Long Beach City College is honored to unveil a new digital mural on the first floor of the AA Building on the Pacific Coast Campus entitled “Rising Tides” by 3B Collective. 

As the second artwork commissioned by the LBCC Public Art Advisory Group, the design was selected by students from submissions by over forty artists. Focused on four themes, nature and industry, cultural identity, and civil rights, the composition is arranged with strategically-placed images carrying dual meanings. It incorporates many iconic Long Beach elements such as the coastal trees that are native to the Southern California region against visuals of oil drilling and refineries that contribute to environmental degradation. 3B Collective also seeks to celebrate and preserve the local community’s culture and heritage seen in the indigenous Tongva people and dwellings, an Aztec sunstone, and Zapotec eye of God. To emphasize resilience, it showcases a range of symbols including the Black Panthers logo, the UFW flag, a Chicano low rider, and sign of the Land Back movement. 

Even the color scheme consists of a duality of warm and cool tones. The warm colors represent urgency and passion, while the cool tones represent rain and ocean, which are integral to the city’s identity. The digital mural’s title, while suggesting the global threat of climate change, references the saying that rising tides can lift all. This is further affirmed by the central figure who was inspired by the lifetime commitment of Dolores Huerta to advocacy and social justice. 

About 3B Collective 

“We came together to create artworks that can continue to honor a community’s history…[and] create a sense of belonging….” 3B Collective is a Los Angeles-based group of indigenous and Chicano artists and designers known for their large scale, site-specific installations and murals. The founding members met while doing their undergraduate studies at UCLA; current members are Alfredo Diaz, Aaron Estrada, Oscar Magallanes, Adrian Alfaro, Alexa Ramirez, and Ruben Ortiz-Torres. Their works reflect a commitment to providing an inclusive platform that encourages pride and recognition of the different facets of communities. They seek to make the arts more accessible by addressing social inequalities, creating public works through shared resources, and providing peer support and mentorship for BIPOC artists. 

Learn more about the 3B Collective and their work on 3bcollective.com or @3BCollective on Instagram.  

We invite you to view the documentation of the unveiling ceremony on Thursday, May 17, 2024 . 

Special thanks to Bob Hirsh and LBCC Radio and TV students for the documentation.  

Press : Press Telegram: LBCC Unveils First Public Art Installation at Pacific Coast Campus