Ladera STARS Academy Scholars Help Complete Their Own #SaveLACougars School Mural

This week, the National Wildlife Federation's #SaveLACougars campaign and artist, Jonathan Martinez are teaming up with our Ladera STARS Academy to paint and help complete a mural at their school.

The new mural features Los Angeles’ famous P-22 mountain lion in a special night scape where an owl, coyote, bats will also appear. This is the second piece that Martinez has created for this school. 

Scholars at Ladera STARS Academy, a STEAM magnet school, are inspired to reach for the STARS through explorations in Science, Technology, Arts and Rigorous Scholarship. The mural is especially meaningful to the school as current second grade scholars are studying the new animal crossing bridge being built over the 101 freeway, and current third grade scholars studied the importance of the wildlife crossing last year. 

So far, the partnership with Martinez has brought to life three distinct murals featuring P-22 and other local native wildlife and plant species. From the Pico Union neighborhood near Downtown Los Angeles to the Watts community, Thousand Oaks and more planned in the future, the #SaveLACougars campaign continues its dedication to empowering multicultural people so they can lend their voice and talent to engaging people of all ages around the world’s largest wildlife crossing in the world and building relationships with the wild world.

Jonathan Martinez, also known as, Art of the Endangered – is a contemporary artist that’s created murals all over Southern and Northern California. He is sponsored by leading national art brands and collaborated with numerous trusted conservation leaders and organizations. Raised in Los Angeles and Orange County, Martinez’ signature style juxtaposes elements of fine and street art, and he stands out as the only California-based urban artist dedicated exclusively to painting and generating awareness for native wildlife and endangered species.

To learn more about the #SaveLACougars campaign and follow progress on the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing visit https://savelacougars.org/. For more on the partners and stakeholders behind the project, to access a comprehensive set of FAQs or to join the campaign that is building the world’s largest wildlife crossing visit https://101wildlifecrossing.org/.