The new railroad overpass corridor downtown offers a huge canvas for graffiti artists. The city of Wichita is considering spending $500,000 to apply a coat of easy-wash paint, but some think large public murals might better discourage tagging — graffiti vandals, they say, usually respect artwork.
City Council members should explore whether community-friendly murals might be a cheaper and more interesting alternative that would also further public art goals.
At any rate, why are these concerns only being raised now? It seems art and design elements for the high-visibility corridor should have been built into the project early on, not tacked on as afterthoughts.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
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12 Comments
A similar mural is planned next to the firefighters museum on South Broadway. I think there are a lot of ‘blank walls’ around town that would make good mural locations.
Use local talent – including WSU. This is the sort of thing that should not require large expenditures.
I have seen similar things done in other cities across the country and in other countries. We should be doing more of that here.
Ben,Another benefit of murals is, they can be painted over. Nothing like a little variety.
Snuffy,You’re going to have a tough time finding artists to do as much hard work as a mural requires if it’s going to be painted over at a later date. Also, when there are as many square feet to cover as the rail corridor, don’t expect to get it done on the cheap.
One source (potentially) of some art as is being discussed here is the Art Magnet at Northeast Magnet High School. The students were involved in the mural on the Northeast Police Substation, as I recall. As the students must do an annual project to obtain the magnet certificate, there might be some who would jointly do things like this.
Good idea VT. I think the one on south Broadway is being done by a community group – perhaps out of a magnet school.
The whole idea is for the neighborhood to ‘own it’ and therefore watch it and maintain it.
Here is an idea to keep the mural cost low:
There is a hazardous materials recycling/disposal center on S. Hydraulic (?). People take old paint there to throw it away.
Match that paint up with some ’street artists’ and voila!
A place to do murals does offer some expression, but you still end up with graffiti spray painted at random places.Designated canvasses do separate those that have potentials to become good citizens from those that are of a serious problem.Before the city decides to designate canvasses for graffiti they need to up the consequences for vandalism.If they don’t do it, the ideal of designating canvasses is a worthless endeavor.
Brian, that is a good ideal.
Oh, here we go again!!
A great opportunity to get something interesting and visually stimulating in the urban environment, and you guys want a bunch of high school kids to do it?!!!
Many other places–the city of Denver and the State of Florida come to mind–incorporate a very small percentage of public construction budgets to go to art projects, which are selected by a professional panel. That way, .1% of a $1,000,000 project yields a large, proportionate sum to be used for professional quality beautification projects.
Instead of hand-wringing and having jailbirds, street people, and high school students do it, as suggested here.
Brian,There are many different formulations of paint, and most are not compatible with each other. also, paint that’s pigmented for indoor use will fade in a matter of weeks in direct sunlight.
I might also point out that the city’s chances of commissioning a halfway decent artist for a public art project have deteriorated significantly due to the Tripodal fiasco.
I wouldn’t discount the quality of ‘amatuer’ art all that much. I think the Universities and the magnet schools have some good talent. The idea, IMO, is to have neighborhood art done by neighborhood people.
It is my understanding that is what the South Broadway firefighters museum project is.
Ben,Maybe we should enlist the aid of local taggers; get our approved graffiti up first! Some of those guys can be pretty good, but would need someone with degrees in fine arts and diplomacy to coordinate them and produce one large artwork instead of a series of little ones. And it would be stylistically consistent with what’s already on the boxcars.