STREET ART SURROUNDS US
Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction 1-‐3 Chapter 2: Review of Literature 4-‐7 Chapter 3: Methodology 8-‐9 Chapter 4: Results and Analysis of Data 10-‐13 Chapter 5: Discussion and Conclusion 14 Works Cited 15 Survey Questions 16 About the Author 17
Introduction:
Art education has not always been seen as a priority within schools, but the upand-coming street art movement exemplifies art’s positive contributions to society. Street art is visual art created and displayed in public locations, sometimes illegally and sometimes commissioned outside the exclusive, traditional art gallery setting. The stereotypical mentality held by some drives me to spread awareness about art education within communities and schools. Societies tend to view street art and vandalism, or graffiti, as one; however, there are many differences in the techniques, materials used, and purposes for each form. Art education broadens students’ and communities learning and creativity horizons. Within schools, art education teaches students individuality, but also how to work creatively in groups. Within communities, art education brings people together to appreciate the beauty, creativity, and love surrounding them. Rebelling against the status quo can paint a negative portrayal, however, art does not carry malicious intent. Gearing artistic energy towards creating beauty while spreading awareness and love within communities defines the street art movement. Because many people strive to stay up-to-date with the new events, inspirations, and trends, street art can be seen as inspirational, cultural, educational, artistic, and significant throughout different communities. Although, recently, the street art movement has become more well known, I do not believe people understand the full educational potential and power it holds. Street art is a type of public visual art that originated from graffiti and has developed, expanded, and changed over time with ongoing generations (Eldridge, 2013).
Graffiti is an ancient form of communication that began to expand within the United States in the 1960s and 1970s. After reaching the U.S., graffiti became a use for communication, self-acknowledgement, and marking territory. This style of graffiti started off as tagging, in which the artist marks a word or symbol, mainly in markers and spray paint, in a specific or significant public space within a community to make a point or spread awareness; however, graffiti’s style has gradually changed into larger, more angular, twisted, abstract, and colorful pieces that resemble artwork. Street art resulted from graffiti artists developing their artistic techniques and materials, as well as testing boundaries for more profound expression (Eldridge, 2013). This art form emphasizes unnoticed or neglected areas of the community, in which the artists incorporate aspects of graffiti along with traditional arts media such as stencils and wheat pastes. Whereas graffiti is text-based and especially personal to the artist, street art uses creative imagery to portray inspirations and ideas that benefit the surrounding community; communities are able to come together and work together because of art (Daichendt, 2013). Anyone can get involved in art without constricting borders of being “right” or “wrong”; art does not exclude. It encourages one to discover that many places have incorporated art into their communities by hosting festivals open to the public—such as the Santa Fe Indian Market and the Via Colori festival in Houston, Texas. By introducing and incorporating art to communities, people appreciate and celebrate art and creativity. Art has naturally draws the attention of any audience, thus bring people together. The natural attraction of art helps to spread awareness about local talent and art education. Due to the potential benefits street art gives to societies, I decided to base my study on street art and its connection with art education. I gathered qualitative and
 quantitative data from University of Denver (DU) students about street art, specifically about what they know about street art and some opinions on art education. I was able to predict some of the answers students would give because many of the students at DU have somewhat similar education backgrounds and similar levels of intelligence. Everyone who took my survey agreed that art can be educational, but some did not wish to learn more about street art and many people had not noticed street art surrounding them and the DU campus. Those trends in my data make me believe that many of the people who took the survey do not associate street art with art education, which is why this research paper is important and should be seen. The street art movement is important to me because I am constantly looking out for it and I am constantly impacted by the street art I see, but also because I believe it is important that artists who are not available in galleries are still able to publicize their talent, creating beauty in unnoticed areas and creating controversy and ideas through visuals for the public to think about.
Review of Literature:
Often misinterpreted and categorized as illegal acts of vandalism, street art deserves better recognition and understanding. The art form holds valuable insight about the surrounding community, relevant ideas or issues, and art education. Street art draws people’s attention, which is significant because the more that people notice art the more curious people become about local art and, ideally, art education within communities. However, it can be shown and proven that art itself can fully benefit entire communities; art festivals are an example of how art can bring people together to appreciate local artists and art in general because there are many common interests present in that setting. Furthermore, in-group settings, art teaches people to work together in a creative setting towards a common goal. When schools do not prioritize art education, the lines between street art and vandalism become blurred; going against the artistic status quo becomes paired with criminal acts. However, public access to art gives students and communities the opportunity to still learn from the messages, purposes, and beauty of the art. Joseph “Sentrock” Perez, a Hispanic graffiti artist and educator, teaches about the delineation of graffiti art and vandalism to students because he opposes the general opinion about graffiti; Sentrock views graffiti as an unselfish act that serves the community and demonstrates how to work as a team. Sentrock is a member of For The Love group, an assembly of comrades that originated from a common interest in graffiti (Eldridge). The name, For The Love, signifies each member’s understanding of graffiti as a beautiful art form for others to benefit from instead of pride and praise, demonstrating how the purpose of graffiti has changed since the 1960s into a more innocent and
thoughtful form. Meanwhile, ThirdOne, a traditional graffiti artist and street artist, describes graffiti art as “selfish and self-satisfying” because of the self-confidence and self-worth that the artist feels after completing the piece (Daichendt). The contrasting views of Sentrock and ThirdOne about graffiti or street art being selfless or selfish proves interesting because both agree that street art and graffiti liven communities by adding color and making people think. Street art and graffiti may ultimately benefit surrounding communities, but these works also display accomplishment for the artist. Then again, as street art becomes increasingly acknowledged as a movement, an artist’s desire for recognition may be reasonable. Another notable contrast between Sentrock and ThirdOne is the issue of legality; Sentrock gets permission from the owners of the property he wants his art to be on while ThirdOne embraces the illegal acts of graffiti as if graffiti can only be illegal. ThirdOne states, “street art and graffiti is illegal. There’s no such thing as a graffiti t-shirt. There’s no such thing as a graffiti painting you will find in a gallery. To me, it’s the act of illegally writing on a wall,” (Recinos). ThirdOne may hold this opinion because with the gain of legality of graffiti or street art, there might be more regulation and less of an impact on people, whereas Sentrock considers legal graffiti to be a more positive influence, but he is able to understand why it is done illegally (Eldridge). Lynnette Haozous, an Apache street artist living in New Mexico, believes that “street art is about freeing your art and giving it straight to the community,” which supports both Sentrock and ThirdOne (Gatewood). However, Lynnette also believes that street art should not be less inspirational because of its illegal qualities; if someone is able to avoid the law and create street art with an important message for the public to benefit from, then it is worth the illegal act because not all impactful actions are legal (Gatewood). As
Lynnette Haozous once said, “the difference between vandalism and graffiti art is the intention. Vandalism is destroying something and graffiti is making it more beautiful,” (Gatewood). Street art, whether done legally or illegally, has a beneficial impact on the surrounding community. “Street art is contradictory: a form of artistic expression that resists institutional legitimacy while it simultaneously becomes more widespread, more accepted—an institution in its own right,” says Robert W. Sweeny, a professor of art education at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (Sweeny). I believe a reason for the misconception of street art and graffiti as vandalism exists due to blurred lines between street art being unaccepted by the law and the status quo while also becoming more widespread and established. Thus, opinions about street art easily conflict. However, similar to advertisers, graffiti or street artists’ publicize images so people can think about it, feel it, and respond; however, instead of a product, street art draws attention to a message. Art functions as a call for action. As stated by Lynnette Haozous: “you want people to talk about it [the art], or at least think about it, and maybe they’ll go have their own ideas and start their own change,” (Gatewood). Street art and graffiti form part of the visual culture of many students and communities, which is why visual culture has become a primary idea in art education; it allows for discussion about issues or ideas within the community and schools. Sentrock did not have access to many art programs while growing up, so he used graffiti as a way to control his limitations (Eldridge). Similar to Sentrock, low income students have not been given opportunities to find themselves in art and express themselves individually, but graffiti art is open to everyone in which everyone has an equal voice and identity and
there is no right or wrong. Street art encourages students to “think outside the box” in a positive manner and test and express themselves because street art is economically and artistically challenging (Eldridge). Especially in school, group settings do not usually incorporate creativity, but when students are able to witness creative teams working together to produce a meaningful and beautiful piece of art within their communities, students can transfer that knowledge to a school setting, in which students seek help from each other, learn from each other while also discovering more about themselves (Chung, Ortiz). Sentrock acts as a prime example of learning about personal creativity and interest through working in groups: “as a kid me and my friend learned from his older brother, and we saw some other people who did it [graffiti]; we learned from each other but we also had to dig deep within ourselves to discover our art form, perfecting our craft,” (Eldridge). Expanding students’ minds through art education and inspirational street artists that break barriers and expand the realm of opportunities can lead to positive ways of pushing limits. Street artists constantly create new ways to appreciate or notice art, to be successful, and to educate the public by pushing their limits and the laws limits and, ultimately, pushing the street art movement forward. Street artists continuously test the limits of the law and the status quo and, therefore, create a spotlight, which will allow the art movement to further expand.
 Methodology:
Street art is the subject of my research, but more specifically the connection that public street art has on the surrounding community and with art education. Because street art is prevalent in urban areas and cities, I thought living in Denver was a significant factor in observing and discussing the street art surrounding the students at the University of Denver. To gather data I sent out a survey about street art to randomly chosen students of the University of Denver via Facebook and e-mail. I was able to access the student email list for Angela Sowa’s classes, a research and rhetorical writing professor at the University of Denver. I chose every fourth person on the list to make sure the data was obtained randomly; I also posted my survey to the University of Denver freshman class Facebook page and to my regular Facebook page so others outside of University of Denver were able to take the survey. I chose to focus mainly on University of Denver students because the students are all located within a large and popular city with street art surrounding the campus, but also because most of the University of Denver freshman students are at relatively similar education levels. I do not believe the University of Denver students being at similar education levels will bias the results of the survey because every student has come from different backgrounds; some students went to low-income public schools, some went to private schools, some are at the university on scholarship and some people come from wealthy families. The variation in the students’ backgrounds may or may not be noticeable in the survey.
 I received 32 out of 32 survey responses in total. The data I obtained I can connect with the research from my secondary sources throughout my research project and compliment with information from my research, proving that art education is important, using data from my survey as examples. In my survey one of the questions asks people about graffiti around University of Denver’s campus; it is interesting to see that not many people notice graffiti in and around campus because that shows me that most students do not notice street art whatsoever; I know from personal observation that street art is surrounding public areas around DU campus. In this instance I am able to compare my thoughts to the thoughts of other students. All survey questions are available to view on page 16.
Results and Analysis of Data:
The majority of the survey takers are somewhat educated on the topic of street art, but only to a small extent. It is true that the majority (of survey takers) knew what street art was; however, there was an overall lack of interest from the survey takers. I asked, to the survey takers that did know what street was, what they have heard of it; most people said it is done illegally or legally and is connected to graffiti and related to vandalism is some ways. Many people wrote their interpretations of what separates street art from vandalism and from graffiti, but factored in beauty, legality, and talent into those categories. One survey taker answered the question that street art is “pretty graffiti that isn’t bothering anyone,” while another survey taker answered that “some people consider it a crime and if it’s done incorrectly should be considered so. It is an art form but only if the good intentions like activism or just sharing a beautiful piece are taken into consideration.” I found these responses particularly interesting because it seems as though street art, graffiti, and vandalism all have the potential to be seen the same, but the
factors that can exclude one from the other is the beauty and intentions. Some answered in ways that completely separated vandalism from street art as if they were on opposite sides of a spectrum, and some blurred the lines between vandalism, graffiti and street art simply because of a lack of knowledge on the techniques and purposes. I was pleasantly surprised, however, because most people who said they knew, or had heard of, street art touched on the main characteristics of street art or graffiti: that it is “under appreciated,” “misconstrued as vandalism,” and an “influential art form.” Based on the 32 surveys, I am able to come to the conclusion that most of the people who took the survey know what street art is and know that street art involves a public space, is illegal, can be commissioned or graffiti, and that it is a form of expression, but people do not see a correlation between street art and art education. These perceptions of street art are understandable, however, because art education awareness has not held much importance until the street art movement became more acknowledged. Also, many University of Denver students probably have not been taught about street art in school, but rather online, movies, or observations. Meanwhile, there were people who said they did not know, or unsure about, what street art is, in which they were asked if they wish they knew more about it. I was surprised that the majority of those survey takers did not wish to know more about it. This was disappointing to see because it shows me that no one will know the full potential and benefits of street art without being introduced to art education as well. What I mean by that is, when someone sees street art they do not automatically start to analyze it, but instead look at it and possibly take a photo. The problems is, is that the majority of
people are not very exposed to art education and are not able to analyze street art with the knowledge that they need. I was also surprised and disappointed by the number of students who have not noticed graffiti on or around University of Denver’s campus. Almost 70% of the survey takers answered that they had not ever noticed graffiti on or around DU’s campus, which was surprising because I have personally seen a lot within the neighborhoods surrounding the campus and I have noticed random tagging on parts of buildings along with giant murals in allies next to restaurants and on entire sides of buildings. It is interesting because the places I have seen graffiti or street art are in very public and populated places such as University Boulevard, a main street that cuts through campus. Even if graffiti and street art are located in deserted or abandoned areas, I agree with G. James Diachendt, a professor and exhibitions director in the art department at Azusa Pacific University in Southern California, when he explained that by focusing on neglected areas in the community, “a visual dialogue has begun that is hard to ignore,” (Diachendt). When the survey takers were asked if there is a difference between graffiti and vandalism, approximately 80% said yes and approximately 20% said no or were unsure. This refers back to the question about what street art is because I believe there is a lot of confusion about the differences of technique and purpose of graffiti versus street art versus vandalism. What is extremely significant and interesting is the fact that 100% of all survey takers believe that art can be educational, but not one person connected street art or graffiti with education. I think with the lack of art education in schools, people should definitely be aware that street art is educational and inspirational because it is
 prevalent in many places and is becoming more recognized; people should be able to use the world around them and the art around them to learn.
 Discussion and Conclusion: My research and conclusions regarding street art and its connection to art education is an extremely important concept to understand and learn about because there is potential to shaping our youth and communities in positive ways, while also creating a more innovative environment for students in schools. Art education has the ability to bring communities together in appreciation because the art form naturally catches the public eye; when communities come together, the possibilities for change and improvement are endless. Once people start to catch on to the street art movement, they will want to be involved because who would be opposed to creating a better community and school experience for youth? Luckily, street artists are determined and excited about the street art movement and the beneficial impacts it will have on students and communities, so they are not going to give up; all that needs to happen now is for communities and students to spread awareness. One of the main reasons I decided to send my survey to University of Denver students is because I wanted them to hear about street art, answer questions about street art, and then continue to think about it. I hope that after taking my survey, University of Denver students are more aware of the street art surrounding us and think about the possible connections between the community, the students, and the underlying message of the artwork. I do not believe that people are going to have control over the education system anytime soon, which is why it is important to take advantage of the learning possibilities that surround us and give the communities life!
 WORKS SITED:
"Art Movements of 2000s: Street Art - Web Art Academy." Web Art Academy Art Movements of 2000s Street Art Comments. N.p., 03 Oct. 2010. Web. 29 May 2015. Chung, Kuan Sheng, and Christy Ortz. "Art Education in Action on the Street." National Art Education Association, May 2011. Web. Daichendt, James G. "Artist-Driven Initiatives for Art Education: What We Can Learn From Street Art." National Art Education Association, Sept. 2013. Web. Eldridge, Laurie A. "An Unselfish Act: Graffiti in Art Education." National Art Education Association, 2013. Web. Gatewood, Tara. "In Plain Sight." Native Peoples Magazine July-Aug. 2013: 76-79. Web. "L.A. Street Art a Focus at West Hollywood Book Fair." Cartwheel Art. Eva Recinos, n.d. Web. 29 May 2015. "Graffiti Art: An Essay Concerning The Recognition of Some Forms of Graffiti As Art." Graffiti Art. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 May 2015. Sweeny, Robert. "Street Art." National Art Education Association, Sept.Oct. 2013. Web.
 About The Author:
Talia Greenberg Hello, I am Talia Greenberg and I am a freshman at the University of Denver. I was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee by my two lovely parents who sent me to an extremely successful and difficult, kindergarten through twelfth grade, school called the University of Nashville. Growing up in Nashville is interesting because it is a city that used to be nothing but bars and music, but has recently (in the past five years or so) expanded and developed into an exciting city filled with delicious food, expensive apartments, lively music, interesting neighborhoods, and lovely local art. I have always, since I can remember, been interested in practicing and viewing art, which is why I chose street art as my research paper topic. My whole family is relatively into art and we are constantly thankful, and taking pictures with, the beautiful murals and street art scattered throughout the city. I think that after writing this research paper, I will notice the public art a whole lot more.