NYCHA x Local Graffiti Artists
by Anika Hartje
For my proposed monument, I wanted to honor racial and ethnic minorities and focus on themes of inclusion, equality, race in America, gender, and childhood. This is an incredibly wide range of themes, so I needed to think of a way to incorporate them all into one monument. About one month into quarantine, I went to this non-traditional outdoor graffiti museum in Salem, Massachusetts and found myself really inspired by the incredible mural-like graffiti that brightened the rather dull and bleak surroundings. The museum itself is in an area that is quite rundown; there are empty, abandoned plots, trash filling the streets, and the buildings were old and tattered, yet, the graffiti pumped life into the area. There were some political pieces, some graphic pieces, and some that were just fun to look at like a huge black and white bulldog that took up the entire side of an 8-story building. Seeing this, it got me thinking about the ways in which graffiti can be used for good.
New York officially deems graffiti as an “epidemic” and has no tolerance for it--but what if there was some way to change that narrative?[1] Why is Banksy heralded and praised for his graffiti, yet black and brown communities are deemed violent and criminal? In order to change the narrative, I wanted to force people to confront the way they view graffiti by transforming the rundown, littered, uncared for, and dark exterior of New York’s public housing into beautiful, politically charged graffiti murals.
After I had my idea, I needed to make sure that it qualified as a monument, so I came up with three criteria for what I believe a monument to be: it needs to honor or commemorate a person, narrative, or event, it needs to be free and open to the public, and it should take the shape of a statue, building, or some other form of public art. I decided that my project fit well within these constraints and decided to forge ahead. My proposed monument will be various graffiti murals to be painted on New York’s public housing across the city, first focusing on areas with the most dense communities of public housing such as the East Village, East Harlem, The Bronx, Bed Stuy, and Williamsburg. Monuments are typically focused downtown or in wealthy areas, but I wanted people in other communities to be able to experience these monuments. Using spray paint or acrylic paint, locally commissioned artists can focus on anything, but I think an emphasis on race, class, gender, childhood, immigration, and identity in America would be the most powerful. The size of the graffiti murals would depend on the building they are being painted on, so they can range anywhere from life-sized to grand and massive. The main themes of this project are ones that are very relevant to today’s society across America, so I wanted to use a medium that also felt relevant to our world today.
In 2019, 564,301 New Yorkers in total were served by New York Housing Authority’s (NYCHA) public housing and Section 8 programs, which was an almost 200,000 person increase since 2016.[2] Official 2016 statistics state that of the 400,474 residents at the time: 4% were white, 45.6% were black, 44.5% were hispanic, and 5.1% were asian.[3] These numbers are truly astounding and solidify the fact that there is something very wrong with the structure of our systems that allows for such a wide racial disparity in poverty levels. It is not only these people that are overlooked, however, it is also the very buildings our government provides for them to live in. In 2018, Mayor Bill de Blasio and NYCHA finally announced a $24 billion dollar plan to provide “vital repairs to New York City’s aging public housing and ensure residents have the safe, decent and affordable homes they deserve.”[4] This is great news as it will “will deliver top to bottom renovations for 175,000 residents, fund essential capital repairs across the rest of NYCHA’s portfolio, and launch aggressive new repair strategies to tackle lead paint, mold, elevators, heat and vermin,” yet it will likely take ten years or more to see the final results.[5] In the meantime, my monument will celebrate these black and hispanic communities and reshape the way we ourselves and the city understands graffiti, which is a historically black form of public art and expression.
As I mentioned above, I would work in tandem with the NYCHA to commission local artists from New York. Not only does this involve local communities in the decision-making process, but it gives the art real meaning because it is coming from the very people who have been oppressed and overlooked in society. In an effort to support local artists from New York, NYCHA would set up a website calling for locals to submit their work for review which they would then assign to a building and commission. It would also be great if those living in New York public housing could nominate a building and an artist to paint it. Perhaps NYCHA could even work with local public elementary and high schools in the area to get young people involved as well.
One of the most exciting parts of this proposed monument is the free interactive app created in partnership with NYCHA. The app would offer a self-guided walking tour that would take locals and visitors on an epic journey through the city to understand how these themes are relevant and important to NY’s culture and communities. The app would utilize some sort of Virtual Reality (VR) to guide people through the graffiti walls and in order to credit these amazingly talented local artists, each graffiti mural would feature a small QR code on the bottom corner that when scanned through the app, would bring up a bio on the artist and their motivation for creating their work. The guided walking tours would encourage people to be unafraid, adventurous, and seek beauty in these public housing communities which unfortunately are often perceived as threatening and unwelcoming. The city of New York needs this monument to highlight issues of racial and gender inequalities, immigration, childhood, and race in America--issues which have been silenced for so long and to revitalize overlooked communities through art.
[1] “COMBATING GRAFFITI: ‘Reclaiming the Public Spaces of New York.’” NYC.gov, www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/downloads/pdf/anti_graffiti/Combating_Graffiti.pdf.
[2] “NYCHA 2019 Fact Sheet.” NYC.gov, 2019, www1.nyc.gov/assets/nycha/downloads/pdf/NYCHA-Fact-Sheet_2019_08-01.pdf; “SPECIAL TABULATION OF RESIDENT CHARACTERISTICS.” NYC.gov, 2016, www1.nyc.gov/assets/nycha/downloads/pdf/Resident-Data-Summaries.pdf.
[3] “SPECIAL TABULATION OF RESIDENT CHARACTERISTICS.” NYC.gov, 2016, www1.nyc.gov/assets/nycha/downloads/pdf/Resident-Data-Summaries.pdf.
[4] Fixing NYCHA: Mayor De Blasio Announces Comprehensive Plan to Renovate NYCHA Apartments and Preserve.” The Official Website of the City of New York, 12 Dec. 2018.; www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/591-18/fixing-nycha-mayor-de-blasio-comprehensive-plan-renovate-nycha-apartments-and#/0.
[5] ibid.
Works Cited
“COMBATING GRAFFITI: ‘Reclaiming the Public Spaces of New York.’” NYC.gov, www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/downloads/pdf/anti_graffiti/Combating_Graffiti.pdf.
“Fixing NYCHA: Mayor De Blasio Announces Comprehensive Plan to Renovate NYCHA Apartments and Preserve.” The Official Website of the City of New York, 12 Dec. 2018, www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/591-18/fixing-nycha-mayor-de-blasio-comprehensive-plan-renovate-nycha-apartments-and#/0.
“NYCHA 2019 Fact Sheet.” NYC.gov, 2019, www1.nyc.gov/assets/nycha/downloads/pdf/NYCHA-Fact-Sheet_2019_08-01.pdf.
“SPECIAL TABULATION OF RESIDENT CHARACTERISTICS.” NYC.gov, 2016, www1.nyc.gov/assets/nycha/downloads/pdf/Resident-Data-Summaries.pdf.