The 46th Street Mural, which hasn’t even seen its final details, was vandalized Wednesday night, a tipster told us. The words “Not Art” were painted in big black letters over parts of the mural. The picture below was taken Thursday morning and sent to us.
By the time we arrived yesterday afternoon, there was no sign of damage.
The issue of vandals striking the mural came up in the comments of our story that ran when a winner for the design was chosen. Leah Eister-Hargrave, 46th Street Mural Committee member, explained how repairs will happen:
Urban Artworks is responsible for maintenance of the mural for one year August 2010-August 2011, after this initial year, maintenance will be addressed by the 46th Street Mural Project committee with negotiations with Urban Artworks to handle any needed touch-ups. A contingency fund will be set up to address any costs associated with the maintenance. A notification system regarding any tagging or defacement will be set up through local community groups, such as FAWN, that have weekly walks through the neighborhood for just such purposes. A detailed record of all paints used and where within the mural they are used will be kept while the mural is being painted. Through continued coordination of our core members of the steering committee and these aspects of care and handling, we feel we can keep the mural beautiful for the neighborhood.
Meanwhile, painting continues apace. This was the first we’d seen of the painted columns:
6 responses so far ↓
1 Tiktok // Jul 30, 2010 at 11:55 am
Well, duh. The only pieces that don’t get tagged are those done by former taggers with a rep (see the Greenwood Fire Memorial mural).
2 mike burns // Jul 30, 2010 at 12:39 pm
this is art - and proof positive that the typical vision of a vandal need not be a runny-nosed teenager, but can instead be a grumpy middle-ager with liuttle more than an open mouth and a closed mind - this is good stuff - it makes me smile and it makes me think
3 allthat // Jul 30, 2010 at 4:58 pm
It may be art… but those final details will have to be really spectacular for this to elevate beyond something from a kid’s coloring book.
I mean.. It misses on color, shapes, perspective.. There are no color gradients. What is it supposed to be? A boat with some buildings, some clouds to be filled in, all in awful color?
I see train cars every day, as I bike along the tracks, that look wayyyy more compelling than that. And those were likely done under very difficult conditions.
How about a link to what the final form will be? Maybe then I’ll “get it”
4 Mike B // Jul 31, 2010 at 7:50 am
I think it is beautiful and makes me smile, it lets people express themselves I wish we could paint all the under passes
5 Jennifer E // Aug 2, 2010 at 1:14 pm
Why don’t we install a camera to catch the taggers? I hate how they are ruining the neighborhood and it seems like the graffiti has gone up lately. The mural on Bridgeway (under Aurora) is a mess.
6 Gabe // Aug 4, 2010 at 10:41 pm
Jennifer, are you really advocating installing cameras to catch taggers? Do you understand just how wasteful that would be? Thousands of dollars down the drain to (maybe) catch a few people tagging a mural.
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