Graffiti Wall

The Graffiti Wall is a wall in the Arts Village dedicated to showcasing students' artwork.

= Current News =

COCD will be working with students in the coming months to look at options for funding and rebuilding a new wall.

= Graffiti Wall Planning Meeting Notes =

Friday, 12/10/09

Present: Zaidee Everett, Dre Woodberry, Reuben Telushkin, Elly Donkin, Mark Cappello, Josiah Litant, Aaron Engelman, Miatta Kawinzi ( note: some attendees came late, some left early)

Meeting began at 3:10pm.

Josiah introduced the framework for the meeting: talking about program, materials, siting for new wall. Purpose of this meeting is to be a general brainstorm.

Reuben wants to make sure that this meeting does not go into circular conversations about areas that everyone may not agree upon (e.g. what is considered “beautiful”). Elly asks Reuben for some background of what he is referring to, and he outlines the history of the Mural Collective’s involvement with the wall and conversations about the construction that happened this past fall.

Aaron says that it’s important for us to recognize that a new wall is not going to be the exact same as the wall that was here before, and that’s important to keep in mind.

Reuben asks for clarification that a new wall is not going to be built where the old one was taken down, even if that is the preferred location. Josiah confirms that this is accurate. Reuben says this means that the wall will not be located right next to the art barn, and he notes that the further the wall is placed from this building the less it allows the artists working on the wall to collaborate with the students in the art barn.

Proximity to the art barn is important, everyone agrees. Miatta says proximity to the arts village is important. Miatta adds that it is important to have a place for the storage of supplies for the wall as well (like the paint cabinet that sat next to the old wall).

After some discussion about locating the new wall near the art barn or somewhere in the arts village, Reuben says the distinction between the arts barn and arts village is important, because the art barn is where paint gets used the most.

Aaron draws a sketch of the layout of the arts village on the whiteboard for reference purposes.

Mark asks if the program of the new wall would change or be the same—would it continue to be a blank canvas or would there be more structure to it? Aaron says it seems to be important that it’s a place where students can do art just by showing up and taking out a can of paint.

Elly asks if anyone has thought about a wall with a corner built into it. Does anyone photograph their work on the wall? Yes, people have photographed their work on the wall—because it’s a free-for-all you never know when your work will be painted over. Miatta says that she thinks it should remain a free-for-all for art expression. Zaidee says that the open access of the wall allows people to show up spontaneously, there is not planning necessary. People expect their work to be painted over. The old wall was self-regulating.

Josiah asks Elly to clarify what she meant by a wall with a corner. She says she was talking about an L-shaped wall; would that allow different opportunities at all?

Mark talks about the siting in terms of what had been proposed previously—along the sidewalk between the Art Barn and Prescott House. It was then suggested by students to move the wall to the back of the Music and Dance building field, along the side of the field near the Prescott lot. Mark says he hopes that this meeting today can be really focused on what the new wall can be and how to get to that point.

Josiah asks what the musts are for a new wall. Students respond that it must be concrete because of the way it takes paint and its durablity, people say. Zaidee asks what size the old wall was. Josiah says it was about 60 feet long and 8 feet to 10 feet tall. One proposal for a new wall was for a double-sided 30 foot wall.

Zaidee asks if the new wall can go in proximity to where the stairs used to be that stepped up out of the arts quad (directly opposite of the art barn). She indicates on the drawing on the white board where she is talking about.

Elly says that she had had an idea to use the field across from the music and dance building as an “art park” with the graffiti wall as a central component. It would allow for a constant exhibition of student artwork (sculpture, etc.). How could the graffiti wall be an opportunity to help the art barn further “extend outside of itself”? Elly says she would love to use this as an opportunity for sculptures to be better displayed, this is very hard right now. Zaidee asks if this would include the graffiti wall, Elly says absolutely.

Reuben likes Zaidee’s suggestion for locating the new wall where the stairs used to be because it will not make the wall stick out in the middle of a field, as the original proposal for a new wall did.

More conversation about an arts park and places for music and shows with the wall as a backdrop. Could a stage be part of the arts park? Reuben says it’s important to remember that whatever is next to the graffiti wall should be able to get paint on it. Josiah suggests a wall that could have risers put in front of it as a stage instead of having a fixed stage there, to ensure that the wall remains as a wall as the primary focus.

Josiah asks how we take these ideas and figure out what is actually possible. Mark says we need to, at some point, actually put the “pen to paper” to figure out what we can do in that area. Mark feels like we need to engage the community in discussing what this space can be further. Miatta asks if we should be thinking just about the wall (not about an “arts park”) because of money restrictions. Also she says if we don’t just focus on the wall this project could take a long time to come to fruition. Elly says that it is important to design the wall with possibilities for the future in mind so we don’t build something that will limit the future, even if we are just building a new wall for now.

Josiah talks about the wall being set into the berm against the back of the music and dance building. Could it become a retaining wall behind that building? There seems to be interest in the wall being a part of a building or set into the landscape—not just freestanding in a field. Zaidee says not having it up against a building but against a berm would mean that people would hopefully not paint on the building itself. Discussion ensues about proximity to buildings and what will or won’t get painted on.

Mark says the proposed location is an interesting idea. This new wall as a retaining wall would have a purpose and not look randomly placed. It would also be very close to the art barn.

Elly says she really likes the idea of one side of the wall being curved so it faces the arts barn, and then it turns around the corner looking out into the field. Several different ideas about how to design a curved wall are proposed, with the focus on ensuring that some piece of the wall faces the art barn so that it invites people to walk around the corner to see the rest of the wall.

Josiah talks about the ground in front of the new wall being gravel, so that students in the art barn could also use this place to paint (spray paint, etc.) which currently happens on the brick in front of the arts barn. This would give art barn students an area to paint in really close to the art barn, and it would mean paint overspray from the graffiti wall would just go onto the gravel, which could be replaced easily over time.

Mark says part of what makes such free-standing walls really expensive is that they must actually extend far underground in order to be sufficiently strong. Everyone agrees the proposal we have been discussing is a good one, but what about the money issue? This is a brainstorm so it is important to think about what we WANT for now. But yes, this could be potentially expensive.

Josiah asks Mark what a wall like this could cost. He talks about the different materials needed, and this would need some design before cost can really be estimated. But we are probably talking about a lot of money. Josiah said he invited members of COCD to this meeting and, though they didn’t come, he will keep them informed in hopes that they might be able to support this project.

Meeting adjourned at 4:30pm.

After the meeting ended, Zadiee volunteered to make posters for the next meeting, which will happen sometime in January or early February. Josiah will send out more announcements when the next meeting, to continue planning discussions, gets scheduled.