CARLSBAD — A newly erected chain link fence surrounding the property next to Señor Grubby’s restaurant has blocked public access to the Carlsbad Art Wall, halting the latest mural project and causing some to fear the decade-old mural space may be shut down for good.
Valley Middle School art teacher and local artist Bryan Snyder, who founded the Carlsbad Art Wall, posted an Instagram video on June 26 to alert his followers of the development during a visit to the site.
“An era of creativity has come to an end,” Snyder said in the video.
In 2015, Snyder launched the Carlsbad Art Wall on the east side of Señor Grubby’s. Since then, it has been a rotating canvas for local and visiting artists’ murals every few months and has become an iconic city symbol.
According to Snyder, a guest artist from Austin, Texas, started the latest mural Wednesday morning. After returning from a break, the artist discovered the entire lot had been fenced off the wall, restricting public access.
“It all happened very quickly,” Snyder said in the video.
In November 2023, the city approved landowner Marina Goldstein’s minor coast development permit application seeking to demolish the single-family dwelling with a detached garage and workshop at 395 Carlsbad Village Drive, situated on a lot immediately adjacent to the art wall.
The project also included erecting a 6-foot-high fence along the north and east property lines along Carlsbad Village Drive and Washington Street and two 12-foot-wide access gates.
Goldstein could not be reached for comment, and following the demolition of the structure, Goldstein’s intentions and the art wall’s future remain uncertain.
For its fifth birthday in December 2019, Snyder started a GoFundMe to better compensate artists for their work. Since its opening in 2015, the Carlsbad Art Wall has served as a canvas for many iconic murals, such as a young boy pouring sand onto an existing mound, a duck walking with a surfboard and a woman looking upward surrounded by blue jellyfish.
“This project has been a huge part of my life for the past decade,” Snyder said in the video’s comments. “My kids were raised helping buff it and met many artists over their young years.” Artists from local and international have slept on my couch, and I’ve spent hundreds of hours talking to residents and Village visitors here at this wall.”
