Chicano Park Muralist Michael Schnorr Presente!

It is a great loss to the community of Southern California’s artists and citizens. Michael Schnorr portrayed in his aesthetic ideas about the human struggles for equality, respect and dignity. This man was proficient artist professional that was surrounded by his professional artists team.On June 28, 2012, I signed off on the “Voz Libre, P.H.Gonzalez” mural restoration as finished, and the next day Michael died. 6.29.12

“What a loss for us all! Devastating news far too too soon. Wonderful muralists and wonderful man, Tears flowing here…… Judy Baca”

With a broken heart I am saddened to report that one of Chicano Park’s great muralists, Michael Schnorr, died on Friday, June 29.Chicano Park’s acclaimed Mural Restoration Project was inaugurated last year with the completion of Michael’s magnificent Undocumented Worker mural. Last week scaffolding was removed from Voz Libre: Pedro J. González (a mural painted with Victor Ochoa, Guillermo Rosette, Yasue Sano, and Todd Stands). Michael co-founded the Border Art Workshop/Taller de Arte Fronterizo (BAW/TAF) in 1984, a border region art collaborative whose works have been exhibited at venues including San Diego’s Centro Cultural de la Raza, and Museum of Contemporary Art, San Francisco’s Galeria de la Raza, New York’s Artists Space, and internationally at Venice’s Biennale, and Sydney’s Biennial. Michael’s and BAW/TAF’s efforts continued into the 21st Century working with Tijuana’s Maclovio Rojas neighborhood members to build a community center offering art classes and tutoring, develop the community cemetery, and host art project residencies for local and international artists.Michael also participated in the Cross Project’s art installations memorializing thousands of border crossers whose deaths have resulted from the federal government’s Operation Gatekeeper. BAW/TAF worked in conjunction with the California Legal Assistance Foundation Border Project in San Diego and Casa del Migrante and other migrant shelters in Tijuana and Mexicali, Baja California.For thirty-nine years Michael taught in the Fine Arts Department at Southwestern College in Chula Vista. Students reported that he changed their lives and views on art. He encouraged critical thinking and stimulated captivating class discussions. Students appreciated how he presented art with a social consciousness.His work will continue to be respected and admired within the Chicano community, the border region and the international art world. His memory will live on with his family, friends, students, colleagues, and collaborators.May he rest in peace.Services to be announced. Michael Schnorr Presente!