Handwriting on the wall
Durango Youth Coalition floats idea for graffiti wall

SideStory: Container canvases

Vandalism or art? The Durango Youth Coalition is currently petitioning the City of Durango to create a graffiti wall. The wall would offer a legal place for graffiti artists to express themselves and contribute a new and unusual piece of public art to the community./Photo by Stephen Eginoire

by Stew Mosberg

Covering town walls with “legal” graffiti could be a great way to beautify otherwise drab facades. To that end, Riley Neugebauer, founder of the Durango Youth Coalition (DYC) and last April’s “Dawdle” art event, has garnered more than 350 signatures. The DYC is currently petitioning the City of Durango to change ordinances against defacing walls and public property. The City currently believes that “graffiti and related vandalism adversely affect property both public and private,” and considers it to be a “public nuisance.”

Undaunted, Neugebauer followed her desire to get community youth involved and provide them with a creative outlet for their energy and self expression. “When given a space,” she wrote in a letter to the Durango Public Arts Commission, “graffiti artists have the time to create beautiful and often colorful imagery and text that is a unique form of expression that many young people identify with.”

She and several like-minded advocates met with the Arts Commission on July 28 to make their case. Neugebauer and her associates made a presentation to the commission describing the rationale for changing the public perception, as well as town laws, about graffiti. However, they had no concrete plan for implementing the vision.

A staunch advocate for Durango’s large youth demographic, the 26-year-old Neugebauer is asking the City to provide some wall space that can be used to visually represent youthful idealism, excitement, individuality and spontaneity. The young activist believes such a program would provide exposure for younger artists and increase early engagement in local politics and advocacy. Neugebauer maintains that youth often lack the respect in their communities to be able to, express themselves fully and have their voices heard.

Citing the 2000 U.S. census, she noted that more than 40 percent of the population of Durango fits in the “youth” demographic. Unfortunately, those are the most recent statistics, and being nine years hence, may no longer reflect the actual number. At one point during the commission meeting, Neugebauer stated that Durango has very few programs for 15 to 25 year olds, nor does the town provide them with an opportunity for self expression.

Neugebauer told the commission that the DYC has already submitted one grant to cover expenses for a mural addressing renewable energy issues; one of the factors she considers important to all of us and that she would like young people to become involved with.

A brief visual presentation was made to the Public Arts Commission showing existing murals, graffiti walls, and artistic water fountains from around the country. The water fountain concept is a DYC requested addition for the local skate park, which is a proposed site for a “free expression” wall. In addition, the park currently has no water fountain.

Neugebauer’s idea of decorating the community while giving young people a creative might be a persuasive argument. However, several members of the commission felt that she failed to offer a bona fide proposal.

Debra Greenblatt’s brainchild “container canvases” beautify a local alleyway and offer a constructive community outlet to the artists who fashioned them./Photo by Stephen Eginoire

Carol Martin, commission chairwoman, commented that, “The (DYC) needed to find out what our role is. The drinking fountain idea goes through the City. It has nothing to do with the public art sector.”

The cost of bringing a drinking fountain into the skate park would be huge, and that, according to Martin, “is why we don’t have them in other parks. They are also a problem in the winter.”

Remaining open to the wall art idea, Martin did say the commission is in limbo on the concept until the Youth Coalition comes back with a formal proposal. Depending on the specific application, approval would need to come from such entities as City Council, CDOT, or the Design Review Board, and only when appropriate, the Public Arts Commission.

Private locations, other than those that fall under the auspices of the Historical Preservation Society, are another matter. Businesses can “decorate” their own property without being in conflict with city ordinances (see sidebar). Debra Greenblatt, local artist and youth advocate, successfully garnered funds from the Friends of the Arts and the City of Durango’s art grant program to have juveniles on probation help decorate dumpsters. But then, the dumpsters are privately owned. It was that type of project, along with murals in locales such as Boulder, Denver and closer to home in Ignacio, that spurred Neugebauer to move forward with her plan.

So far the Henry Strater Hotel has offered the possibility of an art space, as has the Discovery Museum, and the Durango Arts Center. In a letter to the DYC, the Arts Center’s Interim Executive Director Scott Hagler expressed excitement about the “possibility of creating a graffiti/mural wall in the alley behind the Arts Center.” Further suggesting a methodology for the venture, Hagler wrote, “Our initial idea on the wall would be to offer a defined space that individual artists, groups or classes could sign up to paint; leaving the work up for a month or two.”

Claire Bradshaw, executive director of the Discovery Museum, also thinks the idea would lend itself to the Powerhouse in a positive way. Her vision is to have murals that feature science, technology and art. Furthermore, engaging young people fits with the Museum’s mission. The two walls being considered by the Museum face east and west respectively, and fall under two different jurisdictions: CDOT for the east wall abutting Highway 550, and the City of Durango for the west façade.

Even with strong support from the DAC and the Discovery Museum, the Durango Youth Coalition has a lot of red tape to wade through before the plan can see the light of day. •