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DAILYWILDCAT.COM Monday, Febuary 13, 2017– Tuesday, Febuary 14, 2017 VOLUME 110 ISSUE 58
STARVING ARTISTS Funding woes have made awakening Tucson’s public art scene a struggle for the Tucson Mural Arts Program
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THE TUCSON ARTS BRIGADE works to turn graffiti artists into muralists in the Tucson Murals Project. This mural of a woman is on the side of the Julian Drew Block building downtown.
BY SEAN ORTH @seanaustinorth
The “starving artist” is a timeless cliché that both glorifies and belittles the alternative lifestyle of those who creatively express themselves for a living. But where do we draw the line between an occupation as an artist and those who feel an unrestricted need to share visual art, such as a graffiti artist who perpetrates vandalism? The key word is permission, and a local organization is doing its best to stretch that line between vandalism and art to encourage Tucson’s undiscovered artists to enter into the world of public murals.
If you take a walk through downtown Tucson, you’re bound to see at least one of 34 colorful murals that engulf entire sides of old buildings. It may seem like these works of art just arbitrarily appear throughout the city center, but the local organization Tucson Arts Brigade is the force behind these murals. TAB creates public art with one primary goal in mind: to beautify and unify Tucson. TAB has worked to develop and execute community arts efforts since 1996. Over the past seven years, TAB’s Tucson Mural Arts Program has aimed to prove how impactful public art can be. Michael Schwartz, president of TAB, has worked with mural arts
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programs for over 30 years. A UA alumnus, Schwartz worked with the city of Philadelphia to coordinate their mural arts program before coming back to Tucson. Schwartz said the program was hugely successful in Philadelphia and Tucson could follow in the city’s footsteps if the whole community got on board. “This is a town where you can solve problems,” Schwartz said. “There’s a great deal of poverty, and we know how to solve these problems. It’s just a matter of funding, which is our biggest issue.” Each mural costs a couple thousand dollars to make, depending on the size and scale. Schwartz claims that thousands
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of dollars per month are spent by Tucson Parks and Recreation to paint over graffiti and walls with old paint. TAB finds it hard not to see the benefits of implementing murals instead of incurring continual debts with constant repairs and repainting of graffiti. Schwartz and his fellow artists have tried to expand the Mural Arts Program, but funding always proves the biggest obstacle. Muralist Ignacio Garcia sees a bright future for Tucson muralists but said that funding, among other issues, still prevents the city from becoming an oasis of public art and creativity. It’s just because of the funding
MURALS, 12
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