page_title: Indian Alley
section_title: Indian Alley Art Project
hierarchical_section_title: Indian Alley / Indian Alley Art Project
caption_attribution_description: English: Looking south from Winston St
context_page_description: Indian Alley is the unofficial name given to a stretch of alley in the Skid Row area of downtown Los Angeles, so designated for the significance the area held for indigent American Indians from the 1970s to the 1990s. Since 2011 the alley has become a notable site for Los Angeles street art hosting murals and sculpture that commemorate its historical significance to Skid Row's American Indian community.
context_section_description: In recent years Indian Alley’s heritage has been resurrected and commemorated through a series of murals and other public art installations in and around Werdin Place and Winston Street. Through the coordination of Stephen Zeigler and 118 Winston, an art gallery and yoga studio occupying the former UAII site, paintings and sculpture by prominent Los Angeles street artists depicting noteworthy Native American leaders and social activists have made Indian Alley a significant site for Los Angeles street art. When Zeigler and his wife moved into the space in 2008, he made a habit of cleaning the space in and around the alley, which was then commonly used for drug dealing and prostitution. Zeigler developed an interest in the history of the site; his research revealed the block’s former significance to Los Angeles' American Indian population as well as its more common name, Indian Alley.
  In 2011 Zeigler began recruiting local street artists to install murals in the alley, with the express purpose of highlighting the special heritage of the place. Murals and sculpture selected for their relevance to Indian Alley’s history include portraits of local Native American activist Robert Sundance and eighteenth-century California anticolonialist Toypurina, along with Native American symbols and more abstract pieces and positive social messaging. Contributors to the ongoing art project include Maya/Nahuatl artist Votan and Jemez Pueblo Indian Jaque Fragua, local artists Wild Life, Bandit, Sketchy, Gabette, Free Humanity, Random Act and Teacher, as well as street art notable Shepard Fairey.
caption: Looking south from Winston St
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