Tacoma Murals Project Announces 2012 Sites

Where it all began.

The City of Tacoma has announced five sites selected for the 2012 Tacoma Murals Project.

• A retaining wall of the 3200 block of East L St. (Dometop Neighborhood Alliance),
• 220 Puyallup Ave. (Dome District Development Group),
• 2502 Commerce St. (Hillside Development Council),
• 5441 S.Sheridan St. (Mann neighborhood),
• 6323 McKinley Ave. (Hope Heights).

The announcing of the sites is only the beginning for the creation of the murals. Now teams of artists will use community input to design unique murals for each of the five sites.

The idea behind the Mural Project is to activate underutilized spaces, making them feel more alive, with the goal of deterring blight and vandalism. The program is an initiative of the Graffiti Reduction Through Community Based Art team (GRTCBA team? Hmm, maybe they need a more fun acronym…), a part of Tacoma’s Safe, Clean and Attractive effort, funded by the Arts Program and community Based Services.

This year’s cadre of sites will add to the nine already completed Mural Project creations, which are generally a little more formal and permanent than the space billed as “Where it all began,” the Broadway graffiti garages. The Mural Project self-guided walking tour map, shows the location of all nine murals along with brief descriptions of the projects, plus the Broadway garages, which it invites you to “Come to see the place where graffiti artists legally make their artwork and be awed by all of the unique styles of graffiti artists from Tacoma.”

Do you live or work near any of these sites? What sorts of images would you hope to see appear on the walls in your neighborhood?

For more on the project, and links to view past Mural Project murals, visit www.tacomaculture.org/arts/murals.

By the way, remember when they painted over the Broadway garages, and then when they decided to allow ‘free-form’ art? How things change.