Two weekend events take different stances on graffiti
Posted by Tag One on Monday, October 12, 2009
Under: Busted
Some city residents celebrated graffiti as fine art while others
whitewashed the "vandalism" away within hours of each other this past
weekend in downtown Terre Haute.
"Heartland Graffiti: Writers from the Midwest," an exhibition of graffiti artists connected to Indiana, opened Friday evening at the Swope Art Museum. Hours later, the "Terre Haute Wipes out Graffiti" pilot event asked volunteers to paint over graffiti throughout the city Saturday morning.
"If it's in the right spots, like in a frame, it can be an art form," said "Terre Haute Wipes out Graffiti" volunteer and ISU senior safety management major Josh Coy. "Spray and runs are not contributing to the community."
Coy and other ISU American Society of Safety Engineer members volunteered to paint for the program Saturday morning to help improve the city's image. The pilot event in conjunction with the annual city wide cleanup was sponsored by Keep Terre Haute Beautiful, Trees, Inc, Sherwin Williams, and M.A.B. paints. The event is a response to graffiti painted on the new Vorhees Park skate park earlier in the year.
"The removal of that graffiti was expensive," said Darrel Zeck, director of public affairs for Mayor Duke Bennet. "We had to come up with a way to prevent or fix this for the future."
Volunteers at the event unanimously agreed that the graffiti they were painting over was not the art celebrated at the Swope the previous evening.
"True graffiti takes a very talented individual, but that's not what this is," said Joy Sacopulos, Keep Terre Haute Beautiful volunteer. "The problem is that they don't put it on their own property, they deface other's. It's too bad we don't have a legalized art wall."
There has been talk of legalizing a wall for graffiti in Terre Haute, but the idea has not been formally proposed, Zeck said.
"We will certainly be open to that if the community supports it," he said.
Graffiti artist Risk, showing at the Swope exhibition, said making graffiti legal on one wall will promote art, but will not necessarily "fix" what the city sees as a problem.
"Heartland Graffiti: Writers from the Midwest," an exhibition of graffiti artists connected to Indiana, opened Friday evening at the Swope Art Museum. Hours later, the "Terre Haute Wipes out Graffiti" pilot event asked volunteers to paint over graffiti throughout the city Saturday morning.
"If it's in the right spots, like in a frame, it can be an art form," said "Terre Haute Wipes out Graffiti" volunteer and ISU senior safety management major Josh Coy. "Spray and runs are not contributing to the community."
Coy and other ISU American Society of Safety Engineer members volunteered to paint for the program Saturday morning to help improve the city's image. The pilot event in conjunction with the annual city wide cleanup was sponsored by Keep Terre Haute Beautiful, Trees, Inc, Sherwin Williams, and M.A.B. paints. The event is a response to graffiti painted on the new Vorhees Park skate park earlier in the year.
"The removal of that graffiti was expensive," said Darrel Zeck, director of public affairs for Mayor Duke Bennet. "We had to come up with a way to prevent or fix this for the future."
Volunteers at the event unanimously agreed that the graffiti they were painting over was not the art celebrated at the Swope the previous evening.
"True graffiti takes a very talented individual, but that's not what this is," said Joy Sacopulos, Keep Terre Haute Beautiful volunteer. "The problem is that they don't put it on their own property, they deface other's. It's too bad we don't have a legalized art wall."
There has been talk of legalizing a wall for graffiti in Terre Haute, but the idea has not been formally proposed, Zeck said.
"We will certainly be open to that if the community supports it," he said.
Graffiti artist Risk, showing at the Swope exhibition, said making graffiti legal on one wall will promote art, but will not necessarily "fix" what the city sees as a problem.
In : Busted
