locations like the Los Angeles Zoo and the Willows Wetland Preserve. This program has introduced youth to 26 unique plant and animal species native to Los Angeles—from bats and wild roses along the L.A. River to bobcats and black walnut trees in the surrounding foothills.
We can’t wait to see where Wild Art takes us in its second decade, and we hope you’ll be there to follow along with us!
To L.A., with love… our wildfire response
To our beloved city:
Never have we been so heartbroken, and never have we been so proud to call Los Angeles home. The resilience and level of community care we have witnessed every day since the fires began is beautiful beyond words, and it is also not surprising. This is the Los Angeles we know. The people who live here are generous, big-hearted, creative and strong.
Our immediate team members are safe and for that we are grateful. Many within our community are experiencing loss and displacement and we are here to help in the ways we best know how.
Please reach out via the links below if these offerings would be useful to you or someone you know. We are also open to partnerships to expand our impact, so please contact us if you have an idea for one!
In the words of the late, great David Lynch, “ Ideas exist outside of ourselves. I think somewhere, we're all connected off in some very abstract land. But somewhere between there and here ideas exist.”
WILD ART WRAPS IN GLASSELL PARK
Our WILD ART program at Isana Octavia Elementary School wraps up during an Earth Week celebration on April 25th, 2025. Thanks to facilitator Leah Olbrich for leading these workshops with 3rd and 4th graders over 5 weeks. This year’s theme centered around the recent wildfires, with a focus on local animals and plants that help with habitat restoration! Youth and community members were offered a creative outlet for processing and healing through art and skill-building — all using recycled materials to celebrate the planet and its biodiversity! Stay tuned for more images and video from this program soon!
Thank you to TahDah Foundation and Thelma Pearl Howard Foundation for supporting this program.
WE HAVE A NEW STAFF MEMBER!
Chandi Gordon is our newest hire, and will be taking on the role of South L.A Project Coordinator to work with communities in Hawthorne, Gardena, and others providing crucial support for our A.L.I.V.E programming there.
South LA born and raised Chandi (“Shan-de”) is a self-proclaimed earth nurse, changemaker, and just urban designer. With a Masters of Urban and Regional Planning from UCLA, Chandi is passionate about designing infrastructure and spaces that combat environmental injustice and climate change. She is also an artist and designer, a fellow of Amigo de Los Rios, and a former intern at Climate Resolve.
In the past Chandi, has worked in toxicology, food waste prevention, children’s literacy, extreme heat planning, and more. More recently, she has been focused on increasing pathways and access to nature for underserved communities.
Championing sustainability, equity, and inclusivity, Chandi aims to incorporate her creativity and love for art into projects with RuckusRoots that bolster and empower communities of color.
Welcome, Chandi! We are truly thrilled to have you on the team.
GRANT ANNOUNCEMENT
General Operating Support from Perenchio Foundation
We are proud to share that the Perenchio Foundation selected us as one of 🌟 35 Los Angeles organizations 🌟 to receive a General Operating Support Grant! This multi-year funding will allow us to focus on our core mission and strengthen our infrastructure for future growth!
We're so thrilled about this news and want to send out a hearty thanks to Perenchio Foundation & team, as well as a big congrats to all our fellow recipients! Check them out by clicking the button below!
Program Updates:
WRAPPED! From Earth to Art (Fall 2024)
From Earth to Art, (the first RuckusRoots program of it’s kind) offered participants in Northeast L.A opportunities to connect and learn together in a series of outdoor, intergenerational workshops focused on natural building skills.
The focus was on activities rooted in ancient forms of making that offer real solutions to today’s climate crisis, including:
Digging for & harvesting wild clay
Earthen brick-making & fire pit building
Earth plaster experiments & mosaic-decorating
Earthen bench-making
54
Participants
10
124
Workshops
Projects made
Thank you to the California Arts Council for supporting this project.
Mural Unveiled at The Rebel Garden!
This mural represents the love and labor put into the Rebel Garden over the years since its inception. Designed by Rebel Garden co-founder and artist Erica Montelongo, this colorful mural honors mentors from Chuco’s Justice Center both past and present, symbolizes interconnectedness of nature and humanity, and pays homage to indigenous knowledge.
We hope it will serve as a source of beauty and inspiration to folks onsite and the greater community of South Central Los Angeles for many years to come.
30
7
Youth participants
1
Weeks
Community Artwork
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My name is Erica Montelongo, born and raised in South Central, Los Angeles. I am one of the founders and caretakers of Rebel Garden at Chuco's Justice Center.
I'm also an artist and creative. I currently work for LA Compost as the South LA Compost Hub Manager.
Rebel Garden started in 2019 with three small crates, and now contains raised beds, a greenhouse, and a curriculum for students at FREE L.A High School through our collaboration with RuckusRoots.
Having the power to be self-sustaining even in limited spaces is crucial to our autonomy as a black and brown community; we have been disconnected from our gardening/farming practices, and stewardship of our lands. Our goal is to create a garden where community members can learn to grow/ harvest food and also utilize the space for healing.
Thank you to the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs for supporting this project.
Garden Magic is a FREE outdoor art series by RuckusRoots for youth age 7-10 in Los Angeles. Previous Garden Magic artworks have focused on painting, drawing and mural making, and this time we decided to play with clay!
Led by ceramicist Ching Ching Cheng, participants learned three different techniques for creating clay ollas, an ancient drought-friendly watering device. Participants also learned sustainability techniques and water conservation methods for use in everyday life, as well as how to make botanical prints and clay seed dumplings.
WRAPPED! Garden Magic: Play with Clay
Project funded in part by The California Arts Council.
Youth participants
30
Artworks Made
239
Weeks
8
WRAPPED! Spring 2024: WILD ART at Glenfeliz Elementary School
We just completed 3 months of Wild Art at Glenfeliz Elementary in which we explored the local desert, foothills and river habitats that exist right here in L.A.
Over 3 rounds, this 12-week program integrated collaborative art-making with lessons about plastic waste, creative reuse and wildlife endangerment and conservation for ages K-6th grade. Each round created a 4’ x 5’ collaged mural, made entirely of repurposed materials!
“Painted Desert”, feat. nearby Mojave Desert habitat
“Griffith Wonderland”, feat. Griffith Park foothills
“Fantastic Plastic L.A River”, feat. L.A river biome
155
Youth participants
12
Weeks
738
Individual Artworks
24
Classes
3
Collaborative Artworks
346
Trash Items into Art
Thank you to the TahDah Foundation for supporting this project.
Art is blooming in The Friendship Garden
Parents and youth alike have been enjoying this new green space on campus. Back in April, we inaugurated The Friendship Garden by creating art for it (check out those colorful pollinator signs) and learning about all the new plants thanks to our custom QR code markers placed next to each shrub, herb and tree.
Interest and engagement is growing in the Friendship Garden, right alongside the native milkweed, and we cannot wait to get back this Fall and make more art with the Eucalyptus Elementary community!
Spring Equinox 2024: Mural Unveiling and Community Event
On March 17, 2024, we spent a wonderful day in community and creativity celebrating the coming of Spring, and officially unveiling our mural, “Sacred Earth Symphony.”
Participating 8th graders, artists, organizers and other stakeholders were there to share what this mural means to them, the Willows Wetland Preserve, and the greater community.
If you were there, you’ll know it was an incredibly inspiring day! Thanks to all who attended, and if you missed it please check out these videos or scroll through the image gallery below to experience the event virtually!
Special thanks to Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture and Friends of the Willows for their support of this project. 
Summer Apprenticeship Concludes at ECHS-Gardena!
Our first Public Art Apprenticeship has concluded at Environmental Charter School in Gardena! It's been a wonderful summer of creativity and collaboration as this select group of high school apprentices assisted artist NiNo Alicea as he and his team built large-scale, sustainable public art sculpture, "ATABEY'S TREASURE” in preparation for Burning Man 2023!
Congratulations on a great summer, apprentices — and good luck on the Playa, NiNo, we wish you and ATABEY a wonderful time sharing the artwork and the beautiful message behind its creation.
SHIPPING CONTAINER MURAL w/ L.A Dodgers
In January 2023, we had the privilege of helping out at L.A Dodgers annual Employee Day of Service in collaboration with L.A Conservation Corps. Over 150 employees came out to plant trees, do landscaping work, clean the community garden beds on-site — and paint a mural designed by RuckusRoots especially for the space! It features Southern California native plants painted by hand on an old shipping container to help beautify the space! We had a blast and loved seeing the power of what so many helping hands can do!
