City of Tacoma Targets Artists : Death to the Graffiti Garages
January 11, 2008 · Print This Article
Exit133 pointed out that they saw the Tacoma Graffiti Garages getting a makeover. I immediately had to see what was going on. It turns out the City if Tacoma has strong armed the owners of the parking garage to paint its wall and remove the art. Who’s next the mural on embellish? 6th ave?
I emailed Amy about the garages and here is her response:
My email
Hi Amy,
I know this must have been a really hard decision to order the demise of all of the wonderful art on the garages in Tacoma. That area was the most colorful place downtown and seeing it gone today really was a blow to the art community of Tacoma. From reading your letter posted it stated you were ordered by the city to remove it. As a private garage how can this be allowed from the city of Tacoma? Do you feel our other wall in the community are at risk from the strong arm of the city? Was the art done in the garage legal? Please help with closure.
Feel free to Join http://253hiphop.com as well and shed some light and speak directly to many of the artists who have either taken part of that garage or who are friends with those who have.
Thanks Amy we all look forward to your response
Her response:
Thanks for your comments. I was very disappointed, too, that the art had to be painted over. I tried to convince the city that it was art and not random graffiti but they insisted, gave me a strict deadline, and said they would impose hefty fines if it was not remedied. Personally, I thought the stuff was great and so did many others. The art in the garage was legal and so well done however a lot of the other painting was simply destructive and ugly. And the funniest part of this is, by painting the garages, I’ve given Tacoma a beautiful, blank canvas!
I’m unsure about the status of other walls around town – don’t know if you want to call the city and ask for fear of drawing their attention to it.
Good luck!
Amy
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An email is out to our Mayor Bill Baarsma so if you see Bill tell him not to forget to check his email
Thanks!
Yeah, didn’t you get the memo? The future of Economic Development for Tacoma Art is in Glass.
I know right ug.
glass has class, paint on a wall will appall
who can we call to complain? This is bullshit
I’ll let you know once I have more info!
This is the most tragic thing I have heard all day. I LOVED that art, and always wanted to photograph it but never got around to it. Now I’ll never get the chance.
We at Sanford and Son were so sad to see the demise of the Graffiti Art Installation on Broadway. We were there when they painted the ‘memorial’ to a fellow artist. We have watched while filming for music videos, commercials, etc. were done in the garage over the years. Some folks evidently do not know the difference between Graffiti Art and ‘tagging’. It is a sad commentary….
The city needs to support our artists, Sanford and Son has done an amazing job doing this. Thank you all who have commented with support/thoughts
finally, tacoma can be sterile and clean. how refreshing is this news. i support the city, graffiti is not art.
It`s hard to decide sometimes what counts as a random graffiti or as real artwork. I`m sure that people tend to exaggerate things like that. They try to remain blind to the new tendencies of art. In our Toronto parking garage we had amazing pictures but unfortunately it made some ignorant people furious so it had been destroyed. You really can`t do anything against this type of “mass”.
I remember spending time appreciating the works - a random discovery when we first moved here - I thought what a rich display. No one would mistake what I remember as gang tagging. What a loss. I would have liked a chance to photograph the works before it’s destruction.
It’s sad that they got buffed out, the last garage was a dedication to Plus One and seeing the city buff everthing is just depressing. One thing is right though, the city did make a new canvas and ihope it gets painted right.
I saw this yesterday and I was really ashamed of our city for the first time in a longtime. I was actually giving a visitor a tour of downtown and that was the only negative thing that was pointed out.
This is a ignorant and humiliating act on the part of the city that makes me sad and furious….I ashamed for them. What a great loss for the city and a personal loss for many of us. Did someone say “blank canvas”…=0)
This makes me so upset! I saw that today when I drove by the Helm Gallery.
I wrote my opinions about it on my blog:
http://aeconomics.blogspot.com/2008/01/toward-theory-of-public-ritual.html
what the city really needs to understand by killing the graffiti garages… double the amount of vandalism is going to occur… especially since they were dumb enough to paint over Plus Ones rest in peace murals.. a very well known graffiti writer who passed away.
great job!
I agree 100% with all the responses that were praising the art of graffiti. I wish that there was more of a designed space for it though. If the city could designate a vacant lot with alot of walls that could totally be turned into a out doors art gallery. “Sterilizing” the city makes me think of the Death Star from Star Wars. A city has got to have local Color.
Graffiti is personality and art.
wow…how could they do that to plus one rip mural..