Biography: MIKE ALEWITZ

BIOGRAPHY:

Mike Alewitz

Mike Alewitz is a well-known mural painter working in the U.S. and internationally.  

As Artistic Director of the Labor Art and Mural Project (LAMP,) Alewitz has traveled throughout the world creating public art on themes of peace and justice.  He has painted in South-Central LA, New York, Baghdad, Chernobyl, Mexico, Nicaragua, Northern Ireland, Israel, the Occupied Territories and numerous other locations.

In 1999, Alewitz was named a Millennium Artist by the White House Millennium Council, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation.   In that capacity he executed a highly publicized series of murals painted in Maryland about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad.

Alewitz has organized cultural initiatives for numerous unions and progressive organizations including the United Mine Workers, Jobs with Justice, Teamsters, Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union, United Farm Workers and many others.  He taught labor history at Rutgers University, where he was Artist-in-Residence for the NJ Industrial Union Council.

He has spoken and written extensively on political and cultural topics and is the co-author, with Paul Buhle, of

Insurgent Images: The Agitprop Murals of Mike Alewitz.  His art has been the subject of several documentary films.

Because his work is a voice for working people, his murals have been frequently destroyed. To his knowledge, he is the most censored artist in the US.

Alewitz was a student leader at Kent State University and an eyewitness to the murders of four students in 1970. He was a leader of the national student strike that followed the massacre and has remained a life-long activist in movements for social change.

A former railroad laborer, sign painter and machinist, Alewitz is currently Associate Professor of Art at Central Connecticut State University, where he directs the unique community-based mural painting program. He is the organizer of the annual New Britain International Mural Slam.

Alewitz is a member of United Scenic Artists, IATSE Local 829 and the CCSU chapter of AAUP.