You won’t be seeing this on Broadway.
Several months ago, Sound Transit commissioned the Friends of the Nib (a small art gang I belong to) to decorate a boarded-up building on Broadway. We scribbled and painted furiously to beautify a decommissioned Jack in the Box on the corner of Broadway and Denny. The artwork was enlarged, and a vinyl banner was erected, with each contributing at least one 6×6′ panel.
With the work up barely two weeks, the project was vandalized. A thief razor-bladed out a 6×6 panel and took it with him. The panel was mine, a drawing I had done of three jazz players, the Nat King Cole trio to be precise.
Originally intended to stay up for eight months, there is now a gaping hole in the banner. The jazz trio is probably hanging in some garage or dorm or stuffed in a dumpster.
The vandalism has raised some interesting questions about public art, and a flurry of comments on a couple blogs have accompanied the story. While most comments are supportive, some go as far as blaming the artists for daring to leave something nice in public that others could deface, destroy, and steal. Maybe they didn’t know it was “art,” says one blog poster. Maybe we should have made that clear, with signs announcing this is art, please don’t destroy. Is that necessary?
Check out these blogs for the discussion:
Regina Hacket’s blog, Art to Go
I’m puzzled and angry. If the piece turns up, please contact me at my blog, the Nine Pound Hammer.
Henry Art Gallery — Blog 