Bloomingdale’s Boxer Girl mural. Drama, drama, drama.

This is how it starts.

You see a pleasant, little announcement about a city-sponsored mural program. It asks whether you’d allow people to paint an exterior wall of your house. Pretty innocuous.

Then, the thing goes up, and your neighbors start complaining about how they can See it from their kitchen!!! And in other rooms!!! It’s outside all the time—-every time they look, it’s there! This is upsetting.

A local news channel runs a story about their crazy preoccupations. The local listserv goes mad.

But you know what? It’s your wall, and you can do what you please with it. So, forget them. Art makes the neighborhood more interesting.

Sign up anyway:

The DC Department of Public Works has a program that pairs young people with property owners. The Murals DC program, created to replace
illegal graffiti with artistic works, teaches young people mural painting.

The program is open to residential and commercial property owners, and interested persons should act quickly to have their sites considered.

Contact Nancee Lyons at (202) 671-2637 or at Nancee.Lyons@dc.gov for more information.

Note: I don’t believe this city program is the same one that brought “Boxer Girl” to Bloomingdale. (“Boxer Girl” was paid for by DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities; The announcement above comes from the Department of Public Works.)

In another listserv message, Lyons says this year’s round of murals will be the second for the program.

“This initiative positively engages DC youth and has been successful in deterring future acts of graffiti vandalism on the property.”

Image from the website of Lisa Mari Thalhammer.